General meetings are an essential step for condominiums. Find out how to simplify meeting preparation, from sending the invitation to sending the minutes.
Efficient condominium management involves an essential step: general meetings. As a trustee, it is your responsibility to organize this annual meeting bringing together all co-owners in order to discuss crucial issues regarding the condominium. This stage is strictly regulated by articles 22 to 26 of the law dated 10 July 1965, which are of a public order nature and cannot be amended. But how can we simplify managing these general meetings?
Condominium and general meetings management software can prove to be a major ally for condominium trustees when preparing for the general meeting. By using a library of resolution templates, you can easily create the invitation and the agenda in just a few clicks.
In addition, some solutions offer a feature that allows you to automatically generate all mandatory accounting documents (Appendix 1,2,3,4,5, individual distribution of expenses, general balance, supplier balance, co-owner balance, statement of expenses, statement of remuneration, tax certificates, bank statement) for the meeting, which saves you time.
Finally, some solutions also include a tool for outsourcing mailings management, allowing you to easily send the invitation to the general meeting by registered mail with a delivery receipt or by electronic LRE/notice.
As the person responsible for the management of a condominium, the use of a software for managing general meetings simplifies the organization of these meetings considerably. This software allows numerous functionalities, including the creation and printing of the attendance sheet for participants and representatives, attendance calculation, representation and absence for votes, as well as the recording of votes for each resolution taking into account the required amounts and majorities (article 24, article 25-1, article 26-1).
The software guides users through all resolutions, saving them time by managing the general meeting in real time and reducing the risk of errors in counting votes.
In addition, efficient software allows co-owners to follow the votes and results of each resolution in real time (often via a video projector), which facilitates the participation of all interested parties.
When lockdown was suddenly introduced in March 2020, the government had to take emergency measures for the general meetings of co-owners that traditionally take place in spring. To do this, a series of ordinances were published (on 25 March, 22 April and 20 May 2021) to postpone general meetings and renew trustee contracts at first, and then to allow general meetings to be held remotely from 1 June. General meetings could thus be held via videoconference. Note that it was already possible to call meetings electronically since the ALUR law.
Postal voting, using a mandatory standard form, was also introduced for co-owners who could not participate in the videoconference. It is essential that property managers be equipped with software that takes into account the evolution of rules to allow them to organize general meetings via videoconference and to invite their co-owners in a single click.
Sending the general meeting minutes to co-owners:
In some cases, the general meeting's minutes are sent automatically by registered mails with delivery receipt or by electronic notice to all opposing, absent or defaulting co-owners. This report is also sent to all the other co-owners present by simple letter or by e-mail if they have opted for dematerialization.
In addition, the minutes of the general meeting are automatically posted online on the co-owner extranet, which saves time and simplifies management. This measure complies with Decree No. 2019-502 of May 23, 2019, which establishes the minimum list of dematerialized documents concerning co-ownership to be accessible on a secure online space.
After the approval of the accounts at the general meeting, it is mandatory for each condominium trustee to update the condominium register with information from the past year. Some software offers the possibility of doing this directly by using an API that transmits information to the condominium registry website.
For optimal management of your General Meetings, these are the essential functionalities:
