Meetings of co-owners: update on the situation

The information and recommendations transmitted by the RGCQ are of a general nature. Their application must be adapted to the situation in your condominium. We invite you to regularly consult the instructions published by the government and to consult the appropriate professionals if necessary.

2020-09-10 - The limit of people allowed for indoor and outdoor gatherings has been stable for the past few weeks. The government allows gatherings of up to 250 people in certain indoor and outdoor public places only. For private places, including the indoor or outdoor common areas of condominiums, the limit is always set at 10 people. If you think a common area in your condominium meets the criteria for accommodating more than 10 people, contact your local public health department for their interpretation.

Even while respecting these limits on the number of participants, it will be necessary to respect the health and social distancing instructions in force. Before organizing any gatherings, we invite you to consult the government's detailed guidelines on gatherings.

In addition, the provisions of Order 2020-029 allowing meetings to be held "by a means allowing for all members to communicate immediately with one another" are still in force.

Under these conditions, here are the different options available for you to organize your general meeting of co-owners:

-Holding a meeting in person.

• 10 people or less: you can hold it in person, in a private or shared part of the condominium, or in a room rented for the occasion, by respecting the instructions in force.


• Between 11 and 250 people: as a general rule, it is not possible to organize a gathering of more than 10 people in the condominium. You will need to rent a room of the appropriate capacity to hold your meeting. You can go to hotels, community halls or even reception halls. In all cases, it will be necessary to respect the rules of social distance between participants.


• Above 250 people: you will need to organize either a remote meeting or a hybrid meeting.

-Organizing a remote meeting.

Decree 2020-029 still allows you to organize a meeting “using a means that allows all members to communicate immediately with each other,” such as video conferencing or telephone. You can refer to our two guides on the subject that were published in spring 2020. Small co-ownerships (less than twenty co-owners) can also use our calculation tool for virtual meetings in order to comply with the provision of decree 2020-029, which requires that you be able “subsequently verify and keep the secret nature of the vote” in the event of a secret ballot. As with face-to-face meetings, it is crucial to properly count and record the results of each vote. Remote meetings present particular challenges, but several companies offer services that help you hold them in the best conditions, and even have built in measures to compile the votes. Communication and cooperation between co-owners will be the key to a successful remote meeting.

-Organizing a hybrid meeting.

In some cases, it might be more practical to organize a meeting in which the co-owners could participate remotely or in person. This formula is permitted and can meet specific needs for unions with more than 250 co-owners, for example. It also allows those who want to attend the meeting in person to do so, while allowing those who prefer to attend remotely to stay at home. Several software dedicated to virtual assemblies support this format well.

-Postponing the general meeting of co-owners.
At the start of the health crisis, the RGCQ quickly recommended that its members postpone any non-urgent meetings. This recommendation was justified by the uncertainty over the duration of the pandemic. Today, the situation has stabilized and no significant release in health measures are expected in the near future.

Consequently, we recommend that the syndicates hold their general meetings within the normal deadlines, while respecting all the health regulations in force. Please note that smaller co-ownerships are not required to hold them in person and may also opt for remote or hybrid forms of meetings.

To facilitate the management of your meetings, you can encourage the use of proxies.

Despite the health crisis, the law and the declaration of co-ownership continue to apply.