Taking over a syndic file mid-year: checklist

The property manager (syndic) left in the middle of the financial year, the general meeting appointed you to take over, and the file is arriving in bits: a box of binders, two keys, a USB stick. January's bank statements are missing, the lift contract cannot be found and the insurance premium falls due next month. Taking over a syndic file mid-year means first putting what exists in order before managing what is coming.

The appointment and the formalities for getting started are covered in the page on becoming a volunteer syndic, and the vote on the replacement in the page on changing your syndic. This post covers the first weeks, when the financial year is under way and the handover is incomplete. We have ordered the checklist by urgency, from the first day to the next general meeting.

The typical case: eight units, a syndic who leaves in March

Take an eight-unit building, built for the example. The volunteer syndic announces in March that they are moving. The financial year began in January, the budget was voted last year, and the house rules set the ordinary general meeting in June.

First reflex: a syndic who resigns does not leave the building overnight. According to the FPS Justice brochure on co-ownership, they must continue to carry out their tasks until the general meeting has replaced them. If they do not convene that meeting, co-owners holding at least one fifth of the shares in the common partsGlossaryTerm used by the Civil Code for the fraction of the common parts attached to each unit, also called quotités. It is set in the deed of division according to the respective value of the private parts and determines each co-owner's number of votes at the general meeting. See the glossary can demand it. How to do so is explained in the page on dismissal and resignation of the syndic.

In our example, the general meeting is held in April and appoints you. Three clocks then start ticking: the posting, the handover of the file and the June general meeting.

What should you do on the day of your appointment?

Before paying a single invoice, lock down four points.

1. Get a signed copy of the minutes appointing you, with the end date of your predecessor's mandate and the start date of yours. The deadline for handing over the file runs from the first.
2. Record the balances of all the owners' association (VME/ACP) accounts on that date, with a dated statement. That is your zero point.
3. Collect the keys, badges, access codes and the number of the building's insurance policy.
4. Start a written inventory of what you receive, item by item, and have the outgoing syndic sign it.

Our reading: everything else depends on point 2. Without a balance fixed on the day of the handover, you will never be able to tell an inherited error from one made after you arrived.

Which steps should you complete in the first week?

The posting first, because it is the only short legal deadline. Within eight days of taking up your duties, an extract of the deed appointing you is posted durably and visibly at the entrance of the building (art. 3.89, § 2, Civil Code).

Then, in this order:

1. check on the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises the association's company number and the name of the syndic still registered;
2. have your mandate registered through an approved business one-stop shop, an obligation that has applied to every syndic since 1 April 2017, volunteers included;
3. have the signing authority changed on the accounts of the working capital fundGlossaryTotal of the advances paid by the co-owners, as provision, to cover recurring expenditure such as heating and lighting of the common parts or management fees. It is held in a separate account in the association's name. See the glossary and the reserve fund, which must be two separate accounts in the association's name (art. 3.89, § 5, 3°);
4. check that the syndic's liability insurance covers your mandate; if the mandate is unpaid, it is taken out at the association's expense (art. 3.89, § 5, 8°).

Homegrade, the Brussels housing advice centre, mentions a period of around two weeks for registration with the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises. The bank may ask for the minutes of appointment and proof of that registration: have both ready.

What should you claim from the former syndic, and by when?

A syndic whose mandate has ended, in whatever way, hands the entire file over to their successor within thirty days of the end of their mandate, including the accounts, the assets, the insurance claims and the history of the account on which they were settled (art. 3.89, § 5, 7°, of the Civil Code). For each document, here is where to find it if it does not arrive.

Our position: the thirty days are a legal ceiling, not a schedule to follow. Send the written list of expected documents as soon as you are appointed. If the deadline passes, your formal notice will rest on a precise, dated request.

How do you rebuild the accounts for the current financial year?

The financial year is split in two: one part managed by your predecessor, one by you. Yet the June general meeting will approve a single set of annual accounts. The safest method is to obtain from the former syndic a statement drawn up at the end date of their mandate, and then keep your own ledger from your zero point.

Below twenty units, cellars, garages and parking spaces not counted, simplified accounts showing at least income and expenditure are allowed (art. 3.89, § 5, 15°). That is the case for our eight-unit building. Above that, the minimum standard chart of accounts applies.

For the general meeting following the takeover, prepare:

• the accounts for the financial year, with the date on which the two periods of management are split;
• the budget in two parts, routine expenditure and exceptional costs (art. 3.89, § 5, 16°);
• the reserve fund contribution, which may not be less than 5 % of the ordinary common charges of the previous financial year, unless a waiver is voted by four fifths of the votes (art. 3.86, § 3); see the page on the working capital and reserve fund;
• the evaluation report on contracts for regular supplies, presented at every ordinary general meeting (art. 3.89, § 5, 12°);
• the appointment of the accounts auditorGlossaryPerson, whether or not a co-owner, appointed each year by the general meeting to check the accounts of the owners' association. Their powers and duties are set out in the house rules. See the glossary, whom the general meeting appoints each year.

Mistakes to avoid during the takeover

• Paying invoices from your personal account while waiting for access to the association's accounts.
• Letting the thirty-day deadline slip without having sent, from the start, the written list of expected documents.
• Forgetting that a notary may have asked, before you arrived, for the statement of a seller's debts: that statement is due within thirty days (art. 3.89, § 5, 5°).
• Leaving an association account in the former syndic's name.
• Quietly correcting an inherited error instead of reporting it in writing to the accounts auditor and the general meeting.

When should you call in an accountant, a lawyer or a notary?

An accountant, when the accounts you received do not allow you to fix a balance at the handover date, or when the building reaches twenty units and the standard chart of accounts is unfamiliar to you.

A lawyer, when the formal notice has no effect once the thirty-day deadline has passed, or when an account opened in the former syndic's name is not transferred to the association. The association, represented by you, can go to the justice of the peaceGlossaryJudge with jurisdiction, since 1 January 2019, over all disputes relating to the co-ownership of buildings, whatever the amount claimed. A clause in the articles that would refer such disputes to an arbitrator is deemed unwritten. See the glossary, who has jurisdiction over co-ownership disputes whatever the amount.

A notary, when the bylaws are missing from the file, or when a sale is under way and you do not know where the statement of debts stands.

This checklist does not replace a professional's advice on your own situation.