Co-owner rights and obligations: what you can demand, and what the building expects of you

You asked the property manager (syndic) for the invoices of the last financial year, and nothing has come. Or the meeting voted, in your absence, a decision that costs you dearly. Or a neighbour assures you that "the regulations forbid it" and you cannot find any trace of it. At times like these, the question is always the same: what can I demand, and what do I owe?

Co-owner rights and obligations are set first and foremost by the Civil Code, in Articles 3.84 to 3.100. The articles of the co-ownership and the house rules (ROI) supplement them, but cannot reduce them: the chapter on co-ownership is mandatory law, and any clause to the contrary is automatically replaced by the legal rule (Article 3.100). In short: your rights carry real weight, but they never exempt you from paying. This page covers both sides and refers to the specialist pages for the detail of procedures. It is part of co-ownership law.

Your rights and obligations over your unit

Your unit consists of a private part and a share in the common parts. Over the private part, you act like any owner: living there, letting, selling, fitting out. Two limits apply. You respect the use for which the building is intended and the rules in the articles, and you do not touch the common parts without a decision of the general meeting (GM). The boundary between the two is explained in the page private and common parts.

The law protects your freedom of management: any clause limiting a co-owner's right to entrust the management of his unit to the person of his choice is deemed unwritten (Article 3.85, § 4).

You can also take legal action alone in matters concerning your unit, after informing the syndic (Article 3.92, § 1).

Taking part in decisions: what rights do you have at the general meeting?

Every owner of a unit is a member of the general meetingGlossaryDecision-making body of the owners' association, of which every owner of a unit is a member. Each owner has a number of votes corresponding to their share in the common parts. See the glossary and can attend in person, or remotely if the notice of meeting provides for it (Article 3.87, § 1). You hold a number of votes corresponding to your share in the common parts.

Let us follow a meeting year from your side. It all starts before the notice. You can have an item put on the agenda at any time; for the ordinary meeting, your written proposal must reach the syndic at least three weeks before the start of the fortnight set by the house rules (Article 3.87, §§ 3 and 4). That is the date we advise you to note first in your diary, because it decides whether your item will be discussed at the ordinary meeting.

If a question cannot wait, you are not dependent on the syndic's goodwill. Co-owners who hold, alone or together, at least one fifth of the shares in the common parts can require a meeting to be held; the syndic must then call it within thirty days of the request (Article 3.87, § 2). If he does not act on it, one of the co-owners who co-signed the request can call the meeting himself.

On the day, you can bring someone with you, provided you notify the syndic by registered post at least four working days before the meeting (Article 3.87, § 1). That person may not lead or monopolise the discussion. If you cannot come, you are represented by a proxyGlossaryDocument by which a co-owner arranges to be represented at the general meeting by a proxy holder named personally. No one may accept more than three proxies unless their own votes and those of the co-owners they represent do not exceed 10% of the total, and the syndic may not act as proxy holder. See the glossary naming the proxy holder personally (Article 3.87, § 7).

After the meeting, the syndic sends you the decisions within thirty days (Article 3.87, § 12). Keep that document: it is what will allow you to check, later on, what was actually voted. The practical organisation is covered in the pages notice of general meeting and voting rules and majorities.

The right to be informed

The syndic must give co-owners access to all documents or information of a non-private nature relating to the co-ownership (Article 3.89, § 5). Accounts, supply contracts, quotes, correspondence with the insurer: these documents concern you.

Several specific rights come on top. The house rules and the register of decisions can be consulted on site and free of charge at the association's registered office (Article 3.93). The syndic informs you without delay of legal actions brought by or against the association (Article 3.92, § 1). And every co-owner can obtain, at the association's expense, a translation of the documents into the language, or one of the languages, of the language area where the building is located (Article 3.96), which matters above all in Brussels.

A decision harms you: how do you challenge it?

The law gives you several individual remedies, all brought before the justice of the peace.

You can ask for the annulment or amendment of an irregular, fraudulent or abusive decision that causes you personal loss, within four months of the date of the meeting (Article 3.92, § 3). That period is not extended: the page challenging a GM decision explains how to proceed.

You can also ask the court to call a meeting if the syndic neglects or unreasonably refuses to do so, to authorise you to carry out urgentGlossaryNecessary and urgent works to the common parts. If the general meeting cannot reach the required majority, any co-owner may obtain court authorisation to carry them out alone, at the association's expense. See the glossary and necessary works on the common parts when the majority cannot be reached, or to correct shares that have been wrongly calculated (Article 3.92, §§ 4, 5 and 7).

If you win outright against the association, you are exempt from contributing to the fees and costs, which are divided among the other co-owners. The procedures are described in the page justice of the peace and disputes.

What are your obligations as a co-owner?

The first is financial, and it is the one on which we do not compromise: challenging a decision does not suspend your payments. The association's assets consist of the periodic contributions of the co-owners decided by the general meeting (Article 3.86, § 3). You therefore pay your share of the charges according to the allocation key in the co-ownership regulations, the advances to the working capital fund and, where applicable, the contributions to the reserve fund. If your unit is subject to a usufruct, the bare owner and the usufructuary are jointly and severally liable for these charges. The consequences of falling behind are covered in the page co-owner not paying: what to do.

The second is to comply with the articles, the house rules and the decisions of the meeting. They bind you directly if you had the right to vote when they were adopted, even if you were absent or voted against (Article 3.93, § 5).

The third concerns information. You inform the syndic without delay of changes of address and of changes in the personal or property status of your unit (Article 3.93, § 2): sale, gift, splitting of ownership. If you let the unit, you pass on to the occupant the house rules and the decisions that concern him, failing which they cannot be enforced against him. The page house rules explains this mechanism.

Selling your unit: fifteen days to inform the buyer

The sale of a unit triggers precise information obligations. Before the preliminary sale agreement or the purchase offer is signed, the notary, the professional intermediary or the seller passes on to the buyer a set of information that the syndic provides on simple request within fifteen days (Article 3.94, § 1). It includes in particular the amount of the working capital fund and the reserve fund, any arrears owed by the seller, the list of pending court proceedings and the minutes of the general meetings of the last three years.

At the notarial deed, the notary questions the syndic again about the expenses and calls for funds decided before the transfer. The split of debts between seller and buyer, and the full list of documents, are dealt with in the page documents required for a sale.