27 Articles
The Asset Management Plan (AMP) is a comprehensive process for ensuring the conservation and maintenance of real property assets. This plan details the information regarding the common elements and the measures required to provide an agreed-upon level of service in the most cost-effective manner, while describing the associated risks. In particular, the AMP defines the intervention scenario to maintain the asset, quantifies the cost of its implementation and establishes the financing strategy, generally over a…...
Section 7 of the Charter of human rights and freedoms guarantees the inviolability of a person's home. In principle, no one may have access to a co-owner's apartment without his or her consent; however, it has been rightfully ruled that this rule is not absolute and this is why most declarations of co-ownership specify that a co-owner, a lessee (tenant) or any other occupant of the immovable must leave at all times a duplicate set of keys to the board…...
Replacing windows, reroofing or rehabilitating underground parking slabs, to name but a few, is usually very expensive. Upgrading the common portions generally represents significant costs for the co-ownership and managing them can be complex. This reality is accentuated by the aging of Quebec's housing stock and the new obligations introduced by Bill 16. For this reason, the contingency fund study must set out the financial parameters that will make it possible to calculate the required…...
Works carried out in common portions concern the entire community of co-owners, which is why they are often managed by the syndicate. Not only is this action consistent with its purpose and mission (article 1039 of the Civil Code of Québec), which aims to ensure the maintenance and preservation of the immovable, but it also stems from an onerous liability that falls on the syndicate, should the works be poorly executed, for example. In this context,…...
In the case of contingency funds, a syndicate of co-owners must have guidelines for the investment of the sums accumulated in the fund. It must clearly define the return and risk objectives for a given period while taking into account constraints such as liquidity needs, the legal context and exceptional circumstances. This task is delicate, because a syndicate of co-owners acts asadministratorofthe property of others. That is why it must submit to restrictive and precautionary…...
Like any other natural or legal person, a syndicate of co-owners is susceptible to incur civil liability. This may be called into question during the execution of work in the common portions, as soon as a resident of the building or any other person in its environment experiences damage, direct or indirect. This can obviously be the co-owners and members of their family, but also all those who live there, tenants or occupants. The scope…...
Article 1071 of the Civil Code of Québec states :" The syndicate establishes, according to the estimated cost of major repairs and the cost of replacement of common portions, a contingency fund to be used exclusively for such repairs and replacement. The fund must be partly liquid and be available at short notice, and its capital must be guaranteed. The syndicate is the owner of the fund, and the fund’s use is determined by the board of directors.». Each…...
The contingency fund is set up on the basis of forward planning limited to certain work namely that which the purpose is the preservation of the common portions; thus, this collective saving allows to finance the execution of work allowing the rehabilitation of the common portions as well as the common portions for restricted use. The contingency fund must be used to pay the cost of very specific work namely that related to major repairs or the replacement of the common portions of the immovable. ...
The contingency fund constitutes first and foremost a prevention tool. The desire to incite co-owners to anticipate the completion of important work is not news. Prior to the entry into effect of the Civil Code of Québec in 1994, it was a frequent occurrence for a co-ownership (condominium) to have a reserve fund even though the Civil Code of Lower Canada was silent on this question; the majority of declarations of co-ownership contained provisions on…...
The new provisions introduced by Bill 16 will bring about many changes regarding the contingency fund in a co-ownership. It will be mandatory to obtain a contingency fund study, which will establish the necessary amounts so that the fund is sufficient to cover the estimated cost of major repairs and replacement of the common portions (art. 1071 of the Civil Code of Quebec). The miminal content of this study and the professionals who will be…...