Challenging a general meeting decision: deadlines, form and evidence

The deadline to challenge a meeting decision is short and runs from a precise date. Many challenges fail on that point alone.

The minutes arrive, and an owner finds a resolution voted in conditions that look irregular: an item not on the agenda, a majority wrongly applied, a notice received too late.

Challenging a general meeting decision is possible, but it follows strict rules — on who may act, within what deadline, and on what grounds. The board is not a party to the proceedings, but it often holds the documents that make them possible or impossible.

Three framing points

• The deadline is short and runs from notification of the minutes, not from the meeting date. A wrongly dated notification undermines the whole reasoning.
• Owners are not all in the same position: those who voted in favour of the challenged resolution are in principle not admissible to attack it.
• The ground must be an irregularity — of notice, of majority, of content — not simple disagreement with the decision.

These rules have exceptions and significant procedural subtleties. As soon as a challenge is seriously considered, professional advice is required: the subject is not handled from a blog article, this one included.

The documents that make the difference

1. The notice, with its date of sending and date of receipt: exhibit one in most challenges.
2. The agenda as notified, and the annexes actually attached.
3. The minutes, with the vote count resolution by resolution.
4. The attendance list and the proxies annexed to it.
5. Proof and date of notification of the minutes.

These documents always exist somewhere. The problem is that they sit in five different inboxes the day they are needed — precisely what shared filing solves, see the documents every condo board should keep.

A challenge is won or lost on dates. You still have to be able to produce them.

The board's role

It does not take sides in a dispute between an owner and the association. It does, however, have every interest in irregularities being avoided upstream, because an annulled resolution costs everyone a year.

In practice: check that the items requested are indeed on the agenda in the wording requested — see the general meeting agenda — and read the minutes on arrival rather than six months later.

What to do when the minutes arrive

• Note the date of receipt, and keep it.
• Check that each resolution matches what was announced in the room, majority included.
• Report any material error to the manager in writing, without delay: a correction obtained beats a challenge won.
• File the minutes with their annexes and the proof of notification.

For meetings held remotely, vigilance extends to technical failures: see the general meeting by video.

Keeping what serves as evidence

Notices, minutes, attendance lists, notification dates: with CoproHarmony these documents stay together with their dates, including after the board changes. Create your space for free.

It all starts with one document: the minutes, which name dissenters and start the clock.