Checklist: reviewing the condo accounts before the general meeting

You have the right to inspect the supporting documents before the meeting. You still need to know what to look at. Here are the 12 points to go through, in order.

Reviewing the accounts is one of the most concrete duties of the condo board — and one of the most intimidating. People assume it takes accounting skills. In practice it mostly takes a method and two free hours.

The vast majority of anomalies found in condo accounts are not fraud: they are data-entry errors, expenses allocated to the wrong cost-sharing key, or services billed on top of a flat fee that should have been included. You do not need to be an accountant to spot them.

First: your right to inspect

Co-owners may inspect the supporting documents for the charges during a defined period before the general meeting. The board itself has an ongoing right to obtain information from the property manager in order to carry out its oversight duty.

In practice, write to the manager at least three weeks before the meeting to book a slot or request online access. A written, dated request leaves a trace you can use in your annual report — especially if access is refused or granted too late.

The 12-point checklist

Overall consistency

1. Reconcile the year-end bank balance with the statement of the association dedicated account. Any gap must be explained by identifiable pending transactions.
2. Compare actuals to the approved budget, line by line. Focus on variances above 10%: those are the ones worth asking about.
3. Check the carry-forward: last year closing balance must equal this year opening balance.

Charges and how they are shared

1. Check that each expense is charged to the correct cost-sharing key. Lift costs spread across general charges make ground-floor owners pay unfairly: the most frequent and most disputed error.
2. Check water and energy meters: readings must match the billed periods, with no overlap or gap.
3. Spot expenses that are unusual or new compared with last year, and ask for the matching invoice.
4. Make sure approved works are booked to the right financial year and the right call for funds. Our article on how condo charges are calculated and allocated covers the keys you need.

The property manager and suppliers

1. Take the management contract and compare it with the fees invoiced. Anything billed on top must appear explicitly in the contract list of extra services.
2. Check chasing and recovery fees: they must be charged to the specific owners in arrears, not to everyone. See the procedure for unpaid charges.
3. Check that invoiced maintenance contracts match services actually delivered: ask for the job sheets.

Cash and reserves

1. Check arrears and how they have moved over three years: a quiet drift is the first sign of a management problem.
2. Check the works reserve fund: amount called, amount actually held, and consistency with meeting decisions. Our article on the works reserve fund sets out the obligations.

The three most common traps

• The flat fee that is not one: routine services re-billed individually although they fall under the manager annual fee.
• Last year expense: an invoice received late and booked to the wrong year, which distorts the budget comparison.
• The inherited allocation key: a mis-allocation repeated every year because nobody ever questioned it.

What to do with the discrepancies

Never assume a discrepancy is misconduct. Send a written request for explanation, line by line, quoting the exact document reference. Give the manager a reasonable deadline — and record the date of your request and of the reply.

If the explanation holds, say so in your report: it shows the review was carried out seriously. If it does not, the general meeting is the place to raise it, with dated facts to back you up.

An accounts review is judged on its traceability, not on the number of anomalies it finds.

Keep a trace of your review

The review only has value if it is documented: date of inspection, documents examined, questions asked, answers received. That trace feeds your annual report and protects the board if its positions are challenged.

With CoproHarmony you file the documents reviewed, the exchanges with the manager and your observations in one place, with their dates. When the meeting comes, it is all there. Create your space for free — the starter plan costs nothing and needs no credit card.

To go further into reading the accounting documents themselves, see how to read and review your condo accounts.

This preparation decides what can be said in the room: see approving, reserving or refusing the accounts.