Condo extranet: what the manager must actually put in it

An empty extranet is an unmet obligation, not a disabled feature. And it is up to the board to say so.

Almost every building now has an “online space” offered by its manager. Many boards never log in, convinced it is an optional commercial service. It is an obligation, and its content is framed by law.

An obligation, not an option

The manager must provide a secure online space giving access to the building’s documents. The duty has applied to professional managers since 2015, and was later extended to all managers.

It can be waived, but only by a general meeting decision taken at the required majority: until that vote happens, the absence of an extranet is a failure, not a choice.

Two access levels, and rightly so

What is accessible differs by role, and that difference is no slight: it follows from the nature of the documents.

• Every owner reaches the by-laws, recent minutes, live contracts and their own account.
• The board additionally reaches what its monitoring duty requires: bank statements, the association’s accounts, suppliers’ quotes and invoices, ongoing proceedings.

The second line is the one boards most often ignore. It changes everything: those are exactly the papers needed to monitor management without requesting them one by one. See checking the accounts and board documents.

The real problem is not absence, it is emptiness

In practice the extranet nearly always exists. What is missing are the documents: three sets of minutes, a crookedly scanned rulebook, no quotes, no statements, and an “accounts” tab empty for two years.

An empty space meets the form, not the substance. The check takes ten minutes, screenshots included, and is better formalised than lamented in a meeting.

Asking for a document an extranet should already hold means paying twice for the same service.

What the board can do

• Check every board member has access at their proper level, not a plain owner login.
• List what is missing against what should be there, document by document.
• Send that list to the manager in writing, with a reasonable deadline.
• Put the subject on the meeting agenda if nothing moves.

The third step suffices in most cases: a failure documented in writing is corrected faster than one complained about aloud. See when the manager does not answer.

Manager’s extranet and board’s tool: two different needs

The extranet is built for the relationship between manager and owners: it publishes official documents, one way. It is not built for a board’s day-to-day work, which is collaborative and far more alive.

• Following an incident from report to resolution.
• Comparing quotes together, with everyone’s comments.
• Preparing a meeting, session after session.
• Keeping the building’s memory as the board’s composition changes.
• Informing residents without depending on the manager’s calendar.

These uses do not replace the extranet, and the extranet does not replace them. See going digital as a board.

Mind the personal data

An extranet holds named information: the owners’ list, individual accounts, sometimes live proceedings. The board’s wider access comes with a duty of discretion, and circulating anything outside that frame exposes its members personally. See data protection on the board.

When the manager changes

The outgoing manager’s extranet disappears with them. Documents not retrieved before the end of the mandate are, in practice, lost to the board — even though they remain owed. That is the moment to download everything. See changing manager and keeping archives.

Keep your own copy with CoproHarmony

CoproHarmony gives the board a space of its own: documents, incidents, decisions and exchanges stay available whoever manages the building. Create your free space.