Getting an item on the agenda: the only way to obtain a vote

Anything absent from the agenda cannot be voted. It is the simplest rule in condo law, and the one most often discovered too late.

You want a bike store installed, a charge allocation changed, or a quote for the car park door. You raise it at the meeting: the room agrees, everyone nods — and nothing happens, because no vote is possible on a subject absent from the agenda.

The good news: requesting an item is a right, open to any owner, not only to the board.

When to ask

You may notify a question at any time. The rules also allow a short window after the notice is received to have an item added — but relying on that window is a bad bet.

In practice, a request sent well ahead, ideally weeks before the notice goes out, stands a far better chance of being properly listed with the necessary papers. A late request is carried to the next meeting, meaning a year lost.

In what form

The request is notified to the manager — recorded delivery, or electronically where you have agreed to that method. A word to the caretaker or an email to a handler is not a notification.

See electronic notification: a one-off step that permanently simplifies every later one.

What makes a request fail

• A question phrased as a theme: “bikes” cannot be voted.
• A question that cannot be answered yes or no.
• A works request with no quote attached, which makes a vote impossible.
• A question belonging to the manager or the by-laws, not to the meeting.
• A request sent after the notice, without accepting a year’s wait.

The rule is simple: your question must be capable of becoming a resolution — a sentence the meeting approves or rejects.

A badly drafted item is not rejected: it is emptied of effect, which is worse, because everyone believes they voted.

Drafting a resolution that holds

A good resolution contains four elements: what is decided, on the basis of which document, for what amount, and who is tasked with carrying it out.

For example: “The meeting decides to supply and install a bike rack in the basement store, in accordance with company X’s quote of 14 March for 2,380 including tax, and instructs the manager to implement it.” Everything else — the case, the arguments — belongs in the explanatory note, not the resolution.

See the agenda template and the applicable majorities: the majority required depends on the nature of the decision, and is checked beforehand, not during.

Attach the papers, or lose the vote

A resolution committing money must come with the matching quote, notified with the notice. Without it the decision is fragile — and can be challenged. See challenging a meeting decision.

That is why obtaining a quote is part of the request, not of what follows it. See the quote request template.

If the manager does not list your item

The manager cannot set aside a properly notified question on the grounds that they find it inopportune. If they omit it, your dated notification is the evidence to produce — hence the importance of how you send it.

See when the manager does not answer.

Prepare your resolutions with CoproHarmony

CoproHarmony lets you draft resolutions ahead, gather the quotes that go with them and keep a record of requests sent, with their dates. Create your free space.