New-build condo: the first general meeting decides everything

In a new building, buyers watch their flat. Nobody watches the lobby, the car park and the roof — and that is where the real money sits.

Buying off plan means living through two handovers. The first is your own home, with its snagging list, its chasing and its fixes. The second is the common areas — lobby, lift, roof, car park, grounds, plant room — and almost nobody attends to it, because it belongs to no one in particular.

It belongs to everyone, and the money at stake dwarfs any single flat. The first general meeting is when the association gives itself — or fails to give itself — the means to handle it properly.

The interim manager is not neutral

When the association is born, an interim manager is appointed, usually from the developer’s orbit. That is not illegitimate: someone has to convene the first meeting. But bear in mind that the same manager will face the developer when defects in the common areas are recorded.

Hence the importance of tendering from the first meeting: it is not a hostile gesture, it is the condition of a balanced relationship. See changing manager and the management contract.

The most profitable decision of the first meeting

It fits on one agenda line: have the association assisted by an independent professional — a project manager or engineering firm — for the handover of the common areas.

Without one, handover happens between a developer who knows the building and owners discovering it. The reservations recorded are then superficial: paintwork gets noted, poorly treated waterproofing and undersized ventilation do not. Those are the defects that will cost.

Elect a board straight away

A new building gives the illusion that there is nothing to watch. The opposite is true: the first two years concentrate the warranties available, and therefore the deadlines not to let slip.

The board elected at the first meeting becomes the team that follows snagging, chases, records and raises alarms. See electing the board and its role.

The warranty clock starts running

• Visible defects must be raised at handover, in the record itself.
• The first year covers completion: anything appearing must be reported, in writing and on time.
• Equipment separable from the structure carries its own, shorter warranty.
• Defects affecting structural soundness or making the building unfit fall under the ten-year warranty.

A building discovering these distinctions in year four has already lost two remedies. See handover and warranties.

In a new building, time does not work for the association: every silent month brings an expired warranty closer.

The first year’s budget is always wrong

The forecast budget put to the first meeting is an estimate made before the building lives: consumption unknown, contracts untested, occupancy partial. It is almost always understated.

The board should therefore treat year two as the real year one, compare line by line and ask for explanations of variance. See questions to ask on the budget and checking the accounts.

First-meeting checklist

• Tender the management contract and vote it.
• Elect a board, including at least one member available during the day.
• Vote technical assistance for the handover of common areas.
• Open the separate bank account in the association’s name.
• Take out the building policy and check its cover.
• Recover the paperwork: plans, manuals, maintenance contracts, manufacturer warranties.

The last point is discovered too late: without manuals and maintenance contracts, the building pays twice — once for the equipment, once for the survey that identifies it. See the maintenance log.

Start right with CoproHarmony

From day one, CoproHarmony gathers snagging items, chasers to the developer, handover documents and meeting decisions: the building’s memory starts with it. Create your free space.