The condo board handover file
A term lasts three years. What is not handed over is lost, and the next board spends its first year rediscovering what the last one knew. Eight sections so that does not happen.
Nothing requires it, everything calls for it
No statute organises the handover between two condo boards. The term ends, the members change, and nothing provides for what passes on — because legally the board holds nothing: the building’s documents sit with the managing agent.
Except that the board’s own work is nowhere else: the quotes compared, the defects tracked, the requests left unanswered, what has already been refused at a meeting and why. That knowledge is what leaves with the outgoing chair’s inbox.
What genuinely passes on
- Live files, with their state of play and next deadline.
- Requests made to the agent and left unanswered.
- Useful contacts: property manager, contractors, helpful neighbours.
- What was attempted and refused, with the reason — so it is not redone.
The building’s official documents — rules, minutes, contracts, accounts — stay with the managing agent, who must keep them available. This file does not replace them: it passes on what the board itself built.
Word template
Condo board handover — [year]
Co-ownership [name] — outgoing: [names] — incoming: [names]
Fill this in during the weeks following the meeting that renews the board, while the old one still remembers. A joint one-hour session is enough to cover it.
1. Membership and roles
Who is leaving, who is arriving, who followed what. How the subjects were split is handed over too.
Outgoing: [names and subjects followed] — Incoming: [names]
2. State of the building
The three or four things a new member has to know on day one: works under way, a dispute, a financial difficulty.
[Situation in five lines]
3. Live files
One block per file: where things stand, what was decided, what the next deadline is.
[File] — State: [...] — Next deadline: [date] — Documents: [where]
4. Relations with the managing agent
Property manager’s name, the contact method that works, contract expiry, subjects they drag their feet on.
Manager: [name, contact] — Contract until [date] — Friction points: [...]
5. Outstanding requests
What was asked of the agent and never obtained, with dates. It is what will weigh at the next renewal.
[Request] — Sent on [date] — Chased on [date] — No reply
6. What has already been tried
Subjects raised at a meeting and refused, with the reason. Saves the next board replaying a lost hand.
[Subject] — Put in [year] — Refused because [reason]
7. Contacts and contractors
Firms that have worked here, how good they were, owners who are a resource on a technical subject.
[Contractor] — [field] — [contact] — [assessment]
8. Deadlines in the next twelve months
Contracts to renew, warranties expiring, obligations to meet, a meeting to prepare.
[Deadline] — [date] — [what has to happen first]
One copy for each incoming member, one for the archive. This document is updated each year: it will be ready for the next renewal.
Get the template by email
One email address and the document is yours. The download opens right below.
A good handover rests on what was kept, not on what is recounted
The handover file is easy to write when incidents, quotes and exchanges are dated and findable. It becomes impossible when everything lives in a personal inbox that leaves with its owner. CoproHarmony keeps the history in the building’s own space, not in an individual account.
The history stays
The space belongs to the co-ownership, not to the outgoing chair.
The new board inherits
Incidents, quotes and decisions are there from day one.
The handover shrinks
All that is left to pass on is what cannot be written down.
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