How to call a condominium owners' meeting

The base rule is short: the meeting is called by registered letter sent 10 days in advance, or by a convening notice given with the same advance, provided there is a receipt signed by the owners.

These are 10 calendar days, not 10 working days. The Civil Code says «working days» when it means them, and here it does not. Weekends and public holidays count.

The period is a minimum. Nothing prevents calling the meeting three weeks ahead, and there is a practical gain in doing so: it leaves time to correct a wrong address before the date is fixed.

The notice period protects the owner, not the administrator. Calling with less than 10 days leaves the decisions open to challenge, even if everybody turned up.

Email is valid, but not for everyone and not by the administrator's decision. No. 2 allows notice by email only for owners who express that wish at a previous owners' meeting, with that wish recorded in the minutes together with the email address.

Three cumulative conditions, then: the wish must be the owner's, it must have been expressed at an earlier meeting, and it must be written into the minutes with the address.

One step is often forgotten: under no. 3, the owner must send back, by the same means, a receipt acknowledging the convening email. Without it, proof that the notice arrived is thin.

• An address collected through a contact form does not replace a decision recorded in the minutes.
• An owner who did not ask for email keeps the right to a registered letter.
• Keep the acknowledgement: it is the proof that this owner received the notice.

This is the commonest mistake since 2022: assuming Law 8/2022 made email the normal way to call a meeting. It made it possible, owner by owner, for those who asked for it at a meeting.

No. 4 fixes the minimum content: the notice must state the day, time, place and agenda of the meeting, and must inform owners about matters whose decisions can only be approved unanimously.

The second half is the one most often left out. If the agenda includes a matter requiring unanimity, the notice must say so — so that an owner who cannot attend understands that their absence carries weight.

The agenda also bounds what may be voted on. A catch-all «any other business» item does not entitle the meeting to decide on matters nobody knew were coming.

Counting of civil law periods sits in article 279 of the Civil Code. Paragraph b) gives the rule that matters here: in counting any period, the day on which the triggering event occurs is not included.

So the day the letter is dispatched does not count. Counting starts the next day.

Paragraph e) adds that a period ending on a Sunday or public holiday moves to the first working day. That is a rule about when a period ends — useful for knowing how long you have to act, not for postponing the meeting itself.

Some count the notice from receipt rather than dispatch. The statute speaks of a letter «sent» 10 days in advance, but prudence favours slack: at two or three weeks the argument never arises.

Decisions are taken, unless a special provision says otherwise, by a majority of the votes representing the capital invested (no. 5). A vote is measured by the fraction's permillage, not per head.

If too few owners attend and the notice did not already fix another date, a new meeting is deemed called for one week later, at the same time and place. At that second meeting the assembly may decide by a majority of those present, provided they represent at least one quarter of the building's total value (no. 6).

No. 7 allows that wait to be cut short: if the conditions are met to guarantee the presence, on the same day, of owners representing one quarter of the building's total value, the meeting may be called for thirty minutes later, in the same place.

For matters requiring unanimity, no. 8 opens a route: they may be approved by unanimity of the owners present, provided they represent at least two thirds of the capital invested, conditional on approval by the absent owners.

• Second call: one week later, same time and place, one quarter of the building's total value.
• Or thirty minutes later on the same day, if the presence of one quarter of the value is assured.
• Unanimity: possible with two thirds of the capital present, subject to the absent owners' approval.

The meeting does not end when the room empties. Under no. 9, decisions must be communicated to all absent owners within 30 days, by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt or by email — and if by email, the same conditions as nos. 2 and 3 apply.

Once notified, the absent owner has 90 days to state in writing to the assembly their assent or dissent (no. 10).

No. 11 closes the loop: the owners' silence counts as approval of the decision communicated under no. 9. Silence only counts as approval if the communication was actually made — an administrator who did not communicate cannot rely on anybody's silence.

The effectiveness of the decisions also depends on approval of the minutes, whether or not every owner has signed them (article 1, no. 3, of Decree-Law 268/94).

The ordinary meeting is held in the first fortnight of January, called by the administrator, to discuss and approve the previous year's accounts and the budget for the year's expenses (article 1431, no. 1). Law 8/2022 added no. 4: exceptionally, that meeting may be held in the first quarter of the year if the condominium regulation provides for it or the assembly so decides by majority.

Otherwise the assembly meets when called by the administrator or by owners representing at least 25% of the capital invested (no. 2). Owners may be represented by proxy (no. 3).

If a decision is contrary to the law or to a previously approved regulation, it is voidable at the request of any owner who did not approve it (article 1433, no. 1) — and the deadlines are short.