Co-ownership: maintenance log, syndicate certificate and your advisory role
The Regulation establishing various rules concerning divided co-ownership came into force on August 14, 2025. Its purpose is to implement, among others, the provisions of Bill 16. It also clarifies certain amended sections of the Civil Code of Québec relating to co-ownership.
The regulation deals with the following four themes:
- Maintenance log.
- Contingency fund study.
- Certificate of the syndicate attesting to the condition of the co-ownership.
- Buyer deposits.
Agents, brokers and claims adjusters who handle condominium dossiers must seize every opportunity to enhance their knowledge related to damage insurance topics.
To support them in their practice, the Chambre de l'assurance makes the connection between the application of the regulation’s provisions and their role as certified professionals.
Topics related to damage insurance
1. The certificate of the syndicate attesting to the management and condition of the co-ownership
Planned since Bill 16 was passed in 2019, the regulation specifies what information must be included in the certificate in addition to setting its effective date as August 14, 2025.
This document must include the following information:
- A statement confirming that the syndicate holds the insurance policies to which it must subscribe.
- The amounts of the contingency and self-insurance funds.
- The amount of the highest deductible specified in the insurance contract.
- A brief description of:
- Claims having affected the private portion being sold or the common areas during the last five years.
- Current legal proceedings to which the syndicate is a party.
- Inspections or appraisals carried out on the syndicate's initiative during the last five years, that pertained to the general condition of the building or one of its major components.
- Major repairs and replacements carried out on common areas and their cost over the last five years and those planned for the next 10 years.
For all the information required in the certificate, consult the Regulation, the Guide explicatif des mesures, and the certificate model (in French only), provided by the Société d'habitation du Québec (SHQ).
The certificate must be provided to a future buyer wishing to examine the overall state of the condominium's management. It is "intended to provide increased transparency, allowing prospective buyers to adequately assess the building's financial and technical situation", states the Regroupement des gestionnaires et copropriétaires du Québec (RGCQ) on its website.
According to the Chambre des notaires, the certificate should be updated "with the actual data available at the beginning of or during the sales process, even though the Civil Code does not specify this". It must be provided within 15 days at the request of a co-owner, and only for the purposes of a real estate transaction.
Link to your advisory role
1. Risk and needs analysis
The certificate becomes an additional tool to help agents and brokers analyze the risk and needs of a syndicate of co-owners in terms of:
- finance
- major work planned or carried out
- building damages
- legal information relating to ongoing litigation.
In fact, several pieces of information contained in the certificate are among the essential and useful documents that an agent or broker must obtain when writing or renewing a contract for a syndicate of co-owners.
Without necessarily providing the certificate as such, due to protection of personal information obligations, you could advise the syndicate to use the document to answer your questions about the needs analysis.
2. Customer support
It would be natural for a syndicate administrator to turn to an agent, broker or claims adjuster for certain questions relating to certification and insurance.
In this case, your advisory role is an added value. You may be able to advise them on the information to be included in the certificate in relation to their insurance file.
What's more, you demonstrate your added value as a professional by guiding your client to the resources available to help them draw up the certificate. Here are a few relevant documents:
- The complete regulation;
- Resources provided by the SHQ (in French only):
"A good practice is to document, over time, any claims that have occurred in your clients' buildings. In this respect, good record-keeping means you're ready to provide information to the client if he asks for it," explains Me Clément Lucas, associate lawyer specializing in condominium law at De Grandpré Jolicoeur.
2. The maintenance log and the contingency fund
The purpose of the maintenance log and contingency fund study is to ensure the building's longevity. Many of the items required in the maintenance log are good practices for loss prevention. Your role as advisor in this respect is an important one in enabling the client to make the right decisions to protect the co-owners' assets.
Produced by a specialist duly authorized by the regulation, the maintenance log must contain, among other things:
- A detailed inventory of materials, apparatus and equipment that compose the common areas of the building or installed in the private areas, for which the syndicate is responsible for maintenance.
- Descriptions and a 25-year schedule of major repairs and replacements to be carried out on each of those materials, appliances and equipment for which the syndicate is responsible.
- A list of major repairs and replacements carried out, along with their completion dates and costs.
- Documents relating to the work (plans, estimates and contracts, etc.)
Roofing, gutters, windows, French drains, foundations: diligent maintenance of these elements can limit a damage claim or even prevent them.
Based on the maintenance log, the contingency fund demonstrates the syndicate's financial capacity to maintain the building for the next 25 years. According to the RGCQ, "this requirement aims to avoid unforeseen special contributions and to promote rigorous long-term financial management."
To find out the key dates related to these new rules, as well as the update obligations, see sections 1 and 2 of the regulation.
Link to your advisory role
For agents and brokers
For insurance agents and brokers, consulting the maintenance log is one of the essential documents to request from the syndicate of co-owners when taking on new business or renewing a contract.
The document provides an in-depth analysis of the risk:
- Building maintenance level.
- The syndicate's approach to maintenance management.
- Adequacy of the contingency fund to pay for required maintenance.
"The advisory role of the insurance professional is to ensure that a syndicate complies with the requirements of Bill 16," says Annie Gosselin, commercial lines damage insurance broker with Fort Assurances and administrator for the provincial RGCQ and RGCQ-Québec. It's good practice to "identify increased risks when a contingency fund is insufficient or a maintenance logbook is incomplete", she adds.
And if deficiencies are observed? "The certified professional must ask the syndicate to provide additional explanations or corrective measures," says the broker.
Ms. Gosselin makes the following link between insurance quotes and syndicate requirements: "An inadequate contingency fund can, for example, compromise roof replacement or lead to neglected building maintenance, which directly increases the likelihood of claims. Pricing and deductibles must therefore reflect the quality of the risk. If the documents submitted under Bill 16 are incomplete or imprecise, and the syndicate is unable to provide the necessary information, the insurance may be subject to more stringent conditions or even refused or not renewed."
For his part, Me Lucas believes that "your advisory role can also extend to recommending maintenance or work to be done, such as replacing water heaters or flexible pipes".
"Ideally, these recommendations should be included in the maintenance logbook and the correlative contingency fund study, so that they don't get lost when board changes occur," advises Me Lucas.
Claims adjusters
The maintenance log is also an important document for claims adjusters dealing with condominium claims. All the elements listed above help to analyze and understand the condition of the damaged building.
According to Linda Collin, claims adjuster at BFL Canada, the logbook can also include installation, operation and maintenance manuals for the condominium's equipment. "These are additional resources for understanding the aspect of the property under study," she says.
The translation of this article was done using AI but was reviewed by humans.
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