What to do when a condominium meeting has no quorum

Why quorum fails and what the law provides

Article 1136 of the Civil Code sets two different quorum levels for a condominium meeting: one for first call and a lower one for second call. For ordinary administration matters, first call generally requires attendance representing a majority of those present and at least half the value of the building; second call, held on a different day, only needs a third of the participants and a third of the building's value, with the further condition that this cannot be less than a third of all owners. When first call falls short, the meeting is not annulled: the minutes simply record that quorum was not reached and that the assembly will reconvene at second call.

This mechanism exists because condominium life would otherwise stall whenever a handful of owners skip a meeting. The administrator's job is to apply the right threshold at the right call, not to improvise a lower bar on the same day unless the convening notice already scheduled both calls in sequence, as is common practice.

Convening the second call correctly

Best practice, now standard in most convening notices, is to indicate both first and second call dates and times in the same letter, with the second call set at least one day after the first, as required by law. This avoids sending a separate notice and losing time. If the original notice only listed one call, a fresh convening letter for the second call must be sent with the same formal requirements: agenda, date, time, place, and proof of delivery to every owner.

Whoever chairs the meeting, together with the secretary, must record in the minutes the exact time first call was declared void for lack of quorum, before opening the meeting under the second call rules. This timestamp is not a formality: it is what makes the lower majority legally valid if a resolution is later challenged.

Tracking presences without room for doubt

A dispute over a resolution almost always starts with a dispute over who was actually there. The attendance register should capture, for every owner or proxy, the millesimal share represented, the time of arrival if it differs from the opening, and any proxy documents attached. Digital tools reduce errors here: AmministraPro lets the administrator record attendance and proxies directly against the millesimal table, so the quorum calculation for both calls is automatic and auditable rather than reconstructed by hand after the fact.

Keeping a clear, timestamped attendance trail also protects the administrator personally: if a resolution is challenged under article 1137 for defective quorum, the register together with the minutes is the primary evidence in court.

When even second call is deserted

It does happen, especially in small or fragmented buildings, that second call also fails to reach even the lower threshold. In that case the meeting must be declared void again and reconvened from scratch with a new convening notice. There is no third automatic call written into the law: each new attempt is a new procedure, which is why chronic absenteeism should push the administrator to investigate the cause, whether it is scheduling, communication, or genuine disengagement, rather than repeating the same notice indefinitely.

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