Condominium meeting in person or by video call

Compared

What article 66 of the implementing provisions says

Article 66 of the implementing provisions of the Italian civil code allows the meeting to be held by audio video conference, provided the condominium bylaws do not expressly forbid it and the process guarantees certain identification of participating owners, their active participation in the discussion, and the ability to cast a verifiable vote on each item on the agenda. The rule neither mandates nor excludes video conferencing: the meeting itself, or the bylaws, can define when to use it, and the property manager must clearly state the chosen format and the participation instructions in the notice of meeting.

A point often misunderstood: video conferencing is not a departure from the quorum and majority rules set out in articles 1136 and following of the civil code. What changes is how owners are present and how they vote, not the thresholds required to validate the meeting or approve a resolution.

Constituent and deliberative quorum: what changes

In person, the quorum is verified physically when the meeting opens: the property manager counts the owners and the shares present in the room, including proxies collected on paper. In a video call the underlying logic is identical but technically different, because a system is needed that reliably records who has connected, who stays connected throughout the discussion, and who may leave before the vote on a specific item, a situation that is visible at a glance in person but requires more careful handling remotely.

The typical risk of the remote format is a connection drop during the discussion of a specific item: if that owner was needed to reach the deliberative quorum for that resolution, the resolution may be flawed. For this reason it is advisable to record, item by item, who joined and who left the connection, not only at the opening of the meeting.

Proxies: collection and verification in each format

The rules on proxies, including limits on how many an owner can hold and the requirement for written form, remain the same regardless of the meeting format: only the way the property manager receives and verifies them changes. In person, proxies are handed in on paper at the entrance and checked before the meeting starts. In a video call, they are typically sent in advance to the property manager, who must be able to match each proxy with certainty to the connected proxy holder.

A useful practice for remote meetings is to require proxies to arrive a set amount of time before the meeting, so there is time to verify them and calculate the quorum correctly before the meeting opens, avoiding having to do so once the session has already started, which risks slowing down or undermining the verification.

Voting and minutes: same validity, different paths

In person voting is cast by show of hands or ballot, with a count visible to everyone in the room. In a video call the vote must be cast in a way that is verifiable on each item, typically by roll call and traceable, so that anyone challenging the resolution can always reconstruct who voted what. In both cases the minutes remain the document that certifies the resolution and must record who was present, the shares represented, the discussion, and the outcome of the vote item by item.

For a remote meeting, good practice is for the minutes to also record the technical arrangements used and any disconnections relevant to the quorum, something that does not need to be documented in an in person meeting because physical presence is not open to the same kind of doubt.

When each format works best

An in person meeting remains preferable when the building is small, owners all live in the same building, and the discussion requires direct exchange on sensitive topics, where body language and the chance to talk things through informally help mediation. A video call gives a concrete advantage when owners are numerous, geographically dispersed, second homes, owners living elsewhere, super condominiums with several buildings, or when the agenda is technical and does not require complex negotiation, only the approval of items already prepared with documentation shared in advance.

A property manager handling several buildings can also choose a hybrid solution, keeping a physical venue for those who prefer to attend in person while opening a connection for those who cannot be present, as long as the system still guarantees identification and vote traceability for every participant, whether in the room or remote.

Frequently asked questions