Moving to a dedicated condominium account

The legal obligation, and why it applies even to buildings managed for years

Article 1129, sixth paragraph, of the Italian Civil Code establishes that the property manager must route sums received from owners or third parties, and sums paid out on behalf of the condominium, through a specific bank or postal account held in the condominium's name. Any owner, through the manager, can request to view and obtain a copy of the periodic statement of this account.

The obligation does not only apply to newly established buildings: it applies to any condominium, including one managed for decades through an account jointly held with the manager or shared across several buildings. If a management handover, or an internal review, reveals that the account is not properly dedicated and separate, the situation must be corrected by opening a compliant account and moving the management to it.

Failing to comply with this obligation is, among other things, one of the grounds for judicial removal of the manager provided for by the same Article 1129, alongside failing to open the account at all or failing to actually route the sums through it.

Opening the new account and transitioning from the previous one

Opening the dedicated account is an act of ordinary administration that the manager can carry out without a specific resolution, but it is good practice to inform the assembly, especially when replacing an existing joint or mixed account.

Practical steps to follow during the transition:

- Confirm the bank opens the account in the condominium's name (using the condominium's own tax code), not the manager's, with signing authority delegated to the manager pro tempore. - Notify owners of the new bank details well in advance, so that maintenance fee transfers and direct debits do not land on an account that is being closed or is no longer in use. - Plan a short transition period during which the old account stays open only to collect late payments, without routing any new expenses through it. - Transfer the remaining balance from the old account to the new one via a traceable wire transfer, recorded in the accounting ledger with a clear description, such as balance transfer for opening the dedicated account under Article 1129. - Update utilities and suppliers with direct debit arrangements to the new IBAN, checking that no duplicate direct debits remain active.

Notifying owners and recording it in the minutes

Even though opening the account does not require a resolution, formally communicating the change protects the manager and reduces disputes. Best practice is to send a written notice to all owners with the new bank details (IBAN and account name), the effective date, and instructions for updating any recurring transfers or direct debits.

At the next assembly it is advisable to report on the transition and have it recorded in the minutes; if the switch coincides with a change of manager, it should be included in the handover record of documentation also required under Article 1129, together with balances, ledgers and the current year's financial statement.

Reconciling the bank account with the accounting ledger

The most delicate moment of the transition is reconciliation: the balance in the accounting ledger, required under Article 1130-bis, as of the transfer date must exactly match the balance moved to the new account, net of any transactions still in transit, such as uncashed checks or transfers still being credited.

It is advisable to close the old account only after confirming that all pending transactions have cleared, and to perform a precise bank reconciliation at the end of each month for the first few months after the switch, matching every line of the bank statement against the corresponding ledger entry. A condominium management platform such as AmministraPro supports this phase by linking bank transactions to ledger entries and preserving the traceability an owner may request when reviewing the documentation.

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