Practical guide
How to handle abstentions in a meeting
In a condominium meeting, an abstention is an independent voting position, distinct from a vote in favor or against, and it has concrete effects on the deliberative quorum set out in articles 1136 and 1138 of the Italian civil code. A common mistake is treating an abstaining owner as absent or as voting against, which directly affects whether a resolution is validly approved. This guide explains how abstentions are counted toward the quorum, how they should be recorded in the minutes, what practices to follow during the meeting, and how management software such as AmministraPro can help the property manager keep an accurate real time count during the session.
What abstaining means and why it is not the same as voting against
An abstention is the choice of an owner present at the meeting not to express either a favorable or an unfavorable vote on the resolution under discussion. It is a legitimate position, often due to a conflict of interest, a sense that available information is insufficient, or an unwillingness to take a stance on contested matters such as extraordinary works or amendments to the building regulation.
The difference from a vote against matters for the calculation: while a vote against directly reduces the share of consent needed to reach the majority, an abstention must be counted separately because the owner remains present and is included in the constitutive quorum, but contributes to neither the favorable nor the against tally.
Effect on the deliberative quorum under article 1136 of the civil code
Article 1136 of the Italian civil code sets the majorities required both for the meeting to be validly constituted (constitutive quorum) and for resolutions to be approved (deliberative quorum), expressed in number of attendees and value in thousandths of ownership shares.
An abstaining owner counts toward the constitutive quorum, since they are present and are included among attendees both by head count and by ownership share. They do not count as a favorable vote: if a resolution requires the majority of attendees and at least half the value of the building, an abstention does not help reach that threshold, so a large number of abstentions can cause the deliberative quorum to fail even though enough owners attended the meeting.
In practice, the more owners abstain, the narrower the pool of favorable shares available to approve the resolution: it is a common mistake to treat abstention as neutral, when it can in fact be decisive in preventing the required majority from being reached.
- Abstaining: counts toward the constitutive quorum (presence), counts as neither favorable nor against
- Absent: does not count toward either the constitutive or the deliberative quorum
- Against: counts toward the constitutive quorum and reduces the chance of reaching the required majority
How to correctly calculate the quorum with abstentions present
A correct calculation requires keeping three sets separate: the total ownership shares of attendees (constitutive quorum), the shares voting in favor, and the shares voting against. Abstaining owners remain in the first set but feed neither the second nor the third.
To check whether a resolution is approved, the favorable shares must be compared against the threshold set by article 1136 for that type of decision, which varies depending on whether the matter concerns ordinary administration, innovations, extraordinary maintenance works, or amendments to the condominium regulation.
In practice, keeping a running tally updated in real time during the meeting reduces the risk of errors: management software such as AmministraPro allows the manager to record each owner's vote during the session, including abstentions, and automatically calculates both the constitutive and the deliberative quorum based on the ownership shares already loaded into the registry.
Recording abstentions in the minutes: what must be included
The minutes must accurately record who abstained, with the owner's name and corresponding ownership share, rather than relying on a generic numerical count of favorable and against votes.
This precision has real value if the resolution is later challenged under article 1137 of the civil code: minutes that do not clearly distinguish abstentions, votes against and absences can be contested as too vague, making it difficult to establish whether the deliberative quorum was actually reached.
Good practice is for the minutes to report, for each resolution, the total favorable, against and abstaining shares separately, along with the final outcome, approved or not approved, so that anyone reading the document can independently verify the calculation.
Recommended practices during the meeting
A few operational habits help the property manager handle abstentions correctly without slowing down the session.
Whoever is taking the minutes should record each owner's vote on every resolution individually, not just the aggregate total, so that it is possible to reconstruct at any time who voted what. Managing the owners registry digitally, with ownership shares already loaded, makes it possible to check the required threshold without doing the math by hand during the discussion, reducing dead time and later disputes.
- Always ask for explicit confirmation of who is abstaining, never infer it from silence
- Record abstention, favorable and against votes separately for each resolution
- Report the ownership shares of each position in the minutes, not just head counts
- Verify the deliberative quorum before declaring a resolution approved, not after
Frequently asked questions
Does an abstaining owner count toward the constitutive quorum of the meeting?
Yes. An owner who abstains is still present at the meeting, so they are counted among attendees both by head count and by ownership share for purposes of the constitutive quorum under article 1136 of the civil code. What changes is their contribution to the deliberative quorum: being neither in favor nor against, they do not help reach the majority required to approve the resolution.
Can abstentions cause a resolution to fail even if nobody votes against it?
Yes, and this effect is often underestimated. If a resolution requires a certain threshold of favorable ownership shares and several owners abstain, the favorable votes actually collected can fall below that threshold even with no explicit votes against, meaning the resolution is not approved.
How should an abstention be correctly recorded in the minutes?
The minutes should list, for each resolution, the abstaining owners with their corresponding ownership shares, clearly distinguished from favorable and against votes, plus the total shares for each position and the final outcome of the vote. Generic minutes that do not separate these categories expose the resolution to challenges under article 1137 of the civil code.
Are an absent owner and an abstaining owner treated the same way in the calculation?
No. An absent owner is not counted toward either the constitutive or the deliberative quorum, since they simply did not attend the session. An abstaining owner, by contrast, is present and is counted toward the constitutive quorum with their ownership share, even though they do not contribute to the favorable or against votes. Confusing the two leads to an incorrect count of meeting attendance.
Can condominium management software help calculate the quorum when there are abstentions?
Yes. Management software such as AmministraPro allows ownership shares to be loaded into the registry and each owner's vote to be recorded during the session, including abstentions, automatically calculating both the constitutive and the deliberative quorum for each resolution and reducing the margin of error compared to a manual calculation.
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