A practical guide for the condominium auditor

Who can appoint the auditor and with what majority

Appointing a condominium auditor is not a legal obligation: it is an option the assembly can exercise whenever an independent check on the accounts seems useful, typically in large condominiums, when disputes arise between owners and the manager, or simply to reinforce transparency. Article 1130 bis provides that the assembly may appoint an auditor to review the condominium's accounts, using the same majority required for appointing or revoking the property manager, that is the majority set out in article 1136 of the Civil Code.

The cost of the appointment is borne by the condominium and must therefore be included in the budget or approved as an extraordinary expense, depending on when the assembly resolves on it. It is good practice for the appointment resolution to explicitly state the period under review, the fee and the deadline for delivering the report, to avoid later ambiguity about the scope of the assignment.

What the review actually covers

The auditor checks the condominium's accounts as a whole: the annual financial statement with income and expense items, the correspondence between amounts collected from owners and amounts actually paid to suppliers and service providers, the dedicated condominium bank account, and the consistency between bank movements and accounting entries.

In practice, the review typically covers:

The auditor never enters into the merits of the manager's operational choices, for instance whether a supplier was the most competitive on the market: the task is to verify that the figures are correct and documented, not to assess the appropriateness of decisions taken.

• matching of cash or bank balances against accounting entries
• reconciliation of expenses with invoices, receipts and other supporting documents
• correct allocation of expenses according to the applicable ownership shares or tables
• management of the special reserve fund for extraordinary works, where present
• any discrepancies between the approved budget and the final statement

What data and documents the auditor needs

For the review to be effective, the auditor must have access to the documents underlying the financial statement: bank statements of the condominium account, supplier invoices and receipts, assembly minutes recording expenditure resolutions, the condominium owners register for correct allocation of shares and, where they exist, contracts with suppliers and service providers.

An often underestimated factor is how well organized this data is: when the financial statement and supporting documents are structured clearly, by expense category and by supplier, the auditor's work is faster and the report reaches the assembly sooner. A condominium management platform such as AmministraPro, which keeps the financial statement, cash movements and related documents in a single searchable archive, helps precisely on this point: it reduces the time the auditor spends reconstructing data and leaves more room for substantive review.

The processing of personal data contained in these documents, such as owners' names or amounts due, remains subject to the GDPR: the auditor, appointed by the assembly for a specific purpose, must process such information only for the performance of that task.

How the final report is structured

At the end of the review, the auditor presents a written report that accompanies the financial statement to the assembly. A useful report clearly states the period reviewed, the documentation examined, the method followed, any issues found and, where the assignment requires it, an overall opinion on the formal correctness of the data.

If discrepancies emerge between bank movements and accounting entries, or expenses lacking adequate supporting documents, the report must flag them specifically, indicating the amount and the item involved, so the assembly can approve the financial statement with full knowledge of the facts.

Frequently asked questions