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Unfortunately, many property managers surprise their WEGs with a date without coordinating it with the owners in advance. They often wait until the end of the year to convene the ETV.
Some even deliberately set the deadline for the last possible date, sometimes even in December, in order to make it more difficult to switch to a new management. After all, there is not much time left and the owners have other issues on their calendars.
However, as an owner, you should try to attend the owners' meeting to exercise your right to have a say. Of course, you cannot always be physically there, so it is advisable to look for a property management company that offers hybrid owners' meetings.
If the property management does not even invite to an ordinary owners' meeting, this is directly a valid reason for termination.
Above all, make sure that an owners' meeting runs smoothly, in a relaxed and informative manner. This is in the interest of all parties involved in a WEG. And to make sure it works, we have the best 5 tips for you on how to make the owners' meeting a success.
Send proxy or online meeting
There is no obligation for the owners to be present at the owners' meeting. In fact, the participation rate is often very low, especially in large WEGs, and often it is even less than 30%. However, if your property is managed by a modern property management company, you usually do not have to be physically present either, because some property management companies now offer so-called hybrid meetings.
Hybrid ETV
Hybrid ETV (i.e. meeting on site and video conferencing at the same time) is another option that will be accepted with the amendment of the Condominium Act on December 1, 2020, and has become more common since the Corona pandemic. This is especially helpful if you live far away from your property or are prevented.
In principle, the entire owners' meeting could also be held exclusively online without complications, but legislation currently still obliges administrators to use a hybrid variant. In the hybrid meeting, the administrator is obliged to ensure that the video conference can be recorded and that it is a private and secure connection.
Pure online meeting
Owners' meetings may already be held exclusively online, but a unanimous resolution of all owners is still required for a purely online meeting, because it must be ensured that all owners have the necessary technical requirements for the online format. Older apartment owners in particular often do not have the necessary equipment.
Power of attorney
If you are not able to dial in to the appointment, we recommend that you issue a power of attorney to a person you trust from the WEG or to the administrator. With Ralph, you can also conveniently submit your decisions on the individual resolutions online in advance of the ETV. In individual cases, however, it is possible that the right to grant power of attorney is prevented in your declaration of division. However, this is very rarely the case.
Agenda creation
Your management should definitely have compiled the agenda in advance of the actual owners' meeting and strictly adhere to it at the meeting. This will prevent individual resolutions from becoming contestable, important items from being forgotten, or the meeting from lasting too long. Each owner has the right to propose an agenda item. Of course, the property management should primarily put the items on the agenda that are important for the WEG.
It also makes sense for the administrator to lead the discussion on the individual resolutions and to record the results directly in the minutes so that they can be sent out on the same day as the ETV. Only the results of the discussions and votes must be recorded here, not the complete course of events.
The change to Ralph is uncomplicated.
Always keep the owners meeting private
Some WEG administrators invite to an owners' meeting in a restaurant where there is public traffic. You should avoid this at all costs. An owners' meeting must be clearly arranged so that only the owners or their authorized representatives take part.
In some cases, especially in smaller WEGs, meetings are still held in places open to the public. The resolutions are therefore not necessarily invalid. However, they can be legally challenged as a result of this circumstance.
Record the meeting if necessary
Today, the technical possibilities are so advanced that it is no longer a problem to record the owners' meeting. This saves the administrator from taking notes during the actual meeting. However, this does not mean that one can save oneself from writing the minutes. There must also be a legible version of the minutes that clearly shows all resolutions and their voting results and is sent to the owners no later than three weeks after the meeting. With modern tools, you should receive the minutes immediately after the meeting.
An audio or video recording can help clarify issues when certain resolutions are challenged after the fact. However, make sure that the participants are informed about the recording in advance and agree to it.
Make sure you follow all the legal points
Especially in condominium owners' associations that want to manage themselves, mistakes can easily occur, which then lead to resolutions being contestable and you as a member of the advisory board may be liable. We therefore strongly recommend the professional support of an administration, if you are a condominium with more than three parties and/or do not already know and trust each other well for several years, or simply do not have the time to deal with the organization of the ETV and the entire accounting and organization of the suppliers and partners.
Ralph is a modern property management from Berlin for Berlin, which has organized the internal processes mainly digitally and thus has more time for the actual customer service and can be on site more often. We combine modern technology with many years of experience and expertise. Feel free to contact us anytime for a free quote, we always follow up 100% of all requests personally.
