Running a syndicate of co-ownership in Quebec no longer resembles what it was ten years ago. The role once fitted into a few evenings a year: adopt a budget, hold a meeting, renew two or three contracts. Today a board of directors carries a continuous file, governed by specific obligations, and answers to co-owners who are far better informed than they used to be.
That is not bad news in itself. Nearly every requirement that has been added serves the same purpose: to stop a building from deteriorating for want of planning, and to stop an unforeseen bill from landing on co-owners all at once. The difficulty is not whether the work is worth doing. The difficulty is that the work rests on volunteer directors who already have jobs and lives.
Four challenges every syndicate shares
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Ageing buildings, and major work to plan
Much of Quebec's condominium stock has reached the age where the roof, the windows, the balconies, the elevator and the plumbing all come due at once. Technically, none of that is a surprise — it is predictable.
What surprises a board is discovering it was never costed.
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New legal obligations to meet
Since 14 August 2025, the regulation implementing Law 16 makes three things structural:
- a contingency fund study — 25-year horizon, renewed every 5 years;
- a maintenance logbook — updated annually, revised every 5 years;
- the syndicate certificate (art. 1068.1 C.C.Q.) — delivered within 15 days of a request.
The study and the logbook are due by 14 August 2028. The certificate already applies, with no transition period.
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Co-owners who expect answers
Someone who writes on a Tuesday evening expects an acknowledgement, not three weeks of silence. They want to know why common expenses are rising and where their request stands.
Tension usually starts here — not with the decision itself, but with how it was communicated.
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A workload that never stops
Tenders, contracts, insurance claims, minutes within 30 days, collecting common expenses, compliance. The work no longer clusters around the annual meeting; it runs across all twelve months.
That is what pushes most boards to delegate — not that they cannot cope, but that the role became a job.
The fund study and the maintenance logbook must come from an authorized independent professional:
- an engineer, architect, chartered appraiser or professional technologist;
- or a chartered professional accountant — for the fund study only.
No manager may sign either one in their place.
We covered these obligations in detail in two separate articles: what Law 16 changes in practice and the contingency fund study.
Why building size changes nothing
This is the most common misunderstanding, and it is expensive for small syndicates. A syndicate's obligations attach to the syndicate, which is a legal person — not to the number of units it contains.
In other words: whether a building holds 8, 38 or 146 units, it needs
- a contingency fund study;
- a maintenance logbook kept up to date;
- a certificate delivered within 15 days of a request;
- a properly held annual general meeting;
- an adopted budget and common expenses collected;
- minutes circulated on time.
The list does not get shorter because the building is small. What changes is how many people are available to carry it. In an 8-unit building, three directors take on exactly the same responsibilities as a board in a 146-unit building — often with no management budget, no tools and nobody to delegate to. The load per director is therefore heavier in a small building, not lighter.
The regulation provides particular terms for certain smaller co-ownerships. The criteria are technical and deserve to be read in the regulatory text rather than summarised from memory. We verify them for your building before telling you what applies — we do not assume.
A building's features do change the real workload: a pool, an elevator, underground parking or a shared ventilation system each add contracts, inspections and components to track. But they add work on top of a legal baseline that stays the same for everyone.
What a manager actually absorbs
Delegating to a condominium manager is not about buying advice. It is about handing over execution: accounting and collection, budgets, calls for tender and supplier follow-up, preparing and holding meetings, minutes, insurance claims, correspondence with co-owners, and compliance tracking.
On Law 16 our role is specific, and it is worth stating plainly: we do not produce the contingency fund study or the maintenance logbook — those belong to the authorized professionals named above. What we do: explain the obligations to the board, solicit several quotes from those professionals, prepare the data they need, fold their conclusions into the budget, and keep the follow-up going over time.
What Gestion Ajax brings to a board
Gestion Ajax Inc. has managed syndicates of co-ownership since 2019 — seven years of practice, in this field only. We currently support more than 100 syndicates across Greater Montreal: the island, Laval, the North Shore, the South Shore and Vaudreuil-Soulanges.
- A team of about ten people, rather than one manager carrying too many files.
- Tatev Abrahamyan, vice-president, is a chartered administrator (Adm.A) of the Ordre des administrateurs agréés du Québec and holds the co-ownership management certification from ESG UQAM, offered in partnership with the RGCQ. Two other managers began that certification this year.
- Gestion Ajax is a corporate member of the RGCQ (Regroupement des gestionnaires et copropriétaires du Québec).
- A client portal where the board and co-owners find documents, account statements and follow-ups.
- An emergency line answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, year round. Taking the call is always free.
- Offices open Monday to Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. — a four-day week we stand behind, with emergencies covered at all times.
Published pricing, no surprises
Our rates are posted on the site, not quoted case by case:
- 6 to 20 units — $29 per unit, per month;
- 21 to 100 units — $31 per unit, per month;
- 101 units and above — $37 per unit, per month.
Before tax. And the important part: the complete service is the same at every tier. The price varies with the size of the building, never with what is included. There is no file-opening fee and no commission on any works, of any kind.
During business hours everything is included — explicitly including insurance claims and annual general meetings. What is billed separately: on-site emergency intervention outside business hours. Answering the emergency call itself is never billed.
The contract runs one year and renews at the same rate. And for any client who has passed 24 months with us, there is no price increase. The estimate our calculator returns is honoured for two months, and that validity is stated on the estimate itself.
In short
The pressures on Quebec condominiums today — an ageing stock, structural legal obligations, higher expectations from co-owners, a continuous administrative load — are not distributed by building size. They apply to every syndicate, and they weigh proportionally heavier on the smallest ones.
A board does not have to carry that alone. Our job is to turn a list of obligations into a calendar that is kept, budgets that are realistic and answers given on time — for an 8-unit building just as much as a 146-unit one.
