Choosing a syndic starts with describing the building's needs, not with comparing three prices. You then need to check the scope of the assignment, how the manager is organised, how the files will be taken over, and a few simple legal points: the professional authorisation where one is required, the length of the mandate, the handling of funds and any links with the contractors proposed.
Start with the building
A block of six flats with no communal plant and a fifty-unit development with a lift, communal heating and works in progress do not call for the same follow-up.
Before asking for offers, you therefore have to set out what already exists: contracts, plant, arrears, technical files, disputes and decisions not yet carried out.
How long can the mandate last?
The law caps the mandate at three years. (loi du 16 mai 1975, art. 14, tel que modifié par la loi du 22 avril 1985)
That duration belongs in the comparison, just as much as the fees and the services.
Which simple legal points should be checked?
For a professional syndic, the business permit applying to its activity has to be checked.
It is also worth making sure that the funds will be paid into an account opened in the name of the association, as the grand-ducal regulation requires. (RGD du 13 juin 1975, art. 28)
Finally, the co-ownership needs to know how agreements with businesses connected to the syndic are handled, since some of them require a special authorisation from the meeting. (RGD du 13 juin 1975, art. 29)
Must every application file be attached to the notice of meeting?
The implementing regulation does not lay down a general obligation to attach each candidate's complete file where a syndic is to be appointed.
The question does, however, have to be on the agenda, and the meeting may only deliberate validly on the items listed. (RGD du 13 juin 1975, art. 6)
It remains useful to give the co-owners enough information to vote knowingly. That is good preparation practice, not a formality imposed by the texts.
How do you prepare the handover?
The law requires the syndic to hold the co-ownership's records, but the 1975 texts do not set an exhaustive list or a general deadline for passing them to a successor. (RGD du 13 juin 1975, art. 23)
It is therefore better to provide for the handover expressly: accounts, contracts, minutes, technical files, keys, access rights and information about works under way.
A handover that has not been prepared quickly becomes the first problem of the new mandate.
Who decides in the end?
Appointing the syndic falls to a majority of the votes of all co-owners, with the second-meeting mechanism provided for by the law if that majority is not reached. (loi du 16 mai 1975, art. 16 c) et dernier alinéa)