The syndic is not just the person who sends out the calls for funds. The law entrusts it with a core set of duties: carrying out the rules and the decisions, administering the building, ensuring its preservation and stepping in when there is an emergency. The implementing regulation adds very concrete obligations on accounts, records, the list of co-owners and the bank account.
Who sets the syndic's remit?
The mandate and the decisions of the meeting spell out its work, but they do not replace the duties the law already imposes on it.
The law states expressly that, irrespective of the other powers conferred on it, the syndic must ensure that the co-ownership rules and the resolutions of the meeting are carried out, administer the building and see to its preservation, safekeeping and maintenance. (loi du 16 mai 1975, art. 21)
The mandate may therefore organise and add to this remit. It cannot erase the statutory core.
What must it keep up to date?
The grand-ducal regulation requires the syndic to keep a list of the co-owners and their units. It must also hold the co-ownership's records, agreements, plans and registers, in particular the register of minutes. (RGD du 13 juin 1975, art. 22 et 23)
These documents are not the manager's personal collection. They are the administrative memory of the co-ownership.
What is its role in the accounts?
Every association must keep separate accounts showing each co-owner's position. The syndic also prepares the draft budget put to the vote of the meeting. (RGD du 13 juin 1975, art. 24)
Funds received on behalf of the association must be deposited in an account opened in the association's name. (RGD du 13 juin 1975, art. 28)
What can it do in an emergency?
It may commit, on its own initiative, the works needed to safeguard the building. (loi du 16 mai 1975, art. 21)
But an emergency is not a blank cheque. The regulation provides that it informs the co-owners and immediately convenes a meeting. To open the site and cover its first supplies, it may request an advance without a prior resolution, after seeking the opinion of the works council where one exists, up to one third of the estimate. (RGD du 13 juin 1975, art. 27)
Can it hire staff?
The syndic hires and dismisses the association's staff. The general meeting, however, remains solely competent to set the number and category of posts. (RGD du 13 juin 1975, art. 21)
It is a good illustration of the split between management and collective decision-making.
How can you actually check that management is structured?
Several things can be checked objectively: at least one general meeting a year, separate accounts, an account in the association's name, a register of minutes, an up-to-date list of co-owners, and a special authorisation where the syndic proposes certain agreements with businesses it is connected to.
The quality of management is therefore not a matter of how many emails are sent. It also shows in how consistently files are kept.