How to Call a Members’ Meeting of an Owners’ Association (SVJ) and a Housing Cooperative (BD)

Quick Overview

Always convene a meeting of the homeowners’ association or housing cooperative in accordance with the bylaws and by written notice. For homeowners’ associations, unless the bylaws specify a different timeframe, the meeting must be convened at least 30 days in advance. The notice must include the name of the homeowners’ association or housing cooperative, the name of the person convening the meeting, the date, time, location, agenda, and supporting documents for each agenda item. If you are not sending the supporting documents directly, indicate where and with whom they are available for review. It is more difficult to make valid decisions later on matters that are not clearly specified in advance in the agenda or supporting documents.

• Check the bylaws and the deadline for convening the meeting.
• Send the invitation to all members in a verifiable manner.
• Include the exact agenda for the meeting in the invitation.
• Attach the supporting documents or indicate where they are available.
• After the meeting, prepare the minutes and archive the invitation and proof of delivery.

Are you planning a meeting of a homeowners’ association or housing cooperative and unsure whether the invitation, agenda, or supporting documents would hold up in a dispute? Have them reviewed by an attorney in advance. This will help you avoid the risk of a dissatisfied member later challenging the adopted resolutions due to a procedural error.

If you want your home to be organized, you need to start by getting your “paperwork” in order. Complainers often seize on the slightest error in the notice of a meeting that went against their interests. This can cost a housing cooperative or homeowners’ association a lot of money and energy.

Our experience shows that the mistake is rarely the vote itself, but rather a poorly prepared notice of the meeting. Typically, the notice lacks a detailed agenda, documentation regarding renovations, or a proposed amendment to the bylaws. A dissatisfied owner may then challenge not the substance of the decision, but the very process by which it was approved.

Conversely, in some cases, even flawless documentation cannot conceal internal irregularities in situations where the board has de facto “privatized” the common property. You just need to know what to look for.

Beware of an Informal Approach

In our practice, we met a very pleasant man named Jiří. As the chairman of a Prague homeowners’ association consisting of just seven units, he would informally call meetings over the phone. However, he contacted us once to say that a new neighbor had sent him a letter questioning all the decisions made at the last meeting, even though everyone except him had agreed to them. We recommended that he reconvene the meeting with a formal invitation and postpone any decisions until then. A meeting convened informally without any record could indeed be successfully challenged.

This recommendation was based on another recent experience of ours. In one homeowners’ association in northern Bohemia, a committee controlled by a local housing cooperative “bulldozed” the neighbors to such an extent that it disregarded formalities in both the meeting notice and the minutes, and pushed through overpriced services and unfavorable bylaws. However, we succeeded in challenging that botched meeting at the Regional Court in Ústí nad Labem and in having the unfavorable bylaws overturned. This was despite the fact that the most recent case law of the Supreme Court and other courts is very cautious when it comes to challenging homeowners’ association meetings and, in most cases, tends to “uphold” the meeting’s decisions. However, the right arguments must be presented.

How is this done correctly?

The meeting must be held at least once a year and is convened by a properly drafted invitation. This invitation must, of course, be duly sent to all members of the homeowners’ association, and the bylaws may specify the exact method of delivery. This can be done, for example, by email or text message (for those members who have provided this contact information; for others, it is sent by mail). However, it is best to also send a physical invitation, which is placed in mailboxes and posted in a visible location on the bulletin board in the building’s entrance hallway.

The bylaws may specify a precise deadline for sending out written notices. If they do not specify a deadline, the meeting must be convened 30 days before the date of the meeting (previously, this deadline was 15 days). A good chairperson pays special attention to the deadline. However, even if it is not met, court rulings indicate that this need not necessarily be grounds for canceling the entire meeting, provided that the complainant still participated in the meeting in accordance with the rules.

What a Formal Invitation Should Include

For an invitation to be considered a valid formal invitation, it must meet certain requirements; otherwise, the meeting could be deemed invalid. The correct name of the homeowners’ association ( SVJ ) or housing cooperative ( BD) must be stated. Furthermore, the invitation must include the name of the person convening the meeting, the time, the location, and the agenda.

If the invitation does not include supporting documents regarding the agenda, the convener is required to allow each unit owner to review them in a timely manner. Therefore, all supporting documents are attached to the email and are also available in hard copy from the chairman upon request. This avoids printing large amounts of paper while still complying with the letter of the law.

This information is explicitly stated on every invitation. The invitation should therefore always include at least information on where or with whom the relevant documents are available for review (e.g., the elevator renovation project). The discussion must then be based on the documents provided in advance.

In practice, we recommend that the convener specify, for each key agenda item, what is to be voted on and which documents will serve as the basis for the vote. It is therefore not sufficient to simply state a general term such as “building renovation” or “amendment to the bylaws.” It is better to write, for example, “vote on the approval of the elevator renovation according to the bid from Company XY dated…” or “vote on the adoption of the new version of the bylaws attached to the notice.”

Checklist for a Notice of a Homeowners’ Association or Condominium Association Meeting

The notice should include:

• the exact name of the homeowners’ association or housing cooperative,
• the name of the person or body convening the meeting,
• the date, time, and location of the meeting,
• a clearly stated agenda,
• proposed resolutions, if applicable,
• supporting documents for each agenda item,
• information on where the supporting documents can be viewed if they are not attached,
• the method of participation or representation, if provided for in the bylaws,
• the date the notice was issued.

Convening a members’ meeting of a homeowners’ association (SVJ) or housing cooperative (BD) is a key step in managing an apartment building or cooperative. It is essential to follow the formal procedure and requirements to avoid problems and subsequent disputes. Make sure the invitation is properly drafted, containing all necessary information and providing access to supporting documents for each agenda item. Do not underestimate the formal aspects, and always adhere to the rules and bylaws of your homeowners’ association or housing cooperative.

All the requirements for convening a meeting can be properly addressed in advance after consulting with an expert. Then the chairperson of the homeowners’ association or the chairperson of the housing cooperative need not worry that they will overlook something and that their association or cooperative will lose an unnecessary dispute.

Summary

Properly convening a meeting of a homeowners’ association or housing cooperative begins with reviewing the bylaws and preparing a formal invitation. The invitation must be sent in a timely manner to all eligible members and must include the name of the HOA or housing cooperative, the convener, the location, the time, the agenda, and supporting documents for each agenda item—or at least information on where they can be viewed. For homeowners’ associations, unless the bylaws specify otherwise, the meeting must be convened at least 30 days in advance. The greatest risks stem from informal invitations, an unclear agenda, missing supporting documents, and insufficient proof of delivery. If a vote is to be held on fundamental matters—such as the bylaws, renovations, a loan, or the election of the board—it is advisable to have a lawyer review both the invitation and the supporting documents in advance.