Meetings are the best means of communicating with owners as everyone gets a chance to ask questions and share their point of view. You don’t necessarily need a meeting to take a vote.
If having a meeting, you must give people at least 48 hours notice. Ideally, you should give people a week’s or more notice and try to avoid significant events (major football matches etc.). If you have owners’ email addresses or phone numbers, then you may be able to use a free online meeting scheduler service to find the most suitable date. Search online.
You should agree at the meeting who will notify all the owners who were not there and notify those owners as soon as possible after the meeting.
Allow 21 days from the date on which notification is effectively given for owners to appeal any decisions made at the meeting before implementing decisions. Proceeding before the 21 day period has expired could result in some costs not being recoverable from your co-owners.
What if you can’t get owners to a meeting?
- if there are many absentee owners, consider using a service, such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom, to include people in meetings
- some title deeds refer to decisions being taken by ‘owners at a meeting’Â – owners who are not present do not have a vote but they may be able to nominate a proxy (someone to vote on their behalf)
- remember, a meeting should still be a quorate (i.e. have the minimum number of owners required under the title deeds)
- if you are unable to arrange a meeting of owners, you may take a vote by calling around doors, writing, or emailing to ask people to vote – you should notify all owners of the outcome of the vote as soon as possible
Further action
Download our poster to put near your building’s front door
Legal reference
Notifying owners
Meeting notification
Decisions made without a meeting
