Selling a Condo: Prepare the Syndicate File Before You List

This one is for the listing broker. Buyers' brokers now ask for the syndicate's attestation, the minutes, the financial statements and the contingency fund study, and the condition in their offer gives them a set number of days to read them. A file assembled after the promise is accepted is how deals slip, get renegotiated, or fall through. Assembled before the listing goes live, it does the opposite.

What the seller must provide

The attestation. Since August 14, 2025, the seller must give the promising buyer an attestation from the syndicate on the state of the co-ownership (art. 1068.1). The syndicate has 15 days to produce it once the seller asks. The OACIQ advises the seller's broker to request it as soon as the brokerage contract is signed, so it is ready for any buyer, and to check that it contains everything the regulation requires (OACIQ). Our article on the attestation covers what it contains.

The seller's declarations. The OACIQ's form for divided co-ownership is mandatory, and it asks the seller about the contingency fund, the asset management plan, special assessments voted or planned, and major work on the common portions (form).

What the buyer's condition will list. The promise to purchase for divided co-ownership already names the syndicate's main documents in its review condition: the declaration and its amendments, the minutes, the insurance, the description of the private portion, the self-insurance fund and the financial statements. A well-advised buyer's broker will add the attestation, the budget, the fund study and the maintenance log. Our article on the document review condition shows what they are told to ask for.

The file to assemble at listing

From the syndicate, usually through its manager:

• The declaration of co-ownership, with all its amendments.
• The minutes of the co-owners' meetings and of the board, for at least the last three years.
• The financial statements for the last two or three years, and the current budget.
• The contingency fund study and the maintenance log, if the syndicate has them.
• The insurance certificate or policy, with the deductibles.
• The description of the private portions, or of the reference unit.
• The attestation.

The OACIQ's request for information to the syndicate of co-owners (RIS) is still useful for questions the attestation doesn't answer, though it doesn't replace it.

From the land registry: the published amendments to the declaration, to check that nothing is missing from the syndicate's copy.

From the seller: the certificate of location, the last municipal and school tax bills, and a list of work done in the unit, with permits.

Read it before the buyer does

The buyer's broker will read the file for a fund that is behind its study, a special assessment being prepared, repeated water damage claims, a lawsuit, or a by-law restriction their client won't accept. Read it for the same things, first. Everything you find now is something you can explain at your own pace instead of in response to a notice from the buyer's broker on day six.

Then check the seller's declarations against the documents. If the seller answers that no special assessment is planned and the minutes show a consultation on financing the roof, the buyer's broker will find it. A gap between the two is the strongest negotiating point a buyer can have, and a liability risk for the seller and for you.

Disclose what you find

A known issue disclosed at listing is part of the price. The same issue discovered during the condition becomes a renegotiation, under a deadline, with the buyer holding the right to walk away.

The decisions are consistent on this. Brokers who knew of a coming special assessment and didn't put it in writing have been held liable or disciplined, and brokers who obtained the documents, read them and wrote down what they found have been exonerated. Our article on the broker's duty of diligence goes through the cases.

In practice:

• Put the facts in the listing and the seller's declarations: the special assessment voted, the work planned, the consultation announced.
• Where a cost is coming, put a number on it with the method in our article on special assessments, and talk with the seller about pricing it in.
• If a special assessment has been voted, settle with the seller who will pay it before an offer arrives, so it can be written into the promise.

Timing

Work back from the listing date:

• Brokerage contract signed: request the attestation and the documents from the syndicate the same day.
• Within 15 days: the syndicate's deadline for the attestation. Follow up on the other documents in the meantime.
• Before the listing goes live: read the file, check the seller's declarations against it, and decide with the seller what to disclose and how to price it.
• At the first offer: the file is ready to send, so the buyer's review condition can run on a short, realistic deadline.

Checklist

• Request the attestation and the syndicate's documents when the brokerage contract is signed.
• Check the attestation contains everything the regulation requires.
• Pull the published amendments from the land registry.
• Collect the certificate of location, tax bills and work history from the seller.
• Read the file for the same signals the buyer's broker will look for.
• Check the seller's declarations against the documents.
• Disclose what you find, in writing, and price in what you can.
• Have the file ready to send when the first offer arrives.

Sources

• Civil Code of Québec, art. 1068.1
• OACIQ, New rules regarding divided co-ownership (2025)
• OACIQ, Seller's declarations, divided co-ownership