Definition : Juridical personality

The syndicate of co-owners, as a legal person, has  juridical personality, which allows it to contract with third parties, hire employees, hold and dispose of property or exercise legal remedies to protect its assets and ensure the defense of the collective interests of the co-owners.He plays a crucial role in a co-ownership, as it is its legal representative. A legal person constituted of all the co-owners (the collectivity of the co-owner) and governed by the Civil Code of Quebec.  As such, it has rights, obligations but also responsibilities.  He has for object the preservation of the immovable, the maintenance and the administration of the common portions and the protection of the collective interests of the co-owners. An overview of its role and its various powers.

The syndicate of co-owners, as a legal person, has a juridical personality. It acts through two decision-making bodies, the meeting of the co-owners  and the board of directors. The directors are natural persons who make up the board of directors of the syndicate of co-owners, of which they are also the mandataries. In principle, it is the board of directors as a group that makes the decisions and not the directors individually. The latter are appointed or elected to contribute to the accomplishment of the mission of the syndicate and the good management of its property. They must make use of their know-how, skills and experience to accomplish this mission, making sure they respect the Law and the declaration of co-ownership. Their contribution must be performed with honesty, loyalty, care, diligence, efficiency, assiduity and fairness. A review of the different aspects of the director’s role:  

The Civil Code of Québec confers juridical personality on the community of co-owners. Article 1039 of the Civil Code of Quebec provides that as soon as the declaration of co-ownership is published, the community of co-owners constitutes a legal person called a syndicate of co-owners. Those duties and obligations are mainly aimed to ensure the preservation of the immovable, the administration of the common portions and the protection of the rights affecting the immovable or co-ownership, as well as all operations in the common interest. However, it is essential to understand them well because failure to comply with these duties and obligations towards a co-owner or a third party could lead to the civil liability of a syndicate.

The syndicate acts as a legal person bringing together all the co-owners of the building and not each of them individually. The Civil Code of Quebec (C.c.Q.) provides that the syndicate of co-owners arises, by operation of law, at the time of publication of the declaration of co-ownership in the Land register. With the powers devolved to it by law and exercised by its two decision-making bodies, it thus expresses the autonomy of the community of co-owners. As a result, the co-owners are third parties to the syndicate. The assets of the syndicate are thus distinct from those of each co-owner. Despite the collective nature of this type of co-ownership, the legislator has not attributed to the syndicate the ownership of the common portions, which is distributed among the co-owners according to the relative value of their fraction.