The deadline to prepare the adaptation of the bylaws and submit it to the general meeting of co-owners for approval is extended further.
The new co-ownership law of 2 June 2010 (see Newsflash: “New Belgian property co-ownership law explained”) mandated the co-property manager (‘syndic’) to have the adaptation of the basis deed, the rules of co-ownership and the internal rules submitted to the general meeting of co-owners before 1 September 2011. A first amendment of this law dated 13 August 2011 extended the deadline by two years. Consequently, associations of co-owners would have until 31 August 2013 to prepare the adaptation of the bylaws and submit it to the general meeting of co-owners for approval (see Newsflash: “New co-ownership law: deadline extension for bylaws adaptation”).
The law of 17 August 2013 (BS/MB 22 August 2013) amending the new co-ownership law of 2 June 2010 recently extended the deadline even further. This means that the basis deed, the rules of co-ownership and the internal rules will have to be in compliance with the new legislation by 1 September 2014 at the latest and no longer by 1 September 2013.
The main reason for the deadline’s extension is the fact that the majority of associations of co-owners were not able to modify their bylaws yet. This was mainly caused by the ambiguity surrounding the interpretation of article 19 §2 of the 2 June 2010 law. Article 19 §2 stipulates that no authentic deed is required for such modification of the rules of co-ownership, as long as the general assembly does not modify the basis deed itself. Hence, an authentic deed will still be required for modifications which have no connection with the law but still imply modifications of the basis deed. In fact, article 577-4 §1 of the Civil Code states that an authentic deed is required for each modification of the basis deed.
More specifically, this means that the existing basis deed, the rules of co-ownership and the internal rules must be in compliance with the new articles 577-3 to 577-14 of the Civil Code by 1 September 2014 at the latest and must also be submitted for approval to the general assembly of co-owners by then.
