Changing your syndic in France: vote, majorities and handover

To change syndic in a French copropriété, the general meeting appoints the new one by the absolute majority of article 25: a majority of the votes of all co-owners, present or not, so 501 shares out of 1,000 (service-public.gouv.fr). The item must be on the agenda, and the notice goes out at least 21 days before the meeting.

That is why the most expensive mistake is not made in the meeting room. It happens about three weeks earlier, when the notice goes out without the question on it. An item that was never put on the agenda cannot be voted on, and the building stays with the same manager until the next annual meeting, a whole extra year with a contract nobody wants. Everything else is timing: competitive bids, the agenda, the vote itself, and a handover framed by strict legal deadlines.

How does the competitive bidding work?

The job belongs to the conseil syndical, the owners' council.

Article 21 of the 1965 law asks it to gather and compare several draft syndic contracts before any general meeting called to appoint a professional syndic. The three-year rhythm ended on 1 June 2020 under the ordinance of 30 October 2019: the exercise is now tied to the appointment itself, not to a calendar (ANIL). Two caveats. The previous general meeting can exempt the council from this duty, by a vote at the article 25 majority, and a building with no conseil syndical is not bound by it (service-public.gouv.fr). The real value of the exercise is practical: comparing offers puts you in a position to choose, and to negotiate.

Since syndic contracts rarely look alike, force them onto the same grid:

• What the base flat fee actually covers, and what sits outside it
• The price of extra billable services, from the pre-sale statement to debt-collection letters
• Fees on works, expressed as a percentage of the voted budget

A seasoned council member's reflex: read the list of services outside the flat fee before you read the flat fee itself. That is almost always where the real bill hides.

How do you get the question on the agenda?

A general meeting can only validly decide on items listed on the agenda.

Any co-owner, and the conseil syndical, can notify the syndic (by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt) of questions to be added, with one draft resolution per candidate and the draft contracts. The syndic can neither refuse nor judge whether the item is appropriate. But the notice of meeting must reach owners at least twenty-one days before the session (service-public.gouv.fr): a request that lands after the notice has gone out slides automatically to the next meeting.

In practice, you ask for the appointment of a new syndic to be put on the agenda and attach the candidates' draft contracts, so that everyone votes with the offers in hand. Hence the need to start two or three months ahead: enough time to collect bids, compare them and notify everything before the incumbent (rarely in a hurry to organise its own succession) sends out the notices.

What majority do you need to change syndic?

Both the appointment and the removal of a syndic fall under article 25: you need a majority of the votes of all co-owners, not just those in the room. In a building with 1,000 shares, 501 favourable votes are required even if half the owners stayed at home. Absentees therefore weigh, in effect, like votes against.

The law does provide a safety net. If the resolution gathers at least one third of the votes of all co-owners without reaching the absolute majority, article 25-1 requires an immediate second vote, this time at the simple majority of article 24, counted only among those voting. The battle is thus won before the meeting, by collecting proxies and postal votes; and insist that the minutes record the exact tally, because without the numbers you cannot prove the one-third threshold was reached.

Can you change syndic before the end of the mandate?

The safest route is to wait for the term. A syndic's mandate runs for three years at most and never renews tacitly: at every contract end the meeting must vote anyway, and nothing obliges it to reappoint the incumbent. It is also the moment to rethink the model: another professional firm, or a switch to a volunteer syndic or a cooperative one, which management tools such as Vecinly make realistic for smaller buildings.

Mid-mandate, early termination under article 18 of the 1965 law requires a sufficiently serious breach by the syndic: urgent or voted works never started, suppliers or staff left unpaid, compulsory insurance never taken out, no separate bank account opened (service-public.gouv.fr). Lost confidence or a one-off disagreement is not enough. The conseil syndical serves the syndic, by registered letter, with a reasoned request to put the question on the agenda, listing the breaches; the meeting votes at the article 25 majority, and termination takes effect on the date the meeting sets, at the earliest one clear day after the session.

Legal note: removing a syndic without a sufficiently serious ground exposes the co-ownership to compensation claims: the syndic can demand the fees running to the end of the contract. Document the failures in writing before launching the procedure.

What are the handover deadlines for documents and funds?

Article 18-2 of the 1965 law organises the handover in three stages, all counted from the end of the syndic's duties. Within fifteen days, the outgoing syndic must hand over the cash position, the references of the co-ownership's bank accounts and the bank's contact details. Within one month, it must deliver all the documents and archives, including digital documents, in a downloadable and printable format. It then has a further two months to provide the accounts of the individual co-owners and of the syndicate, settled and closed (service-public.gouv.fr).

The money itself no longer really travels: since the accounts are opened in the name of the syndicate, the funds remain the co-ownership's property and the new syndic simply takes over their management. What gets lost in a sloppy transition is the paper trail (archives, ongoing contracts, works history) so tick off the delivered items one by one. If the outgoing syndic drags its feet, the response is codified: a formal demand left unanswered, then an application to the president of the judicial court by the new syndic or the council's president. The judge can order delivery under a daily penalty and award an advance on damages.

If some of your fellow owners live abroad, collect their proxies early: an absent owner counts as a no under article 25. How each majority is counted is set out in our guide to general meeting majorities.

Start three months before the contract expires, since that is the window in which the appointing meeting must be held. For buildings with owners spread across several countries, our page on international communities shows how notices and minutes reach each owner in their own language.

Information current as of September 2026. This article is for information purposes and does not constitute legal advice.