Checking the co-ownership before buying: the documents that move the price

In France, more than half the homes sold are co-ownership lots. The advertised price is for the flat, but what you buy includes a share of a building whose decisions you will not have taken. This page says which documents to read and what they reveal, alongside our reference page on a guided property search.

The documents the seller must hand over, and when

Article L721-2 of the Construction and Housing Code leaves no choice: from the promise or preliminary contract onwards, the seller hands over a set of documents, and their absence pushes back the starting point of the ten-day withdrawal period. In other words, while the file is incomplete, your period has not started to run.

That file comprises the co-ownership rules and descriptive statement of division, with their published amendments; the minutes of the last three years’ general meetings; the building’s maintenance record; the amount of current charges in the provisional budget and of off-budget charges for the two preceding years paid by the seller; sums that may remain owed to the association; and the overall position of charge arrears and of the association’s debt to its suppliers.

The overall technical survey is added where one has been carried out, compulsory for buildings placed in co-ownership more than ten years ago. And since 2023 the multi-year works plan has been imposed progressively on co-ownerships more than fifteen years old, in size brackets: it is the document that projects the necessary works over ten years and their funding.

The three pages that decide the real cost

The general meeting minutes are the most profitable reading in the whole file, and the one foreign buyers most often skip because it is long and technical. Three things are looked for there.

Works voted but not yet called in, first: facade works, a roof overhaul, a lift upgrade are voted one to three years before the call for funds. The default rule is that payment falls on the co-owner at the date of the call, so on you where the call lands after signature; a clause in the preliminary contract may decide otherwise between the parties, and this is the moment to ask for it.

Works discussed but deferred, next: a co-ownership that postpones the same agenda item three years running is announcing an expense, not a saving.

Disputes, finally: proceedings against a contractor, a significant arrear, litigation with a co-owner. They appear in the resolutions and in the overall arrears position, and they weigh on the association’s cash, hence on your future calls.

The works fund, which plays in your favour

Since the ALUR Act, every co-ownership must build up a works fund fed by an annual contribution of at least five per cent of the provisional budget, raised to at least two and a half per cent of the multi-year plan amount where such a plan has been adopted.

One point matters for a buyer, and it is rarely explained: sums paid into that fund attach to the lot and remain vested in the association. They are not reimbursed to the seller, and it is you who benefits. A co-ownership whose fund is well stocked has therefore already paid for part of its future works, which reduces the risk of an exceptional call accordingly. The amount appears in the documents handed over: it deserves to be read as an asset, just like the floor area.

What distance adds

Three habits serve an absent buyer. Have the communal areas photographed during the viewing, and not only the flat: the stairwell, the roof seen from the courtyard, the cellars, the bin store say more about maintenance than any minutes. Ask the managing agent, in writing and through the notary, to confirm the works to come and the state of the accounts. And put a list of written questions to the seller, annexed to the preliminary contract where possible.

These checks feed the negotiation directly, as our page on the arguments that land on price explains, and they are carried out during the ten-day withdrawal period, the only moment in the path where you can still walk away at no cost. The professional who runs them for you is the one who holds their mandate from you, a distinction set out in buying agent or estate agent.

You have a co-ownership lot in view and want its file read before committing: the personal study offered by French Realty goes through the minutes and the accounts with you, through your dedicated contact.