WEG reform from 01 December 2020

WEG

We had already pointed out in the past that the Condominium Act (WEG) is to be revised and changed. The reform law was promulgated in the Federal Law Gazette on 16 October 2020 and will come into force on 01 December 2020.

With this contribution we begin a series of explanations and presentations on the most important changes in the law. We will begin with the planned simplification of owners' meetings and resolutions. In the coming weeks, we will also take a closer look at new regulations on renovation and modernisation, on the manager and his qualifications and powers, as well as other regulations that may be relevant in practice.

Property owners' meetings

With the WEG reform, owners' meetings can also be held online, but not exclusively digitally. The WEG members can decide that they can participate in a face-to-face meeting online and then vote this way (section 23 (1) WEG-Neu). For example, in the future a few owners could meet locally with the property management in a meeting room, while the other owners could dial in via a corresponding programme. It would even be possible for only the administrator to be physically present, but for all condominium owners to connect. It is only important that every WEG member is given the opportunity to participate in such a meeting.

Particularly in the past, owners of holiday properties or flats that were not occupied at the owner's location were repeatedly confronted with sometimes bizarre owners' meetings with only the manager and one or two WEG members. Either powers of attorney then had to be issued - which sometimes led to bureaucratic inconvenience - or the first meeting was opened but did not have a quorum. Half an hour later, the second meeting was then opened, which had a quorum. All this is no longer necessary.

In practice, however, there is a problem (cf. Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, FAS, 01.11.2020, No. 44, page 53, author: Birgit Ochs). The common video formats such as Zoom, Skype, Webex are obviously not sufficient at the moment. It is questionable how comprehensible voting can be carried out with a large number of participants. It's easy to lose track of the voting and make it open to legal challenge, if only for formal reasons. Special software could be used for this purpose. Alternatively, a professional moderator must be hired, who, like the software, also costs money. Once this has been set up, however, the COA can save a lot of effort and money in subsequent years. Members no longer have to travel. There is also no longer any need for bureaucratic proxy appointments. The only thing that needs to be ensured is that the votes are comprehensible and that they are cast in such a way that not every online event immediately leads to legal proceedings to challenge the resolution passed.

As a result, it should not be forgotten that the members of a WEG must first agree in a meeting that online participation in meetings and resolutions will be possible in the future. In some cases it is even proposed to include this possibility of online participation in the declaration of division. However, this should only apply to WEGs to be established in the future.

As a result, the new law on the WEG provides a number of new things with regard to digital possibilities. But the law is also modernised in other areas. We will go into this in further blog posts.

Author: Dr. Dieter Jasper

Düsseldorf the 03 November 2020