Authored by: Rimkus Built Environment Solutions Marketing Team
Quebec’s Loi 16 framework applies to syndicates of divided co-ownership, including commercial and mixed-use projects organized as a copropriété divise. It requires three linked records: a carnet d’entretien (maintenance logbook), an étude du fonds de prévoyance (reserve fund study), and an attestation du syndicat sur l’état de la copropriété (ASEC), required at sale.
The ASEC requirement has applied since August 14, 2025, under article 1068.1 of the Civil Code of Québec. When a selling co-owner requests it, the syndicate has 15 days to provide the attestation.
Property managers now have two different clocks to track: an ASEC that can be requested when a co-owner is selling a fraction, and a carnet and étude with a 2028 deadline. Getting each document right, and understanding how they connect, determines whether a syndicate can respond to either deadline without scrambling.
Key takeaways: Loi 16 deadlines and documents for Quebec syndicates
The carnet informs work planning, the étude models funding on that plan, and the ASEC reports prescribed information at the time of a sale.
Confirm scope and immediate obligations
- Property managers should confirm the property is organized as a divided co-ownership with a syndicat; legal structure, not use, determines whether Loi 16 applies.
- Property managers should establish an ASEC workflow that can respond to a co-owner’s sale request within 15 days.
- Property managers should inventory existing maintenance records, warranties, and reserve fund information.
Build toward the 2028 documents
- Property managers should retain a qualified independent professional to prepare or validate the carnet d’entretien.
- Property managers can use the carnet’s work-planning information to commission the étude du fonds de prévoyance.
- Property managers should set reminders for annual carnet updates, five-year professional revisions, and étude renewals.
Rimkus supports Quebec syndicates, including commercial and mixed-use co-ownerships, with the component records behind the carnet and étude; Contact Us to discuss a Quebec property.
What is Loi 16?
Loi 16, formally the 2019 statute, amended the Civil Code of Québec. It governs how syndicates of divided co-ownership document building conditions to fund long-term repairs.
Its implementing regulation, in force since August 14, 2025, sets out the required content, cycles, and preparer qualifications. Three documents carry these obligations: the carnet d’entretien, the étude du fonds de prévoyance, and the ASEC.
The obligations turn on legal structure rather than use. Any building organized as a copropriété divise falls under this framework, whether its units are residential, commercial, or mixed. A property held under a different structure, such as a single-owner commercial building leased to tenants, falls outside it.
Why this applies to commercial and mixed-use properties
The property’s legal structure, not its use, determines whether Loi 16 applies. Loi 16 does not create a separate regime for commercial buildings. A commercial or mixed-use project organized as a copropriété divise is subject to the same carnet, étude, and ASEC requirements as a residential one.
For property managers overseeing commercial or mixed-use co-ownerships, the compliance work is not optional simply because tenants, rather than resident owners, occupy the units. A mixed-use building with ground-floor commercial units and residential floors above needs one set of documents covering the whole property, not separate tracks by use.
Where the declaration reserves certain common areas, such as a loading dock, for a subset of co-owners, the étude should state contributions for those restricted portions separately, following the applicable declaration and statutory allocation rules.
Incomplete records can prompt additional questions during a sale’s due diligence, financing, or notarial review, whether the transaction involves a residential unit or a commercial one. A one-time property condition report, the kind commonly used in a real estate transaction, does not by itself satisfy the carnet requirement. The carnet carries prescribed content, update obligations, and preparer requirements the regulation defines separately.
How the documents work together
These three records connect directly: what the carnet plans, the étude prices, and the ASEC reports at the moment of a sale. The Civil Code requires the syndicate’s register to hold both the carnet and the étude. The étude’s cost estimates and funding recommendations draw directly on the work schedule the carnet establishes.
These records run on different cycles. The board updates the carnet each year, and a qualified professional revises it every five years, or every ten years for certain smaller buildings.
The étude follows its own renewal cycle, detailed in the section below. The ASEC, by contrast, is transaction-specific: the syndicate is required to deliver it within 15 days of a co-owner’s request, regardless of whether the carnet or étude are yet finalized under the transition rules.
The carnet d’entretien records maintenance history and a work plan
The carnet d’entretien records maintenance information and a long-term plan for the building’s common portions. It also covers any private-portion components the syndicate is responsible to maintain, drawing on condition data from an independent professional’s building condition assessment.
The regulation lists what the logbook is required to hold for each component.
- Installation date, where known.
- Maintenance and routine repairs performed, with frequency and completion dates.
- Service contracts, active warranties, and manufacturer manuals.
Together, these entries give a professional the maintenance history needed to estimate a component’s remaining useful life. A dedicated planning section then estimates that remaining life and schedules major repairs and replacements over at least 25 years, with an estimated year for each. It also records completed work with dates and costs.
The board updates the carnet yearly and notes any planned work that did not happen, along with the reason. A qualified professional revises the full document at least every five years. That interval may extend to ten years when the property meets at least one of the following conditions:
- Eight or fewer private portions, excluding accessory spaces.
- No common portion located inside a building.
- Three stories or fewer entirely above ground.
Four professions may prepare or revise the carnet: engineers, chartered appraisers, architects, and professional technologists, each belonging to their Quebec professional order. Their work centers principally on management, construction, renovation, evaluation, or property inspection.
The regulation also excludes board members, co-owners, occupants, the building manager, and anyone tied to the management firm from preparing the document. This keeps the assessment independent of the parties it evaluates.
The étude sets reserve funding requirements
The étude du fonds de prévoyance sets how much the reserve fund needs for the major repairs and replacements the carnet identifies. It uses the carnet’s work-planning information to model reserve-fund contributions. Reserve fund planning under Loi 16 depends on having a compliant carnet already in place, since the étude’s scope is built from it.
Working from the current fund balance, the étude prices each major repair at its scheduled year and sets the recommended annual contributions. The projection runs at least 25 years forward, and the syndicate is required to obtain a new étude at least every five years, with no exception for smaller buildings.
Chartered professional accountants may also prepare the étude alongside the four professions eligible to prepare the carnet. Accountants are subject to the regulation’s independence requirement, though the practice-area restriction applying to the other professions does not extend to them.
The ASEC applies to sales now
Once the ASEC obligations apply following the loss of developer control and appointment of a new board, a seller of a fraction must provide the ASEC to the prospective buyer, and the syndicate has 15 days to deliver it to a co-owner who requests it. The attestation reports the following.
- Reserve fund total against the étude’s recommended opening balance.
- Three years of common-charge contributions and financial results.
- Current-year budget and operating liquidity.
- Insurance confirmation, self-insurance fund, and highest deductible.
- Five-year summaries of inspections, losses, and major work completed.
- Ongoing litigation, declaration amendments, and work planned for the next ten years.
The recommended fund balance in the ASEC comes from the étude, and the ten-year planned-works description draws on the carnet’s schedule. The syndicate is still required to provide the attestation even where no compliant étude yet exists, generally drawing on whatever documentation is available at the time. The ASEC obligation and the longer carnet and étude transition period run on separate clocks.
A syndicate unprepared to respond within the 15-day window may need to explain the delay to a seller mid-transaction.
Compliance deadlines are phased into 2028
Under the transitional provisions of Loi 16 (article 151 of the enabling statute), existing syndicates already under co-owner control before mid-July 2025 generally have a three-year-and-one-day window from the regulation’s effective date. That window lands on August 15, 2028, according to the Government of Quebec.
Syndicates that transitioned from developer to co-owner control around the regulation’s effective date may work on a shorter clock instead, tied to their own transition assembly rather than the general deadline. Property managers should confirm the applicable date and their syndicate’s transition status with Quebec legal counsel, since the rules vary by transition timing.
The regulation does not appear to prescribe a specific administrative fine for missing the carnet and étude deadline in the provisions reviewed. A missing or incomplete record may still create transaction, disclosure, financing, or governance questions. Syndicates should seek legal advice on potential remedies and director obligations rather than assume the absence of a stated fine means no consequence applies.
A compliant carnet or étude prepared within the two years before August 14, 2025, may remain valid for five years from its date, subject to meeting the regulation’s conditions. The syndicate has 60 days to give co-owners the completed document, or must do so before the next annual assembly, whichever comes first.
Preparing for compliance
Working toward the 2028 deadlines involves a specific sequence, since several of these steps depend on the ones completed before them.
- Property managers should confirm the syndicate’s transition-control date and status, since it determines which deadline applies.
- Property managers should commission the carnet d’entretien first, from a qualified independent professional, since the étude depends on it.
- Property managers should commission the étude once the carnet is in place, drawing on its work-planning schedule.
- For mixed-use or commercial buildings, property managers should confirm the étude states any restricted common-area contributions separately.
- Property managers should build a compliance calendar tracking annual carnet updates, five-year professional revisions, étude renewals, and co-owner document delivery windows.
Rimkus provides building consulting services that support the component inventories and condition data feeding into carnet, étude, and ASEC documentation for both residential and commercial syndicates. To discuss component inventories and reserve projections for a Quebec property, Contact Us.
Frequently asked questions
Does Loi 16 apply to commercial and mixed-use properties?
Loi 16 applies based on legal structure rather than property use. Any building organized as a divided co-ownership, residential, commercial, or mixed, falls under the same carnet, étude, and ASEC requirements; a commercial building held under a different ownership structure, such as a single-owner property, is not covered.
What happens if a syndicate cannot provide the ASEC within 15 days of a request?
The regulation does not appear to prescribe a specific fine for missing the 15-day deadline, but a delay can complicate a pending sale and raise governance questions for the board. In practice, a manager who receives a request typically alerts the board and seller promptly and prioritizes delivery of the attestation based on available information.
What should property managers change in their workflows to comply with Loi 16?
Assigning the board responsibility for annual carnet entries and contribution decisions, assigning qualified independent professionals the carnet and étude work, and assigning the syndicate the 15-day ASEC response are common workflow changes. A shared calendar tracking yearly updates, five-year studies, and sale requests helps keep these separate timelines from colliding.
This article is intended to provide general information and insights into prevailing industry practices. It is not intended to constitute, and should not be relied upon as, legal, technical, or professional advice. The content does not replace consultation with a qualified expert or professional regarding the specific facts and circumstances of any particular matter.