Quorum, votes and proxies: how Czech flat owners actually decide

Picture a staircase notice board in a Czech apartment block, with an invitation to the annual owners' meeting pinned to it for two weeks. Forty flats, a few dozen owners, a room in the ground floor or a hired hall nearby. Perhaps a third of the owners turn up. The agenda includes a new roof. Whether the roof gets built depends on arithmetic as much as on enthusiasm, and the arithmetic is not obvious to newcomers.

This piece explains the rules for decision-making in a společenství vlastníků jednotek (SVJ, the owners' association described in our SVJ explainer). The Civil Code sets the framework. Each association's statutes add detail, so the documents of your own building always come first.

Votes follow shares

The first thing to grasp is that the meeting is not one person, one vote. Unless the declaration of the owner or the statutes provide otherwise, each owner's votes correspond to their share of the common parts, and that share generally tracks the floor area of the unit. A three-bedroom flat outweighs a studio. An owner with two units has the votes of both. In newly completed buildings, a developer who has not yet sold all flats can hold a large share of votes simply by owning them.

Co-owners of one unit, including spouses holding it in joint property, vote together. In practice they send one representative or agree how the unit's votes are cast. If you cannot attend, you can authorise someone else to vote for you by a written plná moc (power of attorney). Some statutes limit how many owners one person can represent, to stop a single person from holding too much of the room.

The quorum

A meeting can only decide if enough owners are present. The Civil Code sets the quorum as a share of all votes (check the Civil Code on e-Sbírka, and your statutes, for the exact level). It is a share of the votes, not a head count, and an owner who arrives late or leaves early changes the count.

Quorum is the commonest cause of failure. When too few owners come, the meeting cannot adopt resolutions, and the building simply waits. Associations deal with this in three ways, all subject to what their statutes allow: a substitute meeting called a short time later, voting in writing outside a meeting, or collecting signatures from absent owners afterwards. Check which of these your statutes recognise, because the validity of the decision depends on following the right route.

The majorities

Once there is a quorum, the usual rule is that a resolution passes when it is supported by a majority of the votes of the owners present. That covers most routine business: approving the accounts, electing the committee, setting advances and agreeing ordinary repairs.

The Civil Code requires more for weighty matters. Changes to the declaration, structural alterations of the building, changes to the shares in the common parts and similar steps need a qualified majority, and in some cases the consent of every owner affected. The exact thresholds sit in the Civil Code provisions on the association and on the declaration, and the statutes may adjust some of them only as far as the law allows. No single figure fits every building, so read the current text on e-Sbírka and the wording in your statutes.

Voting outside the meeting

Many SVJs allow decisions in writing, often called per rollam. The committee circulates the text of the proposed resolution, owners return their votes by a deadline and the result is counted as if it had been voted at a meeting. The Civil Code permits this if the statutes provide for it. The statutes then set the details: how the proposal is delivered, the deadline for answering and how silence is treated.

It is a practical tool, but not a casual one. A badly run written vote is the easiest way to produce a resolution that a court later declares invalid. Owners should keep copies of what they receive and what they returned.

The agenda and the minutes

The invitation has to name the matters to be decided, and a meeting cannot reliably decide issues that owners were never told about. Owners can usually ask the committee to add items, and the statutes may set a minimum share of votes for the request. The minutes are the record of what actually happened. Owners are entitled to see them, and anyone buying a flat should ask for the minutes of the last few meetings.

Minutes also protect the committee. A committee member who executes a lawful resolution is acting for the association. One who acts without a resolution on a matter the assembly was meant to decide takes a personal risk.

Challenging a resolution

An owner who did not agree to a decision and believes it conflicts with the law or the statutes can ask a court to declare it invalid. The Civil Code gives a short period from the day the owner learned of the resolution, and an outer limit from the date of the vote (as of 2026; check the Civil Code for the exact periods). Missing the period usually ends the argument, even when the objection was sound.

Court is the last resort. A more practical sequence is to raise the objection in writing at once, ask the committee for the legal basis and propose a corrected vote at the next meeting. Many neighbourly quarrels end there, and the minutes then show that the problem was fixed.

Mistakes that sink resolutions

Most failed resolutions in apartment blocks fail on procedure, not on substance. An invitation that reaches only some owners is the classic problem. So is an agenda that does not mention the item voted on, or a vote counted by heads when the statutes say shares. Another is the committee that treats a majority of the people in the room as a majority of the building. If the room holds too small a share of the votes, no quorum exists, however unanimous the room is.

Co-owned units cause quieter errors. Where a unit is held by a couple or by an inheritance community, the votes of that unit belong together, and a signature from only one co-owner can leave the result open to challenge. Committees that keep a simple attendance list with each owner's share written beside the name avoid most of this.

The remedy is dull and effective: a template invitation, a standing agenda, a printed list of shares and minutes signed on the day. Associations that do these four things rarely meet a judge.

What this means for a buyer

When you buy, you inherit not only the flat but its place in these votes. Before you sign, work out your share of the common parts from the declaration, find out who holds the largest blocks and read how the statutes treat written voting and proxies. In a new building where the developer still holds many units, ask how votes will shift as flats are sold. New developments in Prague can be browsed through the listings of new flats in Prague (in Czech), a quick way to see which buildings are still in their first sales phase.

Frequently asked questions

What happens if there is no quorum?

The meeting cannot adopt resolutions. Depending on the statutes, the committee can call a substitute meeting, organise a written vote or collect decisions another way. The statutes of each SVJ govern which route is valid.

Can I vote by email or online?

Only if the statutes of your SVJ allow written or electronic voting and the procedure is followed. Without such a provision, a vote cast by an informal message may not count.

Do I have to attend the meeting?

No, but resolutions bind all owners, including those who were absent or voted against. You can send a proxy, and you can read the minutes afterwards.

Can the committee decide without the assembly?

For matters reserved to the assembly by law or by the statutes, no. For the day-to-day running of the building, yes, within the powers granted to it.

Before the next invitation arrives, find your statutes and look at three things: the quorum rule, whether written voting is allowed and how many proxies one person may hold.

This is a general explainer, not legal or tax advice.