Monaco has strengthened the legal framework governing the management of jointly owned buildings, with new legislation requiring every co-owners’ association to hold its funds in a dedicated account — fully ring-fenced from the finances of the syndic managing the property.

The amendments to the 2007 co-ownership law, presented to the National Council by Finance Minister Frédéric Cottalorda on Tuesday 12th May, address a straightforward but important risk: that funds paid by co-owners into a building’s communal pot could be exposed in the event of a syndic’s insolvency or legal difficulties. Under the new rules, those funds are explicitly the property of the co-owners’ association and cannot be seized by a syndic’s personal creditors or drawn into any enforcement or insolvency proceedings against them.

The legislation also requires that the bank holding these accounts must have its registered office or a branch in the Principality — a provision welcomed by both the Monaco Real Estate Chamber and the Monegasque Association of Financial Activities, who had pushed for the shift from a “separate account” model to the more precisely defined “individualised account” framework now adopted.

The law comes into force on 1st July 2027. Syndics with mandates already in progress will have three months from that date to bring their arrangements into compliance.

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Photo credit: Cassandra Tanti