How to update the condominium bylaws: the step by step almost nobody completes

Quick answer: updating the condominium bylaws does not end with drafting a new text or voting on it. The agreement must be adopted at an extraordinary assembly with the quorum that matches the matter, executed as a public deed and registered in the Register of Mortgages and Encumbrances of the Real Estate Registrar (Conservador de Bienes Raíces). Until that last step happens, the new bylaws are not enforceable against third parties and the community is still governed by the previous ones, however thoroughly approved they may be in the minutes. The deadline in article 100 of Law 21,442 ran from the publication of the law's implementing regulations, on January 9, 2025, and it has already expired.

The scene repeats itself in dozens of communities. The assembly met, the new bylaws were voted on, everyone signed the minutes and the committee breathed a sigh of relief. A year later somebody requests the certificate from the Conservador and finds out that the registered bylaws are still the ones from 1998.

The problem was not the co-owners' will. It was that the process was left half done, and in condominium matters it is the process that produces the legal effect.

What the bylaws must contain under Law 21,442

Article 8 of the law sets the minimum content, and it is worth reviewing it before drafting, because most old bylaws do not cover it in full. The text must establish:

• The rights and obligations of the co-owners.
• The identification of the sectors, units and subunits of the condominium.
• The apportionment percentage that corresponds to each unit.
• The rules for administering and maintaining the common property.
• The regulation of the use of common spaces.
• The powers and duties of the administration committee.
• The dates of the ordinary assemblies.
• The rules on temporary accommodation, a new point that old bylaws simply did not contemplate.
• The administrative regime of the condominium.

The law also sets a substantive limit: the bylaws cannot contravene the law, or disregard the condominium's own characteristics, or establish arbitrary discrimination of any kind. That last prohibition is the one that today rules out clauses that for years were taken as normal, such as those that restricted the access of certain groups to common spaces.

The real step by step

The process has six stages and none of them can be skipped.

If your community approved new bylaws and nobody remembers going to the Conservador, the process is incomplete. Requesting the certificate for the current registration costs little and answers the question in a day.

The quorums depend on what is going to be amended

This is the part communities get wrong most often, because a single quorum is assumed for everything and the law works in tiers. The first question is not how many neighbours will turn up at the assembly, but exactly what is going to be amended.

Calling the assembly with the wrong quorum means doing everything again, with the cost of the notice, of the certifying officer and of the time that involves. And worse: if nobody notices, the community ends up operating for years on an agreement that can be challenged.

The three mistakes that leave the agreement without effect

When an amendment to the bylaws falls through, it is rarely because of the content. It is because of one of these three things.

The deadline has already expired: what that means now

Article 100 of Law 21,442 granted a period of one year to bring the bylaws into line, counted from the publication of the law's implementing regulations. Those regulations are supreme decree number 7 of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning, published in the Diario Oficial on January 9, 2025. The deadline therefore fell due in January 2026.

The fact that the deadline has expired does not mean it is no longer worth updating. It means the opposite: the community that did not do it is operating with bylaws that on several points no longer match the law, and every agreement it adopts on that basis is more fragile than the last. The law's own implementing regulations instruct the administration committee to review the bylaws in force and to propose to the assembly the adjustments needed to comply with article 100, so the task remains exactly where it always was.

What happens if the community does not update

The consequences of remaining outside the rules, the complaints before the Local Police Court, the fines that end up being paid out of common funds and the challenges to agreements adopted with quorums that no longer apply are analysed in detail in the article on what your community is exposed to under Law 21,442.

The least visible and most costly effect is a different one: collection. A community that tries to charge common expenses, impose a fine or restrict a use relying on bylaws that are not registered is left without a basis when the co-owner in debt brings in a lawyer. And that dispute tends to arrive just when the community most needs the money. If the debtor is a tenant, it is worth knowing that the monitorio procedure (an order for payment procedure) of the Devuélveme mi casa law (Give Me Back My House) allows common expenses to be claimed together with the rent, and that in a judicial auction the common expenses debt follows the unit and is inherited by the new owner.

How to find out in a day what stage your community is at

Frequently asked questions

Are bylaws approved at an assembly any use if they were not registered?

As an internal agreement of the community they have limited value, but they do not produce the effect the law is aiming for. Article 8 requires the bylaws to be executed as a public deed and registered in the Register of Mortgages and Encumbrances, and it is that registration which makes them enforceable against all the co-owners, including those who buy a unit later on and never attended that assembly.

What quorum do I need to amend the bylaws?

It depends on the matter. The general rule is the extraordinary assembly with an absolute majority of the interests, while certain matters require a reinforced majority of 66 percent. And the amendment of the percentages of interest in the common property, which alters the apportionment, is the most demanding case of all. Before calling the assembly you have to define precisely what is going to change.

Do you vote by apartment or by percentage of interest?

By percentage of interest. Each unit is assigned a percentage in the bylaws, and that percentage is what counts both to constitute the assembly and to form the agreement. Counting one vote per unit is one of the mistakes that most often leaves agreements without effect, because it produces majorities that do not exist on paper.

Can the administrator draft and approve the new bylaws?

No. The administrator carries out and can coordinate the process, but approving the bylaws is a matter for the assembly of co-owners. A text drafted by the management office and applied without an assembly agreement or registration binds nobody, and charging or sanctioning on that basis opens the door to a challenge.

What happens with the old clauses that today would be discriminatory?

The law expressly prohibits the bylaws from establishing arbitrary discrimination, so those clauses cannot be kept even if they have been registered for decades. The update is precisely the moment to clear them out, and keeping them exposes the community to a complaint.

Does our condominium need bylaws if it is small?

The requirement does not depend on the size or the number of units, but on being subject to the condominium ownership regime. A condominium with few units faces the same obligations and the same consequences for not bringing itself into line, with the added disadvantage that it usually has no professional management to flag them.

The deadline has already expired. Are we going to be fined for that?

The concrete risk is not an automatic fine for the mere expiry, but the fragility of everything the community does relying on outdated bylaws: charges, internal fines, restrictions on use and assembly agreements. The exposure appears when somebody complains, and by then the community has already acted.

Does a certifying officer always have to be called in?

Not always, but the law requires it for certain agreements. Since it is a small cost compared with repeating a whole assembly, when there is any doubt it is worth calling one anyway, above all if what is going to be amended touches common property or apportionments.

I bought an apartment after the assembly. Am I bound by those bylaws?

You are bound by the registered bylaws, and that is why registration matters so much. If the amendment was approved but never registered, the old text is what governs you, even if all the neighbours believe otherwise. It is one of the points worth reviewing in a title study before buying in a condominium.

How we work

When the committee has already tried to update the bylaws and the process was left half done, we start by checking which bylaws are actually registered at the Conservador, not the ones circulating through the management office. When the community is just about to start, we first help define precisely which matters are going to be amended, because the quorum and the form of the notice depend on that definition.

We handle the drafting of the amendment deed and its registration in the Register of Mortgages and Encumbrances in full from our civil law area, which is where most communities get stuck halfway: they approve it at the assembly and never register it.

We have our own team of lawyers, surveyors and architects, which makes it possible to resolve in the same review both the legal side of the bylaws and any question about boundaries, sectors or units that depends on a plan. If the condominium has units with ownership problems or buildings without final approval, that is checked beforehand with a title study, because an amendment to the bylaws does not fix a defective title.

Send us the minutes of the last assembly or the bylaws currently registered at the Conservador, and we will tell you what stage your community is at, what quorum applies to what you want to amend and what is still missing for the agreement to be enforceable against all the co-owners.