Apartment Owners Association AGM: Agenda, Notice and Accounts Guide

The annual general meeting is where most apartment buildings either rebuild trust or lose it. Owners arrive with a year of small grievances, the accounts are handed out on the day, and the meeting turns into an argument about one generator bill. A well-prepared apartment owners association AGM can settle the year's decisions in under two hours and leave people feeling heard.

What the AGM is for

An AGM gives every owner the chance to:

• Review the past year's accounts and activities
• Approve the budget and service charge for the coming year
• Elect or re-elect the committee, if terms have ended
• Decide on major works or changes to the rules

How often you must hold it, the notice period and the quorum are usually set in your constitution or by-laws. Read those clauses first; if they are unclear or missing, take advice and fix them at this meeting.

Six weeks before: preparation

1. Fix the date, time and venue. Weekend afternoons usually suit working owners.
2. Close the year's accounts and get them reviewed by the auditor or audit committee.
3. Draft next year's budget and proposed service charge.
4. Collect any proposals owners want discussed, with a cut-off date.
5. Update the list of owners and their contact numbers.

Sending the AGM notice

Send the notice to every owner, including those living abroad or in other cities, through the channels your constitution allows — notice board, letter, SMS or messaging app. Attach or link the accounts and budget so people can read them in advance.

Sample notice:

Dear owners, the Annual General Meeting of the Owners' Association will be held on Saturday at 4:00 pm in the ground-floor community room. Agenda: (1) confirmation of last AGM minutes, (2) annual report, (3) audited accounts, (4) budget and service charge for the coming year, (5) committee election, (6) any other business with the chair's permission. The accounts and budget are attached. Owners unable to attend may send an authorised representative as per our constitution. — Secretary

A practical apartment owners association AGM agenda

Keep to the times. Long debates on a single item can be sent to a small sub-committee with a deadline.

Presenting the accounts so people trust them

The accounts section is where most tension sits. A few habits help:

• Show a one-page summary first: opening balance, total income, total expenses, closing balance in bank and cash.
• Then show expenses by head, compared with last year's budget.
• Show the reserve fund balance separately.
• Show the total owner dues outstanding, grouped by how old they are, without naming individuals in public unless your rules allow it.
• Have vouchers and bank statements on the table for anyone who asks.

Say total income was ৳18,40,000 and expenses ৳17,10,000. Owners will want to see where the ৳1,30,000 surplus sits — reserve account, bank or cash — in one clear line.

Tip: Answer every question with "let me show you" rather than "trust us". The documents do the persuading.

Deciding the service charge

Present the budget first, then the per-flat figure that results. Offer options if owners are divided — for example, a lower increase with a smaller reserve contribution, versus the full figure. Take a clear vote as your constitution requires and record the exact rate approved and the month it starts.

Minutes and follow-up

The secretary should record:

• Date, time, venue and attendance (with quorum confirmed)
• Each decision in one clear sentence
• Results of any vote
• Names of newly elected committee members
• Action points with a responsible person and deadline

Circulate the minutes within a couple of weeks and file the signed copy. At the next AGM, the first agenda item checks whether those action points were done.

For cooperatives that manage deposits, DPS and loans, see Somity Keeper; for a small somiti or savings circle, the simpler Somity Keeper Lite app keeps the books on your phone.

How Society Keeper helps

Society Keeper produces the reports an AGM needs — receipts and payments, income and expenditure, balance sheet, dues aging and monthly expense analysis — ready to print or export to Excel. Your association's own website can carry the AGM notice and the documents for owners to read in advance. Once the new service charge is approved, update the rate and every flat is billed automatically from the chosen month. Try it through the free demo.