Assemblea di Condominio: The Exact Quorum Rules for a Valid Meeting

The assemblea di condominio is where every decision about a shared building actually gets made, from approving next year's budget to firing the amministratore. Almost every dispute that reaches a court starts the same way: was the meeting validly held, and did the resolution actually have enough support behind it?

Italian law answers both questions with exact numbers, set out at art. 1136 c.c., and they are the real content of this page. The quorum needed depends on two separate things at once, how many owners showed up and how much of the building's value they represent, and it changes again depending on what the assembly is voting on.

Information verified on 20 July 2026. This page provides general legal information and does not constitute legal advice for an individual situation.

How the assemblea is convened

An ordinary assemblea is convened at least once a year, primarily to approve the amministratore's budget and annual financial statement. A straordinaria (extraordinary) assembly can be called whenever the amministratore considers it necessary, or when at least two owners representing one sixth of the building's value ask for one; if the amministratore does not act within ten days of that request, those owners may convene the meeting themselves (art. 66 disp. att. c.c.).

The notice of convocation must specify the agenda and reach every owner at least five days before the date set for prima convocazione, by registered post, certified email (PEC), fax or hand delivery, and it must state the meeting's location and time, or the video conferencing platform if the meeting is held remotely. Seconda convocazione cannot be held on the same calendar day as prima convocazione. If notice to even a single owner is omitted, late or incomplete, the resulting resolution is annullabile at that owner's request, not automatically void.

The quorum table: prima and seconda convocazione

Art. 1136 c.c. sets two separate checks for each convocazione: whether the meeting is validly held at all (costitutivo), and whether a given ordinary resolution has enough support to pass (deliberativo). Both the count of owners and the value they represent matter, and both thresholds in each row must be met together.

If prima convocazione cannot proceed for lack of quorum, seconda convocazione must be held on a later day, and in any case no more than ten days after the first.

A worked example

Take a building with nine owners and a total value of 1.000 millesimi (figures are illustrative). At prima convocazione, six owners attend, together representing 720 millesimi. The meeting is validly constituted: six owners is a majority of nine, and 720 is above the required two thirds (667). The assembly then votes on the annual budget. Five of the six attending owners, representing 640 millesimi, vote in favour. The resolution passes: five out of six attending is a majority of those present, and 640 exceeds the required half of the building's value (500).

Now change the numbers. Only four owners attend prima convocazione, representing 700 millesimi. Even though the value present (700) clears the two thirds threshold of 667 on its own, the meeting still fails to constitute, because four owners is not a majority of nine. Both constitutive tests have to be met, and value alone does not carry a meeting. The assembly must reconvene at seconda convocazione, held between one and ten days later.

There, four owners attend again, representing 400 millesimi; this time the meeting is validly constituted, since four owners exceeds one third of nine and 400 exceeds one third of the building's value (334). A resolution then needs a majority of the four attending (at least three) and at least 334 millesimi in favour; three owners representing 350 millesimi vote yes, and the resolution passes.

Higher majorities for specific decisions

Some decisions always need the prima convocazione deliberativo majority, a majority of those attending plus at least half the building's total value, no matter which convocazione the vote actually happens at. Art. 1136 c.c. lists them:

• Appointing or removing the amministratore
• Bringing or defending litigation on matters that exceed the amministratore's ordinary powers
• Rebuilding the building, or extraordinary repairs of significant scale
• Stopping activity that substantially damages the intended use of the common parts (art. 1117-quater c.c.)
• Installing works aimed at building or system safety, removing architectural barriers, cutting energy consumption, adding parking, or installing centralised television or data reception systems (art. 1120, second comma, c.c.)
• Installing video surveillance equipment aimed at the common parts (art. 1122-ter c.c.)
• Authorising the amministratore to take part in local building recovery or urban regeneration programmes (art. 1135, third comma, c.c.)

A smaller category needs an even higher bar: a majority of those attending plus at least two thirds of the building's whole value. This applies to ordinary innovations aimed at improving, making more comfortable, or increasing the yield of the common parts (art. 1120, first comma, c.c.), and to individual, non-centralised television reception or renewable energy installations that require changes to the common parts (art. 1122-bis, third comma, c.c.).

This creates a genuine trap at seconda convocazione. Because the elevated majority requires at least half, or two thirds, of the whole building's value, not half or two thirds of whoever happens to be in the room, a seconda convocazione meeting that only clears its own lower one third attendance threshold can be mathematically unable to pass one of these decisions. If only 400 millesimi worth of owners are present, a resolution needing at least 500 millesimi in favour cannot pass that day, however everyone in the room votes.

Who may attend, vote and delegate

Every owner may attend in person or through a representative holding a written delega. Once a condominio has more than twenty owners, a single delegate cannot represent more than one fifth of the owners and one fifth of the building's value, a rule meant to stop a handful of proxy holders from controlling the vote in larger buildings. The amministratore can never accept a proxy to vote at any assembly (art. 67 disp. att. c.c.).

Where a unit is jointly owned by several people, they are entitled to a single representative at the assembly. Where a unit is subject to usufrutto, the usufruttuario votes on ordinary administration and simple enjoyment of the common parts and services, while the bare owner (nudo proprietario) and the usufruttuario are jointly liable for the condominio contributions due on that unit.

How to challenge a resolution: art. 1137 c.c.

A resolution the assembly approves is binding on every owner, including one who was absent or voted against. An owner who was absent, dissenting or abstaining can still ask a court to annul it within a strict thirty day deadline, running from the date of the resolution for anyone dissenting or abstaining, and from the date the resolution was communicated for anyone absent.

Filing that challenge does not by itself stop the resolution from being carried out; a court has to separately order suspension for that to happen. Settled Cassazione case law (Cass. civ., Sez. Unite, 7 marzo 2005, n. 4806) distinguishes two categories of defect that behave very differently. A resolution suffering from a procedural flaw, an irregular quorum, a defective notice, or a majority lower than the law requires, is annullabile: it stands unless challenged within the thirty day window. A resolution that lacks an essential element, deals with something entirely outside the assembly's powers, or directly interferes with an individual owner's own property rights rather than the collective management of the building, is treated as nulla, and the thirty day limit that applies to annullabile resolutions does not constrain that category in the same way.

See also

For what counts as a common part in the first place and how the tabelle millesimali set each owner's share, see our condominio overview. For exactly how a given expense is apportioned once the assembly approves it, see spese condominiali: who pays what.