Open an optional sign-up and hand over the list

Sometimes the board needs a list for someone other than itself: the cell numbers the snow-removal contractor will text before the crew arrives, or the co-owners interested in a parking space. That is what an optional sign-up is for. Co-owners sign up if they want to, and the board downloads the list and hands it to the recipient it named.

This guide shows how to open one, and recalls what the syndicate is answerable for when it hands the list over.

What an optional sign-up is

It is a form like a custom obligation, with three differences.

• Nobody has to answer. No reminder is sent, no unit is ever "late" or non-compliant, and the form never appears in obligation tracking (the "Obligation status" tab).
• The answer comes with consent. The co-owner ticks a box whose text names the list's recipient and purpose.
• The answers have a lifespan. They are destroyed the day after sign-ups end.

Create the form

1. Open "Per-unit obligations", "Configuration" tab.
2. In the "Custom obligations" card, click "Create a custom obligation".
3. Under "Form type", choose "Optional sign-up". The choice is final: a sign-up form never becomes an obligation.
4. For a snow-removal alert, start from the "Snow-removal alert" template under "Start from a template". It asks for one cell number per unit.
5. Add the fields the recipient needs, and only those. A sign-up form cannot ask for a photo or a document.

Name the recipient and the purpose

Two fields are required: "Who receives the answers" and "Purpose". From the two, CondoAide writes the sentence the co-owner ticks to sign up:

I agree that my answers to this form may be shared with [recipient] for [purpose]. I can withdraw at any time.

The board sees that exact sentence under "Consent box co-owners will see" before saving. Co-owners who use CondoAide in French see the French version of the same sentence.

The co-owner's consent covers that recipient and that purpose, and nothing else. The law requires consent that is "manifest, free and enlightened" and "given for specific purposes" (section 14 of the private-sector privacy act). So the wording has to be precise.

• The recipient is a named business or person. Write "Déneigement Tremblay inc.", not "a partner" or "our suppliers". The template suggests "our snow-removal contractor": replace it with the business's name if you know it.
• The purpose says what the list will be used for. "text me before the snow-removal crew arrives" reads well in the sentence; "communications" says nothing.

As soon as a first unit has signed up, the fields, the recipient and the purpose are frozen, even if that unit has withdrawn since. The dialog then says: "Units have already signed up: the fields, recipient and purpose can no longer change. To change them, create a new form." A new form asks for new consent, and each co-owner decides again whether to sign up.

Choose the end date

"Sign-ups end on" is the date after which the list has no reason to exist: the end of the snow season, for example. The day after that date, the answers are deleted automatically.

The end date can never be more than two years after the day the form was created. The limit holds even if the board changes the date later: pushing the end back does not extend the list beyond those two years. For the next season, create a new form.

Open sign-ups

Click "Activate": co-owners can now sign up. They find the form in "My property", on the "Obligations" tab, in the "Optional sign-ups" section.

To let them know, "Invite co-owners" sends a single email to every co-owner. No reminder follows.

Only current co-owners can answer. Renters and other occupants cannot sign up yet.

There is one answer per unit. The unit's other co-owners see it and can replace it. Anyone can withdraw at any time with "Withdraw": the unit's answer is then deleted, for all its co-owners.

Hand the list to the recipient

On the form's card, "View sign-ups" shows the list and "Download list" produces it as Excel (.xlsx) or CSV (.csv). A board member then hands the file to the recipient, by whatever means was agreed with them.

CondoAide sends nothing to the recipient and sends no text messages. The syndicate discloses the list, and the syndicate is responsible for that disclosure. A condo syndicate is subject to Quebec's Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector: it is responsible for the personal information it holds (section 3.1), and it may disclose that information to a third party only with the consent of the person concerned or where the Act provides for it (section 13). The consent collected by the form covers handing the list to the named recipient, for the named purpose. It does not cover another recipient or another use.

Every download of the list is logged: who downloaded it, when, in which format and for how many units, never the answers themselves. The card's "History" link shows the latest downloads. Viewing or copying the list in "View sign-ups" is not logged; download it when you hand it over, so the handover leaves a record.

What the recipient may do with the list

CondoAide has no hold on a copy handed to the recipient. What the recipient may do with it is for the syndicate and the recipient to agree on, preferably in writing:

• use the list only for the purpose stated in the form;
• keep it only as long as needed, for example until the end of the season;
• delete it afterwards, and replace it with the new one when the board hands over an updated list.

If a co-owner withdraws after the handover, their answer disappears from CondoAide and from later lists, but not from the copy already handed over. Give the recipient an updated list and ask them to delete the old one.

How long the answers are kept

A business must destroy or anonymize personal information once the purposes it was collected for have been achieved (section 23). In CondoAide:

Destroyed answers remain for a while in backups and in syndicate archives already produced, for those archives' own retention period. Copies handed to the recipient are outside CondoAide: how long they are kept is up to the syndicate and the recipient.

The full retention schedule is in the privacy policy.