Brazil Condo Accounts (Prestação de Contas): Model

The prestação de contas is where a Brazilian síndico shows the assembly how the condominium's money was collected and spent. The printable blank model and filled example (with invented figures) are on the Portuguese page; this page explains them and what the Civil Code says. The law sets no format and no minimum content for the accounts (in the articles we read), so what to present depends on the convenção, the regimento interno and what the assembly requires. It is a model, not legal advice, and the condominium's lawyer should review it.

What does the Civil Code say?

• The duty (art. 1.348, VIII). The síndico must give accounts to the assembly, annually and when demanded.
• The annual assembly (art. 1.350). The síndico convenes it every year, in the form the convenção sets, to approve the expense budget, the owners' contributions and the accounts, and possibly to elect a substitute and change the regimento interno.
• If the síndico does not convene it (art. 1.350, §§ 1º and 2º). A quarter of the owners may; if the assembly does not meet, a judge decides at the request of any owner.
• If the síndico does not give accounts (art. 1.349). An assembly specially convened may remove the síndico by an absolute majority of its members.
• Who gives an opinion (art. 1.356). An optional conselho fiscal of three members, elected by the assembly for up to two years, gives its opinion on the síndico's accounts.

What the Code does not say: it sets no month or number of days for the annual assembly, lists no documents and defines no accounting method. Law 4.591/1964, which the Civil Code did not expressly repeal (art. 2.045), also lists giving accounts to the assembly among the síndico's tasks (art. 22, § 1º, f); how the two laws sit together is a question for the condominium's lawyer.

What do accounts usually include?

This is not a list from the law; it is what the accounts need to be checkable later: the condominium, the period and the date of the assembly that will consider them; income by line; expenses by account; opening and closing balances, the reserve fund and arrears; the supporting documents (bank statements, invoices); the conselho fiscal's opinion if there is one; and the síndico's signature. The Portuguese page has a blank model and a filled example.

How Unitify helps, and what it does not do

Unitify does not do the condominium's accounting, does not write the prestação de contas and does not replace the síndico's checking. In Easybilly, the charges and payments of each apartment sit in one record, so that "charged, paid and outstanding" comes from one place when the accounts are prepared. The related guides are what to present and when and the assembly minutes model.