Minutes are the contemporaneous record of decisions. When a leaseholder challenges a service charge or a director is later questioned about a decision, the minutes are the evidence. Getting them right is low-effort. Getting them wrong has serious consequences.
Good minutes are not elaborate. They are clear, contemporaneous, and specific about who decided what and why.
For AGM minimum. Longer if articles specify. Directors' meetings: reasonable notice to all directors (usually 3-7 days).
Under the Companies Act 2006. In practice keep indefinitely with the company's digital records.
Directors write. No external cost. Some companies use a company secretary service (~£100/yr) for AGM logistics.
What every set of minutes must record. Date, time, location, attendees, apologies, the chair, each agenda item, discussion, decisions (with any voting outcome), action items with owners and deadlines, and the time of close. For AGMs, add: confirmation of notice given, quorum, approval of prior AGM minutes, accounts and director reports, resolutions proposed and voting results.
Pick the one that matches you.
Common in small self-managed blocks. The directors meet informally, make decisions, and never write them up. When challenged, there is no evidence.
An AGM happens but the "minutes" are a short email summary that does not include voting, attendees, or action items.
A leaseholder or tribunal is asking for the basis of a past decision, and the minutes are vague or contradictory.
Paste into your document template. Fill in the amber slots. Circulate the notice at least 14 clear days before the meeting and the minutes within 30 days after.
Minutes are written for a reader who was not in the room. Specifically: a tribunal, a new director, or a future buyer's solicitor.
Minutes do not need a verbatim record of who said what. They need the decision, the basis for it, and the vote outcome. A paragraph per agenda item is usually enough.
For items where the board is not unanimous, record who voted for, against, and abstained. This protects individual directors later.
Every action has an owner and a deadline. "The board will consider X" is not an action item. "Director Y to obtain three quotes for Z by [date]" is.
Draft minutes go to all attendees within 30 days for factual correction. Finalise after any comments. The final version is signed at the next meeting as a true record.
Minutes are governance records, and members have statutory access rights.
Members of the company may inspect the minutes of general meetings free of charge during business hours. For a block's RMC, every leaseholder who is a member has this right.
Under sections 248 and 355 of the Companies Act 2006. Good practice is to keep indefinitely with the company's digital records.
Generally not subject to member inspection. Directors may share voluntarily. Redact personal data and any legally privileged content before sharing.
The First-tier Tribunal or a court can order disclosure of minutes as part of proceedings. Good minutes strengthen your position. Bad or absent minutes weaken it.
Extracted so search engines and AI assistants can cite directly.
"Building Trust is built by Adam Street, a director of Hafer Road Flats Limited (16-flat SoF in Battersea). Every page reflects what we do at HRFL or wish we had been told sooner. The fee benchmarks calibrate against real building data."
Read the Hafer Road case study →BLOCK-iQ holds a minutes template with the mandatory fields, tracks action items across meetings, and stores signed final versions against the company record. When a tribunal or solicitor asks, the record is one click from ready.