A checklist for the owners' meeting: how to propose replacing your access control

1. Assess what you have today

Before talking about solutions, show the problem with your own building's data. Find out:

• How many doors and gates have access control, and what equipment each one uses.
• How people are enrolled today, who does it and how long it takes.
• How many people have access, counting residents, staff and contractors, and whether that list is up to date.
• The problems that keep coming back: copied keys and tags, former residents who still have access, visitors waiting in line, missing records.
• How much the condominium currently spends on maintenance, replacement tags, key copies and staff hours.

Hard numbers from your own condominium are more persuasive than any vendor brochure.

2. Define the requirements

With the assessment in hand, write down what the new solution must guarantee. A short, objective list makes proposals easier to compare:

• The doors keep working if the internet goes down.
• Each person is enrolled once, and that record works at every door.
• Visitors get in with an invitation that expires on its own.
• There is an access history, plus an audit trail of who changed what in the system.
• Data is protected, with automatic backups stored outside the building.
• Updates happen without a technician's visit and without taking the doors offline.
• Someone monitors the system and sounds the alarm when something goes wrong.

3. Ask vendors the right questions

Ask for the answers in writing, so the comparison is fair:

• Where does face recognition happen: on the terminal or on an external server?
• Where is the data stored, and who has access to it?
• Can the terminals the condominium already owns be reused? What about the records already stored on them?
• What does the price include: equipment, installation, updates, monitoring, support?
• How does support work, and how does the company find out about a problem?
• What happens to the data if the contract ends?

4. Address the LGPD from the start

Facial recognition involves biometric data, which the LGPD (Brazil's General Data Protection Law) classifies as sensitive personal data. Bring the details to the meeting, ideally with legal support: the legal basis you chose, what will be collected, who will have access, how long the data will be kept and what the alternative will be for anyone who doesn't want to enroll their face.

Explaining this clearly before the vote keeps the issue from stalling the decision, and it shows residents that privacy was taken seriously from day one.

5. Present a rollout plan

A good proposal also shows how the switch will actually happen, so nobody pictures weeks of disruption:

• An installation schedule, door by door.
• How current records will be carried over.
• Dates and times for taking photos, outside peak hours.
• A notice to residents explaining what changes and whom to ask for help.
• A transition period that keeps the old way of getting in working for a few days, when possible.

6. Bring a decision that is ready for a vote

For the vote, sum everything up on a single page: the problem, the proposed solution, the cost, the timeline and the risks you have addressed. Attach the proposals you received and make clear what each one includes. A fair comparison looks at the total cost over the life of the contract, not just the upfront price.

If possible, give owners a chance to put their questions directly to the vendor you chose, before or during the meeting. Questions answered on the spot are worth more than any presentation.

7. After it's approved

Once the switch is approved, decide who in the condominium will be in charge of enrolling people and issuing invitations, and schedule a review one month after installation to fix whatever didn't work as expected. Record the rules you agreed on in the meeting minutes, such as who can open doors remotely and how long the access history is kept. Written rules keep the same debate from coming back at the next owners' meeting.

Where Abriu fits into the conversation

Abriu's proposal is put together for each condominium and spells out what's included: the hub installed on site, the installation itself, the dashboard, automatic updates, encrypted daily backups, monitoring and support. If the condominium already has compatible Hikvision terminals, they're reused, and the records stored on them are imported along with photos, cards and fingerprints.

Many of the answers to this checklist are already on our website: the doors work without internet, the data stays on the condominium's own hub, the backup leaves the building encrypted and can be downloaded from the dashboard, and every condominium has a public status page. Anything else your owners' meeting needs to know, our team will answer in writing.