LIFE IN A COMMUNITY OF OWNERS IN SPAIN

The President

The President is normally elected at the AGM by vote.

However, if this isn’t possible, he or she can also be determined by rotation or a ‘draw’.  This means that you could end up being the Community president for a year whether you want to or not!

It can be very difficult to be released from this obligation and often the President has to dedicate quite a lot of time to the role, with very little thanks for the work done; it is not a commitment to be taken lightly!

The administrator

Whilst not a legal obligation to appoint one, most communities of owners (except the very small ones) will have to do so, as the administrator will take on responsibility for much of the day to day running of the community, relieving the Committee members of many tasks which they would simply not have the time to do, due to the sheer volumes of work involved, especially in the very large urbanisations. It is common for the Administrator to also take on the role of Secretary for the Community.

The Administrator is known as the ‘Administrador de la Comunidad de Propietarios’ in Spanish and they should be qualified as an administrator of communities of owners (‘Administrador de Fincas’), and should also be a registered member of the ‘Colegio de Administradores de Fincas Rústicas y Urbanas’  which is an official governing body of community administrators.

It will be their duty to look after all the legal aspects of running the community to make sure everything complies with Spanish property Law.

Additionally, they will keep all of the legal documents relating to the Constitution of the Community of Owners and have the keys to all public and utility access points.

They are also legally responsible for the monthly/quarterly/annual collection of the community charges. Spanish law dictates the recovery procedures permitted of outstanding debts, so they would ensure adherence to the law in the recovery process.

There may be other duties which they also control such as dealing directly with supplier’s contracts (e.g. pool maintenance).

Other Representatives

Sometimes other representatives are appointed by the Community of Owners at the Annual General Meeting to act on behalf of the Community as a whole throughout the year.

Whoever is chosen as a representative has to be a property owner themself, and be appointed by the other property owners.

The obligations and rights of the President, Secretary and other Representatives

In summary, they are responsible for the smooth running of the community of property owners by:

• Making sure decisions taken at meetings are implemented
• Agreeing the annual budget.
• Ensuring that the Administrator is doing their duty.
• Making decisions on day to day issues that come to their attention.
• Organising extraordinary general meetings as necessary.
• Keeping other property owners informed of important decisions or changes that have to be made.
• Taking legal action if necessary to enforce community rules.

This involves regular committee meetings and following the community statutes and bylaws in the decision making process.

Taking part in your Community will ultimately make it a more pleasant place to be. So try and get involved! By taking part you can meet lots of likeminded people and make sure that you are getting the most out of your property in Spain, whether you live here all year round or just come for holidays.

Whether you live in Spain all year round or just use your property as a holiday home or even rent it out, you should be aware of one of the most important community events of the year – the AGM.

This is your opportunity as an owner to attend and meet up with the Committee and Administrators face-to-face, who work hard all year round to maintain the Community and ensure its smooth running, along with other owners. Important community issues will be discussed at length and it is important for you to be there, to take part and to vote accordingly – to have your say in how the community should be run. For various reasons, many people don’t attend and vote at these meetings, and often they are the ones you will hear moaning about things not being done to their liking when they arrive for their holiday!!  Often the excuse is that they didn’t know that it was going to be held, or that they don’t really want to take part in community affairs. However, by being an owner in a community means that you are involved in that community from day one and it is in your best interests to take an active part.

The Law which governs the holding of meetings in Communities is the Horizontal Property Law (‘Ley de Propiedad Horizontal’ in Spanish). Additionally, specific statutes and Bylaws may be drafted by the community of owners governing such things as the organisation of meetings and this is discussed in more detail below.

When is the AGM?

An AGM must be held at least once a year primarily to approve the accounts for the past year and the budget for the forthcoming one. The date will vary amongst communities, but will normally be fixed at a time when maximum attendance is most likely.

In addition to this, an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) may be called at any other time during the year if requested by owners holding 25% or more of the votes.

How will I know about it?

When you become an owner in a Community, your lawyer should have provided the Administrators with your personal contact details, both for postal communications and email. Obviously the preferred method these days is electronic communication as it is quicker and so much cheaper than using the post, especially with the large volumes of international post that it would involve. It is your job to ensure that you keep the Administrators up to date with any changes so that you don’t miss out on any news and notices which they send you.

The notification of the meeting (‘notice’)that they send you will contain details of when and where the meeting will be held, and usually, especially in larger communities, it will all be in your own language. The notice should also appear on the Community Notice Board as well.

By Law, a minimum of 3 days’ notice must be given for the AGM. As this short period creates logistical problems for non-resident owners, communities with a high proportion of these owners may include in their Bylaws a more realistic notice of, say, 14 days. There’s freedom and flexibility to this rule as each community deems fit in accordance with their own needs and circumstances.

The notice will also contain the ‘Agenda’ for the meeting so that you will know exactly what will be discussed on the day. It is the Chairman’s job to make sure that these items are adhered to, especially important for those who are not in attendance, as they would otherwise claim that they hadn’t been correctly notified.

A typical agenda may include:

1. Reading (and approval ) of the previous General Meeting minutes (not compulsory)
2. Approval of the previous financial year’s accounts
3. Approval of the current financial year’s budget and changes to community fee charges
4. Discussion and approval of debtors (i.e. those owners who owe community fee charges) and judicial action proposed for the recovery of the debts (note that anyone in debt to the community of owners at the beginning of the meeting will not have the right to vote at that meeting. It is therefore extremely important that you make sure that your fees are fully paid up in good time before the meeting).
5. Renewal or reelection of the various Committee members and Administrators
6. Specific Important issues which need voting on affecting the community as a whole, for example proposed building works and pool timetable changes etc.
7. Any other business (not compulsory)

Appointing a Representative or Proxy if unable to attend

If you find that you are unable to attend and vote at the meeting, then do not worry as all is not lost! You are entitled to appoint another person to attend and vote in your place which is known as appointing a proxy. There are specific rules governing how you need to notify this appointment, and these should be laid out in the notice of the meeting.

Minutes of the Meeting

After the meeting is held, the secretary of the meeting, who will have kept a record of the discussions, will circulate copies of the minutes (once approved) to all owners, even those who didn’t attend.  You should check them and keep them safely as a record and also note the date of the next AGM, if one was decided during the meeting, so that you can plan ahead for attending next time.

Those of you who have spent a long time here in Spain will probably already know exactly what a ‘community of owners’ is and how it operates. But there are many people for whom it is a big surprise and something which they have never come across before.

A community of owners is a legal entity made up of all the property owners in the same building or urbanisation and is governed by the rules and by-laws agreed by them. While it is not physically an independent legal person, it retains many of its features, which enables it to perform certain legal transactions, such as operate a bank account and contract for services etc.

Those of you who have lived in a block of flats in the UK may be more familiar with the idea, as you will have been responsible for paying service charges in respect of the building’s common areas such as gardening, lifts and lighting. These areas and costs relate solely to that building, which means that the local council won’t be responsible for their upkeep or bear the cost. Instead, the costs have to be shared amongst the individual owners.

However, for those of you who have only ever lived in a house, this concept is probably a completely new one.

Here in Spain, it isn’t just flats and apartment blocks which are affected, but any property which is part of a development, otherwise known as an urbanisation. This means that the property owner does not only own their home, but also a share of the communal parts of the building or urbanisation, including entrance halls, passages, lifts, terraces, gardens, sports facilities (such as swimming pools and tennis courts) and sometimes even the roads.

In general, the only properties that don’t belong to a community of owners are detached houses built on individual plots in public streets or on rural land.

When you buy a community property you automatically become a member of the community of owners and this applies to two-thirds of foreign property owners in Spain.

So it is of upmost importance to find out exactly how being a part of a community will affect you and what it will add to your monthly or quarterly costs of maintaining your home abroad.

In Spain, where there is a community of owners (called a ‘comunidad de propietarios’ in Spanish), there is a law which governs how these costs and the running of the community shall be carried out. This is known as the Horizontal Property Law (‘Ley de Propiedad Horizontal’ in Spanish), and this applies in all areas of Spain, except Catalonia. In addition to these laws, specific statutes are drafted by the community of owners governing the organisation and minimum standards expected of residents, landlords and tenants alike. For example the swimming pool timetable, security measures and colours of external walls, types of fencing etc. In many cases these serve to set standards and avoid conflicts of interests which may otherwise arise.

The main points of interest governed by these laws are:

1. Property owners are required to represent their community as presidents or secretaries. Communities can establish criteria through their bylaws for regulating the rotation of duties, length of service required etc.
2. Every owner is obliged to contribute to the cost of the community in accordance with their share as established by the horizontal law of division.
3. An Annual General Meeting shall be held at least once a year to approve the budgets and accounts. Other meetings may be held (by request of the Chairman or owners, but subject to certain criteria).
4. A property buyer is responsible for the seller’s outstanding debts with the community of owners on the date of purchase which is why the seller is obliged to provide a certificate of debts, unless they are expressly exempted from this obligation by the buyer. Your solicitor will be able to advise you on this matter and is in fact obliged to inform the community of owners of any changes in ownership.
5. The day to day management of the community is usually carried out by an Administration Company (‘Administración de Fincas’ in Spanish). The Administrator shoudl be registered on the "Colegio de Administradores de Fincas" (Official Association of Administrator) as a guarantee of knowledge, quality and good performance.