Running a comunidad de propietarios: roles, votes, quorums and the meetings that actually work

A comunidad de propietarios is the legal collective that owns the shared parts of a Spanish residential building — the lobby, lift, roof, garden, pool, parking deck — and which every individual apartment owner automatically belongs to. You do not opt in. You do not opt out. The moment you sign the escritura on an apartment, you are a member, and you remain a member until you sell.

What that membership means in day-to-day life is much less obvious than it sounds. Communities range from a five-unit block in Granada that holds one informal meeting a year, to a 300-unit coastal complex in Marbella with a salaried administrador, two security firms and a paid-up reserve in the seven figures. The law that binds them is the same — Ley 49/1960 de Propiedad Horizontal, covered in our Horizontal Property Law guide — but the operational reality is wildly different.

This article is the operational companion to that legal one. It describes the roles, the rhythms and the practical habits that separate a community of owners from a perpetual argument.

Who actually runs a community of owners

Spanish law is sparse about organisational structure. Article 13 of the LPH lists the órganos de gobierno: the AGM itself, the president, optionally a vice-president, optionally an administrator, optionally a secretary. In practice every community of more than ten units appoints all of these. Anything smaller will often combine the secretary and administrator into one paid role.

The president

The president must always be an owner. They are the community’s legal representative — they sign on its behalf, they convene the AGM, and they are the named party in any litigation. The role rotates annually unless the statutes specify otherwise, and refusal is, in practice, not an option. The Spanish courts have repeatedly held that the duty is communal and cannot be permanently vacated.

Most blocks rotate by flat number, by floor, or by lot drawn at the AGM. A handful of communities elect for longer terms — three or even five years — but only where the statutes were registered with that arrangement and the AGM ratifies it.

The administrator (administrador de fincas)

In communities larger than about twenty units, the president almost always works through a hired administrador de fincas. The administrator is paid by the community, not by individual owners. They prepare the budget, run the accounts, send the cuotas invoices, handle defaulters, schedule contractors, draft AGM agendas, and produce the minutes.

The administrator is typically colegiado — a member of the regional college of property administrators — and carries professional indemnity. A non-colegiado administrator is legal but uncommon outside the smallest blocks. Most agencies will quote a flat monthly fee per unit, with extras for major projects.

The secretary

The secretary signs the acta (minutes) alongside the president and keeps the official book. In most communities the role is held by the administrator under a combined contract. The secretary’s signature is what makes the minutes binding for the silent-assent rule that catches owners who do not object within 30 days.

The annual meeting — how to convene one that holds up in court

Every community must hold at least one junta ordinaria a year (Article 16). It is the moment when the budget is approved, the administrator’s account is examined, the president is rotated, and any 3/5-majority decisions on energy works or tourist rentals are taken. Conducting it sloppily is the single most common reason community decisions get struck down on appeal.

1. Six days’ written notice, with agenda. The notice must be in writing — a building announcement board counts only if every owner can be reached at it, which is almost never. Email is accepted when the owner has expressly consented to it in writing. WhatsApp is not statutorily valid; many minutes are challenged on this point.
2. Convene first and second call simultaneously. Standard practice is to call the meeting for, say, 19:00 first call, and 19:30 second call. If the first call fails to reach quorum (majority of owners and quotas), the second call proceeds with no minimum.
3. Stick to the agenda. Items not on the agenda generally cannot be voted on. Ruegos y preguntas at the end is for discussion only — nothing decided there is binding.
4. Record attendance and quotas. The minutes must record both how many owners were present and what proportion of total quotas they represented. Failing to capture this is grounds for nullity on appeal.
5. Circulate the minutes within 10 days. This is the most-missed step. The 30-day silent-assent clock for higher-threshold votes starts the moment owners are deemed to have received the minutes, not the moment the meeting ends. Late minutes mean late clocks.

Service charges and the participation quota

The cuota de comunidad (service charge) is the monthly contribution each owner pays to fund the community’s expenses. Unless the statutes specify a different rule, it is calculated by multiplying the annual approved budget by each apartment’s coeficiente de participación — the percentage assigned in the original escritura de división horizontal.

The participation quota is, in essence, your share of the building. A ground-floor flat with a private garden usually has a higher quota than the equivalent flat upstairs because it benefits more from the common elements. The quotas cannot easily be changed — Article 5 of the LPH requires unanimity for any rebalancing — which is why a 1962 calculation can still be running your block’s finances today.

Special assessments (derramas)

When extraordinary works exceed what the reserve can cover, the AGM may approve a derrama — a one-off special assessment charged to each owner in proportion to their participation quota. Derramas are governed by the same voting majority that authorised the works. A derrama for routine maintenance needs simple majority; a derrama for a major renovation may need 3/5 if the renovation itself does.

What separates well-run communities from chaotic ones

Across the blocks we work with, four operational habits consistently distinguish the communities that residents speak well of from the ones that bleed presidents:

1. Minutes within ten days, every time. Slow minutes are the single biggest cause of disputed votes. Fast minutes start the silent-assent clock and remove the temptation for owners to litigate later.
2. An open ledger. Owners who can see the bank balance, the supplier invoices and the unpaid quotas in real time complain less. Opacity invites suspicion; transparency disarms it.
3. A real reserve fund. Article 9.1.f requires 10% of the annual budget in reserve. The communities that actually maintain it never need an emergency derrama, which means their AGMs are about plans, not panics.
4. Multilingual notices. Coastal communities have owners who speak Spanish, English, French, German and Dutch as their first language. Posting notices only in Spanish is legal but isolates half the building. Translating is now cheap and quick.