In Spain, any owner of a dwelling, who is part of community, has several obligations and rights as a member of the community.
One of the most important advantages the owner has is the right to attend the Annual General Meeting of the community so that the owner can cast his/her vote on issues that impact the properties and any common areas.
Spanish law states that the community is obligated to hold at least one annual meeting every year, but your community can hold as many special meetings as they deem necessary based on the requests of the president or the owners.
One common complaint of many owners is that they are not informed when meetings of this nature are held.
Who has the right to call for a community’s meeting in Spain?
Usually, the meetings are either called based on a request made by the community’s president or by the administrator, who usually is a professional manager or might be someone else, who has been temporarily assigned the position of secretary-administrator. The administrator is typically the person who is in charge of paperwork and who is responsible for sending out a notice about the meeting.
How must the owners be notified legally about the call of a special meeting?
The administrator is required to notify the owners with a letter, which is sent to the postal address that each owner has provided to the group for correspondence of this nature.
If the owner has not notified the administrator of any alternative address, the call to the meeting is typically sent to the address of the home within the community.
Once the letter is sent, the owners are considered notified at that point. It is not the responsibility or obligation of the administrator or the president to inform the owners about the meeting by telephone. If they do call, it solely at their discretion and usually only done in special circumstances.
The administrator is also not obligated to notify the owners by e-mail even if requested to do so.
In the situation of communities where most of their owners are not residents of Spain, it is more typical that notification might be sent by e-mail. However, as is mentioned above, our law firm wishes to point out that based on the Spanish Horizontal Property Law (LPH), neither the administrator nor the president is legally required to send a notification of a call for a meeting to a foreign country. They are only obligated to send the notice to the address of the property owned in Spain.
The Spanish Horizontal Property Law does not contain limitations or requirements in respect to the days or times when a community can be held. It left up to the owners and the community administrator to determine the date and time.
In the case of communities where most of the owners are not permanent residents, it is possible in rare cases that the president might request that the meeting be held in a municipality other than the one in which the community is located. This is an unreasonable request since it is not considerate of the rest of the owners and only aligns with the interests and comfort of the president. The law does not consider that to be a right that the president has. The community meeting must be held in a community common area, in the office of the administrator, or in an appropriate room that has been rented for the meeting. However, it should always be located in closest possible venue to the community.