For the owner who cannot attend the meeting

The owners' meeting when you are away

A special levy was voted and you found out from the bill

The meeting is called in Spanish, held on a Tuesday in October and decides what you will pay. If you are away and do not appoint anyone, it is decided anyway: the law does not require your presence, only that you be notified, and 'notified' has a very generous definition.

Free guide · PDF

The owners' meeting when you live abroad

What the law really requires to summon you, what a proxy needs to work, and what can still be argued afterwards.

Price

€95one meeting: notice translated, proxy vote cast and minutes explainedOrder this option →

€190one year: the ordinary meeting and any extraordinary onesOrder this option →

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What you get

The notice translated into your language, item by item, with what each resolution costs you in euros.
The proxy form, drafted the way your community requires it and ready to sign.
Your vote carried to the meeting, following the written instructions you give us and no others.
The minutes read and summarised: what was approved, by what majority, and what time limit you have to challenge it.
A Spanish address formally notified to the secretary, so that notices arrive where you actually read them.

Why this matters now

Spain's Horizontal Property Act obliges every owner to give the community a Spanish address for notices. If none is given, notice is served at the flat itself; and if that fails too, it is enough to pin the notice on the community NOTICE BOARD: after three days it has full legal effect. Legally, you have been notified by a sheet of paper taped inside a lobby a thousand kilometres away from you.

What this service is NOT

We are not property administrators and not lawyers. We do not run the community, we do not keep its accounts and we do not challenge resolutions: challenging is a court procedure and needs a lawyer. We vote exactly what you tell us in writing and nothing else; if an unforeseen item comes up, we abstain and tell you, rather than deciding for you. And if your community does not accept proxies, we will say so before charging.

Questions about this service

Can somebody who is not an owner vote for me?

Yes. Representation at the meeting is done with a document signed by you, and requires neither a notary nor that the representative be a neighbour. It is the document that has to be right, and that is where most rejected proxies fail, at the door.

I owe back fees. Can I still vote?

No, and it is one of the harshest rules in the act: an owner who is not up to date may attend and speak but not vote. If that is your situation, the first problem is not the meeting, it is the debt, and we will say so even if it is not what you want to hear.

What if I disagree with what was approved?

You have three months to challenge it in court, or one year if the resolution breaks the law or the community statutes. As an absent owner, the clock does not start on the day of the meeting but when the resolution is communicated to you (article 18.3 of the Horizontal Property Act). To challenge, you must be up to date with your fees or deposit the debt. Challenging is a lawyer's job; ours is that the deadline appears, with its date, in our summary of the minutes.

I did not attend and gave no proxy. Does my silence count?

Yes, and almost always as a yes. The law counts the vote of an absent owner as in favour when, having been properly called and informed of the resolution, they do not tell the secretary they disagree within 30 calendar days, by a means that proves receipt (article 17.8 of the Horizontal Property Act). There are exceptions, such as works for one owner's private use. With the minutes in your language in time, those 30 days are enough to say no.