For the annual owners' meeting (junta de propietarios), the notice must arrive at least six days before (art. 16.3 LPH), and they are calendar days: weekends and bank holidays count. The period runs from when the owner receives the notice, not when you send it. The Supreme Court counts neither the day of receipt nor the meeting day, so leave six full days in between. Extraordinary meetings need enough notice for everyone to find out.
Work it out in a minute: enter the date of receipt in our owners' meeting notice calculator and it gives you the earliest safe meeting date.
What the law says
The Horizontal Property Act (Ley de Propiedad Horizontal, LPH) requires the owners' meeting to be held "por lo menos una vez al año para aprobar los presupuestos y cuentas" (at least once a year to approve the budget and accounts) (article 16.1). If your community of owners (comunidad de propietarios) closes its accounts on 31 December, that ordinary meeting falls in the first months of the year, with lots of notices to prepare at the same time. That is exactly when it is easiest to fall short on notice.
Article 16.3 sets the notice period: "La citación para la Junta ordinaria anual se hará, cuando menos, con seis días de antelación, y para las extraordinarias, con la que sea posible para que pueda llegar a conocimiento de todos los interesados" (Notice of the annual ordinary meeting shall be given at least six days in advance, and for extraordinary meetings, with whatever notice is possible so that it can come to the attention of everyone concerned).
| Case | Minimum notice | Where it is |
|---|---|---|
| Annual ordinary meeting | Six days | Art. 16.3 LPH |
| Extraordinary meeting | Enough for it to come to the attention of everyone concerned | Art. 16.3 LPH |
| Second call not set in the first notice | Three days, and the meeting must be held within eight calendar days of the one that did not take place | Art. 16.2 LPH |
| All the owners attend and decide to hold a meeting | No notice needed | Art. 16.3 LPH |
| Communities in Catalonia | Eight calendar days | Art. 553-21.2 of the Catalan Civil Code |
A practical tip: put the second call (segunda convocatoria), the fallback session held if the first one does not reach quorum, in the same notice, half an hour after the first. The law allows it (article 16.2), and it saves you a second round of notices with its own deadline.
Working days or calendar days?
Calendar days. The Civil Code (Código Civil) says so in article 5.2: "En el cómputo civil de los plazos no se excluyen los días inhábiles" (In the civil computation of time periods, non-working days are not excluded). The LPH sets no other rule, so this one applies.
The Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo) confirmed it in its judgment 433/2000 of 26 April: civil time periods that are not procedural "se trata de plazos naturales que no excluye los inhábiles" (are calendar periods that do not exclude non-working days). The fact that courts leave out holidays in their own procedural deadlines changes nothing. This period is not a procedural one.
From when do you count? From receipt
The same Supreme Court judgment applies article 5.1 of the Civil Code. In periods counted in days, the starting day is left out and the count begins the next day. And the starting day is the day of receipt: you count the six days "a partir del día siguiente a la recepción de la citación, aviso, carta certificada, etc." (from the day after receipt of the notice, notification, registered letter, etc.).
This has a consequence worth keeping in mind. The date you put on the letter is not the date that counts. If you post the notice by ordinary mail on Monday and it arrives on Thursday, the period starts on Friday.
Does the meeting day count? Courts do not all count the same way
There are two ways of counting here, and you should know both.
The Supreme Court's way. In the 2000 case, the notice was received on 20 March 1992 and the meeting was held on the 26th. The Supreme Court said the notice period had not been respected, "porque para ello sería preciso que la Junta se hubiera celebrado el día 27 de marzo de 1992" (because for that the Meeting would have had to be held on 27 March 1992), and declared the resolutions void. In other words, neither the day of receipt nor the meeting day goes into the count. The Madrid Provincial Court (Audiencia Provincial, the appeal court for each province) summed it up in 2003: between the notice and the meeting "deben transcurrir completos «seis días»" (six full days must pass).
Some Provincial Courts' way. The Granada Provincial Court, in 2020, citing that same judgment, annulled the resolutions of a meeting held on 22 February 2017 that had been called on the 17th. But it said that holding it on the 23rd would have been enough. On that count, the meeting day itself counts as the sixth day.
The difference is one day, and that day can cost you the meeting. Always use the Supreme Court's count, which is the stricter one:
| The notice arrives on... | Six full days | First safe date for the meeting |
|---|---|---|
| Monday 4 January 2027 | Tuesday 5 to Sunday 10 | Monday 11 January |
| Thursday 14 January 2027 | Friday 15 to Wednesday 20 | Thursday 21 January |
Notice that Sunday counts. And if you send by ordinary post, add the days it takes to arrive.
Extraordinary meetings, and the trap in the name
For an extraordinary meeting there is no set number of days. The notice "que sea posible para que pueda llegar a conocimiento de todos los interesados" (that is possible so that it can come to the attention of everyone concerned) is enough (article 16.3). But the name you give the meeting does not decide the matter.
The Granada Provincial Court, in November 2025, held that a meeting called "extraordinary", which approved the accounts and the budget, "debía considerarse como junta anual ordinaria" (had to be treated as the annual ordinary meeting). It had been called with three days' notice. It survived because all the claimants attended, did not raise the defect at the start, and voted. The court did not say three days were enough. It simply did not annul it, given those circumstances.
If the agenda includes the annual accounts or budget, treat the meeting as ordinary and give six days.
Where the notice has to arrive
The notice is given "en la forma establecida en el artículo 9" (in the manner set out in article 9) (article 16.2). And article 9.1.h sets an order:
- The address in Spain the owner has given the secretary.
- If they gave none, the flat or premises in the building. Delivery to whoever lives there is valid.
- If delivery there is impossible, the community notice board, with a formal note (diligencia) stating the date and the reason, signed by the secretary with the president's approval. This notice takes effect "en el plazo de tres días naturales" (after three calendar days).
The Supreme Court insists that this is "un orden jerárquico de necesaria observancia" (a hierarchical order that must be followed) (judgment 572/2020 of 3 November). Skipping steps has consequences. In that same 2025 judgment, the Granada Provincial Court annulled another meeting whose organisers went straight to the notice board, without asking for each owner's designated address or trying to deliver to the flats.
If you end up using the notice board, add those three calendar days before you start counting the six. If you are wondering whether email or WhatsApp works, we explain it in Can you call an owners' meeting by WhatsApp or email?.
What happens if you fall short
Courts treat the rules on notice as mandatory. The Supreme Court points out that breaking them is punished "con la nulidad radical de la Junta y de los acuerdos en ella adoptados" (with the absolute nullity of the Meeting and of the resolutions adopted at it) (judgment 572/2020). On the notice period itself, the Castellón Provincial Court notes that the rulings on the issue do not accept anything shorter than the legal period, though with nuances:
- In that judgment 588/2019, Castellón annulled an ordinary meeting held on 31 July that had been called by a letter dated the 25th. It accepted that, in some cases, a slight shortfall that leaves nobody defenceless (sin indefensión) might not void the meeting. But it required proof that the claimants found out in time. For one of them there was none: the notice had been left in the letterboxes and the administrator did not specify when.
- The Granada judgment (2025), as we have seen, did not annul because the claimants attended and did not object at the start.
Who can challenge (impugnar) a resolution, and when, is set out in article 18 LPH: owners who had their vote against recorded, owners who were absent, and owners wrongly deprived of their vote. They must be up to date with their payments or deposit the amount owed. The time limit is three months, or one year if the resolution is contrary to the law or to the community's statutes. For absent owners, it runs from when they are notified of the resolution.
If you realise before the meeting that the notice period will not work, the cheapest fix is to change the date and send the notice again.
How to prove the date the notice arrived
If an owner says they never received the notice, or that it arrived late, the burden of proof is on you. The Supreme Court explains it like this: not having been notified is a negative fact, so the burden of proving the notice falls on the community (judgment 572/2020).
The Supreme Court also accepts that a formally reliable channel (medio fehaciente) is not always needed, where there is "un sistema habitual de comunicación entre la Comunidad y los comuneros sin queja o protesta de sus integrantes" (a usual system of communication between the Community and the owners, without complaint or protest from its members) (judgment 987/2007). But that saves the method of sending, not the date.
In 2022 the Valencia Provincial Court upheld a judgment that said it plainly: ordinary post is valid, but using channels that do not prove receipt "provoca la dificultad" (creates the difficulty) of proving that the notice arrived "en plazo" (in time). Nor did it give any weight to a certificate from the administrator that did not even say which address the notice had gone to.
| Sending method | What it lets you prove |
|---|---|
| Letterbox drop or ordinary post | Very little on its own. It has to be the usual system, and you need other evidence |
| Hand delivery with a signed receipt | The date the owner signs |
| Registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, or burofax (a certified postal communication with proof of content and delivery) | They record the delivery, or why it was not delivered. Use them above all where there is conflict |
| Email to the address the owner designated | It depends on what the sending system records |
| Notice board, after trying to deliver | Takes effect after three calendar days, with the signed note |
For email addresses the owners have designated, Certified email sends the notice to the whole list at once from the firm's own domain. For each owner, it records delivery, opening of the message and download of the document, with date, time and IP address. Each document carries a SHA-256 fingerprint that can be checked on a public verification page. It is not a qualified service under the eIDAS Regulation, so if it is disputed, the judge weighs it freely as electronic evidence (article 43.1 eIDAS and article 326.3 of the Civil Procedure Act, Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil, LEC). Opening is only indicative; the download is the strong proof.
Whatever method you use, keep everything. Article 19.4 LPH requires the secretary to keep for five years "las convocatorias, comunicaciones, apoderamientos y demás documentos relevantes de las reuniones" (the notices, communications, proxies and other relevant documents of the meetings).
A routine that works:
- Set the meeting date and count back six full days, plus delivery time.
- Check the address or email each owner designated.
- Send by a method that records receipt, especially to anyone in conflict with the community.
- If a delivery fails, try the flat, and only then the notice board with a signed note.
- File the proofs together with the minutes.
If you are an administrador de fincas (property/community manager) running many communities, this routine is easy to automate: we cover it in automation for property managers. And if you also have to include the list of owners in arrears, here is a notice template with the list of owners in arrears.
If the community is in Catalonia
Catalonia has its own rules on horizontal property, in Book Five of the Catalan Civil Code. Its article 553-21.2 says that notices, unless the statutes say otherwise, "deben enviarse, con una antelación mínima de ocho días naturales, a la dirección comunicada por el propietario" (must be sent at least eight calendar days in advance to the address the owner has given). They can go by post or email, as long as the authenticity of the communication and its content is guaranteed, and the notice must also go up on the notice board with the same advance notice. For urgent extraordinary meetings, it is enough that the owners could have learned of the notice before the meeting (article 553-21.3).
Sources
- Law 49/1960, on Horizontal Property (Ley de Propiedad Horizontal), arts. 9, 16, 18 and 19.
- Civil Code (Código Civil), art. 5.
- Civil Procedure Act (Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil), art. 326.
- Regulation (EU) 910/2014 (eIDAS), art. 43.
- Law 5/2006, on Book Five of the Civil Code of Catalonia, art. 553-21.
- Supreme Court: judgment 433/2000 of 26 April, judgment 987/2007 of 19 September and judgment 572/2020 of 3 November.
- Madrid Provincial Court, Section 10, judgment of 11 November 2003.
- Granada Provincial Court, Section 3, judgment 238/2020 and Section 4, judgment 397/2025.
- Castellón Provincial Court, Section 3, judgment 588/2019.
- Valencia Provincial Court, Section 6, judgment 26/2022.
This article explains the law and published court criteria as of the update date. It is not a substitute for advice from a lawyer on a specific case.