The property or community manager (administrador de fincas) runs the day-to-day of a Spanish community of owners on behalf of the owners' meeting: prepares the expenditure plan, collects fees, pays suppliers, carries out resolutions and orders urgent repairs. It is one of the governing bodies set by the Horizontal Property Act, and often acts as secretary too.
In practice
Who can do it. Any owner, an individual with sufficient professional qualifications that are legally recognised, or a company or other legal entity. Unless the bylaws or the meeting decide to appoint them separately, the secretary's and administrator's duties fall to the president. The appointment lasts one year unless the bylaws say otherwise, and the owners' meeting can remove the manager earlier at an extraordinary meeting.
What they do. They look after the proper running of the building and its facilities, prepare the expenditure plan for the meeting, handle upkeep and order urgent repairs, reporting them at once to the president, carry out resolutions on works, collect and pay, and keep the community's documents. When acting as secretary, they also draft the minutes and issue certificates, such as the certificate of debts a selling owner needs, within seven calendar days at most.
In debt claims. If the owners' meeting agrees, a professional secretary-administrator can claim an owner in arrears's debt in court through the community payment order, and the costs of their work can be included in the claim, charged to the debtor.
With personal data. According to the Spanish Data Protection Agency's guide, which the agency marks as under review, the community is the data controller and the manager who runs it on its behalf is the data processor. The relationship must be set out in a contract. To use another provider that handles that data, such as a cloud or AI service, the manager needs the community's prior written authorisation, which can be general. We cover concrete uses in AI for property managers.
What the law says
- Article 13.1 of the Horizontal Property Act (Ley de Propiedad Horizontal). The administrator is a governing body, alongside the owners' meeting, the president and the secretary.
- Articles 13.5 and 13.6. The president performs the role unless it is filled separately; secretary and administrator can be the same person; who may hold the post.
- Article 13.7. One-year term and removal by the meeting.
- Article 14.c. The meeting is informed of the urgent measures the administrator takes.
- Article 20. The administrator's duties.
- Articles 21.2 and 21.3. Court claims by a professional secretary-administrator and the costs of their work.
- Article 28 of the GDPR. Conditions for the controller and processor relationship.
Common mistakes
- Deciding non-urgent works without the meeting. Urgency is the exception, and it is reported to the president.
- Signing up to tools that handle residents' data without authorisation from the community.
- Not keeping notices and communications for the five years the law requires of the secretary.
Sources
- Law 49/1960, Horizontal Property Act, arts. 9, 13, 14, 19, 20 and 21.
- AEPD guide on data protection and property management (in Spanish).
- Regulation (EU) 2016/679, General Data Protection Regulation, art. 28.