A neighbour sends a photo of water under your front door. The email that follows comes from «the administrator», who is not the person who holds your keys, and neither of them is the agency that offered last year to «manage everything». Around a flat in a Spanish community there are three different jobs, and each answers to a different client: the administrator works for the community of owners, a property manager works for you, and a letting agent works on one transaction, finding a tenant. Owners who live abroad tend to learn the difference on the day something falls between two of them. This note takes the three in turn: what the law gives each one, what each cannot do, what paper each needs from you, what each answers for and who pays whom.
The administrator works for the community
The Horizontal Property Act lists the administrator among the governing bodies of the community, beside the owners' meeting, the president and the secretary (Ley 49/1960, article 13). The owners appoint the administrator at their meeting, for one year unless the statutes say otherwise, and can remove them at an extraordinary meeting. The job is defined by its object, which is the building: Velar por el buen régimen de la casa, sus instalaciones y servicios, to watch over the good running of the house, its installations and services; Preparar con la debida antelación y someter a la Junta el plan de gastos previsibles, to prepare in good time and put before the meeting the plan of foreseeable expenses; to see to conservation, disponiendo las reparaciones y medidas que resulten urgentes, ordering the repairs and measures that are urgent; to carry out what the meeting decides on works, make the payments and collect what is due; and to act, where it falls to them, as secretary and keep the community's documents at the owners' disposal (article 20).
«The house» is the building and what is shared in it, and the administrator's work stops at your front door. The Act makes each owner responsible for keeping their own flat and its private installations in good repair (article 9), and nothing in article 20 puts your boiler, your tenant or your tax return on the administrator's desk. The administrator is paid by the community, as one more general expense shared out by quota, so your part of that fee is already inside your community fees; what it normally covers is the subject of our note on what an administrator's fee includes.
Towards your flat the community, and the administrator who acts for it, has three tools, all of them in the Act. It can require you to let in the repairs that the building's service needs, because every owner must Permitir la entrada en su piso o local, allow entry to their flat or premises, for those purposes (article 9). The administrator can order an urgent repair in the building without waiting for a meeting. And notices are sent to the address in Spain that you have given the secretary for notices; if you have given none, the notice goes to the flat itself and is valid. What the administrator does not have is your key, or a right to go in without you: who may enter an empty flat, and when, is explained in your flat while you are away.
A property manager works for you, under a mandate
Everything behind the door needs someone of your own. In Spanish law that relationship is a mandate: Por el contrato de mandato se obliga una persona a prestar algún servicio o hacer alguna cosa, por cuenta o encargo de otra, by the contract of mandate one person undertakes to provide a service or do something on behalf or at the request of another (Civil Code, article 1709). It can be agreed in a deed, in a private document or even by word of mouth (article 1710), which is a reason to write it down, not to do without the paper. If the person does this for a living, the law presumes that they are to be paid (article 1711).
The Code then draws the line that matters most to an owner abroad: El mandato, concebido en términos generales, no comprende más que los actos de administración, a mandate conceived in general terms covers no more than acts of administration, and selling, mortgaging or any other act of strict ownership needs an express mandate (article 1713). A manager without a special power cannot let the property for more than six years (article 1548). Inside those limits the manager follows your instructions and, where you gave none, does what a careful person would do (article 1719).
Three more articles are worth knowing before signing.
- Accounts. Todo mandatario está obligado a dar cuenta de sus operaciones y a abonar al mandante cuanto haya recibido en virtud del mandato, every agent must account for what they do and pay over to the principal everything received under the mandate (article 1720): rents, deposits returned, refunds from suppliers.
- Liability. The manager answers for intent and also for negligence, which the courts judge more or less strictly according to whether the mandate was paid (article 1726).
- Revocation. You can end the mandate whenever you wish and demand back the document that records it (article 1733).
A private contract is enough for keys, visits, meter readings, repairs and bills. The bank, the notary, the land registry and most public offices will ask for more: a power to administer property must be in a public document (article 1280), and how to sign one from abroad is in our note on powers of attorney. For the community's meeting the Act asks for much less: representation is proved by un escrito firmado por el propietario, a writing signed by the owner (Horizontal Property Act, article 15).
A letting agent works on the tenancy
A letting agent's job is a transaction: finding a tenant and getting a contract signed. For the lease of a dwelling, the Urban Leases Act has settled since 26 May 2023 who pays for it: Los gastos de gestión inmobiliaria y los de formalización del contrato serán a cargo del arrendador, the costs of the estate agency and of formalising the contract are borne by the landlord (Ley 29/1994, article 20). The fee for letting a home is the owner's to pay, not the tenant's.
What happens after the signature is a different job. Collecting the rent, lodging the deposit, answering the tenant and settling the handover are management, and whoever does them for you is your manager under a mandate, with the duty to account for every euro. The law gives an owner abroad one more reason to choose that person with care: the manager of a non-resident's property answers jointly for the non-resident income tax due on the income of what they manage, unless that income is subject to withholding (Real Decreto Legislativo 5/2004, article 9). A manager who asks to see your tax returns is protecting both of you. Who must also appoint a fiscal representative is a separate question, covered in our note on fiscal representatives.
Holiday lets are another trade again, with a Canary Act of their own (Ley 6/2025) and a registration number. This note does not cover them.
What each one answers for
The administrator answers to the community, which appoints and can dismiss them. A registered administrator is also bound by the profession's code of ethics: los Administradores de Fincas colegiados deberán disponer de unos seguros, registered property administrators must hold insurance, covering both the professional errors that cause loss to a client and the funds entrusted to them, and must show the certificate to a client who asks for it (code of ethics of the General Council of Colleges of Property Administrators, article 6). The Act itself does not require registration: the post can be held by any owner, by a natural person with a sufficient and legally recognised professional qualification, or by a company (article 13).
Your own manager and your letting agent answer to you, on the terms of the contract and of the Civil Code, and the Code asks neither of them for insurance. The contract is the place to ask for it, together with what the fee includes, how often accounts are rendered and who may be sent in the manager's place: a manager who names a substitute without having been given the power to do so answers for what the substitute does (article 1721).
Your data, and who may speak for you
The administrator holds your name, your address and your bank details on the community's behalf and may use them only for the community's business; in data-protection terms the administrator is the community's processor, bound by a contract with it, as we explain in our note on data protection in a community. For an owner with a manager that has two practical consequences. The administrator has no business discussing your account with a third party who simply says they act for you: send the secretary a signed note naming your manager and what they may receive. And give the secretary an address in Spain for notices, by a means that leaves proof of receipt (Horizontal Property Act, article 9); it can be your manager's.
Who does what
| The task |
Who does it, and under what contract |
| Roof, lift, pool, façade: the building and its upkeep |
The community's administrator, appointed by the owners' meeting (Horizontal Property Act, article 20) |
| The budget, the fees and the minutes |
The administrator, who may also be the secretary |
| Keys, visits, repairs and bills inside your flat |
A manager of your own, under a mandate (Civil Code, article 1709) |
| Your vote at the meeting |
Whoever you name in a signed writing (Horizontal Property Act, article 15) |
| Finding a tenant for a long let |
A letting agent, whose fee the landlord pays in the lease of a dwelling (Urban Leases Act, article 20) |
| Rent, deposit and incidents during the tenancy |
A rental manager, under a mandate, who must account for everything received |
| Selling, mortgaging or signing at the notary |
An attorney with a notarised power, never a general mandate |
How each is paid
No official tariff exists for any of the three. Professional colleges are forbidden by law to set one: they no podrán establecer baremos orientativos ni cualquier otra orientación, recomendación, directriz, norma o regla sobre honorarios profesionales, may not establish guidance scales or any other orientation, recommendation, guideline, norm or rule on professional fees (Ley 2/1974, article 14). What the law does fix is who pays. The administrator's fee is a community expense that the meeting approves in the budget and every owner pays by quota. The manager's fee is whatever your contract says, and you alone pay it. The letting agent's fee for a dwelling is the landlord's.
An illustration of our own, with invented figures that claim to be nobody's prices: an owner pays 90 euros a month in community fees, of which 7 euros are the administrator's fee; a manager charges 45 euros a month to hold the keys, visit the flat every month and pay the bills; and, the year the flat is let, an agency charges one month's rent, 900 euros. Three bills, three contracts, three clients.
What we do, and what we do not
We administer communities across Fuerteventura for a fixed fee per unit, and for individual owners we run long-term tenancies from the contract to the handover of keys, with a monthly statement; owners abroad are represented at meetings by proxy and receive minutes, accounts and notices in English and Spanish. We do not operate holiday lets, and finding the tenant is the work of the group's estate agency. The services are described on our rental administration and owners abroad pages, and you can ask for a fixed-fee quote.
Common questions
Can the community's administrator hold my keys or check on my flat?
Not as administrator: the Act gives the post no key and no duty inside your flat. If the same firm also manages individual properties, that is a second contract, with you, and a second fee.
My manager says the contract I signed lets them sell the flat for me. Is that so?
No. A mandate in general terms covers only acts of administration. Selling or mortgaging needs an express mandate, and the notary will ask for a power of attorney in a public deed.
The agency wants to charge my tenant its fee. Can it?
Not in the lease of a dwelling: since May 2023 the costs of the agency and of formalising the contract are the landlord's.
Who does the administrator answer to if something goes wrong in the building?
To the community. An owner takes the matter to the president or to the meeting, which appoints the administrator and can remove them; a registered administrator must also hold liability insurance and show the certificate on request.
I live abroad and somebody collects my rent. If they do not pay my tax, who owes it?
You do: the tax is the owner's. The manager answers for it jointly with you, which is why both of you should want the returns filed. Ask for the accounts the Civil Code obliges a manager to give.
