The PDF lands in October with the convocatoria: fourteen pages, three columns of figures, a list of names at the end and a meeting you will not attend in person. Most owners abroad read the total, check their own fee and file it. That is a pity, because the annual accounts of a community are the one document a year that tells you whether the building you own a share of is run well — and the law gives you the right to read them, to question them and to vote on them from two thousand kilometres away. This is how we read a set of accounts for the communities we administer, and how you can read yours in ten minutes.
What the law says the papers must contain
The owners' meeting must be held at least once a year «to approve the budgets and the accounts» (Ley de Propiedad Horizontal, art. 16.1); approving «the plan of foreseeable expenses and income and the corresponding accounts» is the junta's own competence (art. 14.b), and preparing that plan and putting it to the meeting is the administrator's duty (art. 20.b). The notice of the meeting goes out at least six days ahead for the ordinary junta (art. 16.3) and must state the agenda, the place, the date and the time — and it must carry the list of owners who are behind with their fees, with the warning that they may attend but not vote (art. 16.2, art. 15.2). Any owner may write to the president asking for a subject to be put on the agenda of the next meeting, and the president must include it (art. 16.2).
After the meeting come the minutes: date and place, who called it, ordinary or extraordinary, everyone present or represented with their share, the agenda, and the resolutions with the votes for and against where that matters (art. 19.2). They must be closed by the president and the secretary within ten natural days and sent to every owner at the address they have notified to the community (art. 19.3, art. 9.1.h). From that closing the resolutions are enforceable; an owner who voted against, was absent or was wrongly denied a vote has three months to challenge them in court — a year if they break the law or the statutes — and must be up to date with their own fees to do so (art. 18). The secretary keeps the notices, proxies and papers of every meeting for five years (art. 19.4).
None of this tells you what the accounts must look like: the Act imposes no accounting standard on a community. It tells you what you are entitled to see and when, which is why the reading below starts with the papers themselves.
The five pages that matter
Budget against actual. The core of the set is a table with three columns per line — what was budgeted, what was spent, the difference — for each cost the building carries: electricity for the common areas, water, the pool, the lift contract, cleaning, gardening, the insurance premium, the administrator's fee, maintenance contracts, bank charges, legal costs. Read the third column. A line ten per cent over budget wants a sentence of explanation in the report; a line fifty per cent over wants a story, and the story is usually a breakdown, a leak or a contract that changed. A budget that matches actual to the euro on every line has not been read against the bank.
The bank reconciliation. The closing balance in the accounts must be the balance on the community's own bank statement on the same date, after the cheques and transfers still in flight and the invoices received but not yet paid. The community's money sits in an account in the community's name, never in the administrator's; the statement, or a copy of it, should be available with the accounts. If the figure in the accounts and the figure on the statement do not meet, nothing else on the page can be trusted.
The arrears list. The law makes the debtor list part of the convocatoria, so it must be current and it must be specific: which units, how much, for which periods. It is also the list that tells you how healthy the community is, because arrears are the reason a budget that balances on paper produces a bank account that does not. A unit's debt for the current year and the three before it follows the flat when it is sold (art. 9.1.e); our arrears piece explains how the rest is recovered. What you are looking for is movement: a list that carries the same names and the same amounts as last year is a community that is not collecting.
The reserve-fund line. Every community must keep a reserve fund, owned by the community and set aside for conservation, repair and rehabilitation works, accessibility works and, since the recent reforms, energy-efficiency works — and it may never hold less than 10 % of the last ordinary budget (art. 9.1.f). Look for it as its own line with its own balance. A fund that shows the right figure but sits mixed into the current account, spent on the year's running costs and "to be replenished", is not a fund; a fund that was used for a roof in spring must be topped up in the autumn budget, which is where you will see the fee rise.
Derramas, kept apart. The Act does not prescribe it, but a well-kept set accounts the extraordinary contributions for works separately from the ordinary fees: their own budget, their own collection, their own balance. Our guide to fees and derramas explains the mechanics; in the accounts, what matters is that the two streams never blend, so that a shortfall on a façade job cannot be quietly covered by the pool budget, or the reverse. Your own share of everything — ordinary fee, derrama, reserve fund — follows your cuota de participación, the percentage fixed for your unit in the constitutive title (arts. 3 and 5), unless the statutes provide otherwise.
Ten minutes from abroad
- Does the closing bank balance in the accounts match a bank statement on the same date?
- Is my own fee my cuota applied to the total — and is my cuota the one in my deed?
- Does the debtor list carry amounts and periods, and has it moved since last year?
- Is the reserve fund a separate line at 10 % or more of the last ordinary budget?
- Are derramas shown apart from the ordinary budget, with their own balance?
- Is the insurance premium in the accounts the premium of a policy I can see, and does its sum insured look like the building?
- Is the administrator's fee itemised — what it includes, what was billed as extra?
- Does the budget for next year explain every line that moves by more than ten per cent?
- Were the minutes of last year's meeting closed within ten days and sent to me at the address I notified?
Nine yeses is a community you can leave alone for another year. Two or three noes are questions for the agenda.
The red flags
They are the same in Corralejo as in Costa Calma. A large line called otros gastos with no detail. Cash payments. A reserve fund that exists in a footnote. A debtor list with names but no periods, or with the administrator's own fees listed as arrears of the community. An insurance line that has not changed in five years while the building has. Invoices from a company with the administrator's surname. A surplus — the remanente — that is neither carried forward nor explained. Minutes that arrive in February for a junta held in November. None of these is proof of anything; each of them is a question the junta is entitled to ask and the administrator is obliged to answer.
Asking, and voting, from a distance
You do not need to be in the room. A written request to the president puts your question on the next agenda (art. 16.2); a signed writing naming your representative lets that person attend and vote for you (art. 15.1), and although the Act still does not expressly regulate online or hybrid juntas (a reform has been before Congress since May 2026), many communities hold them when their statutes or the junta provide for it and identification and the vote are guaranteed; the safe route remains the proxy — our AGM piece for owners abroad covers the proxy and the vote. Two things to remember before you vote against a set of accounts: the resolution passes by the majority of the owners present and represented and of their quotas, and only an owner who is current with their own fees keeps the right to challenge it afterwards (art. 18.2). Ask first; vote second; challenge last.
For the communities we administer, the papers do not wait for the post. Statements are published online, owners receive a quarterly report of fees paid, incidents resolved and upcoming votes, and the convocatoria arrives with the proxy form ready — one login, every document, in English, Spanish or German. It does not change what the law requires; it changes whether you have read it before the junta starts.
Where we come in
Our administrators in Fuerteventura prepare the budget and the accounts the way this article reads them: budget against actual with the deviations explained, the bank reconciliation attached, the debtor list dated, the reserve fund on its own line and the derramas apart — and they answer the questions above before the junta rather than after. See our community accounts service, or ask for a quote.
Common questions
Can I see the accounts before the meeting, and how early?
The notice of the ordinary meeting must reach you at least six days before it and must carry the agenda and the list of owners in arrears; the accounts and the budget are normally sent with it, and the administrator must keep the community's documents at the owners' disposal. If they did not come with the notice, ask for them in writing before the meeting, not at it.
How much must the community keep in the reserve fund?
Never less than 10 % of its last ordinary budget, as a fund owned by the community and set aside for conservation, repair, rehabilitation, accessibility and energy-efficiency works. If part of it was spent during the year, the next budget must bring it back to the minimum.
What can I do if I disagree with the accounts?
Ask for the explanation in writing, vote against or have your representative record your vote against, and if the resolution breaks the law or the statutes or seriously harms you, challenge it in court within three months of the meeting — a year for resolutions contrary to the law or the statutes. To challenge you must be up to date with your own fees or deposit them with the court.
Who is on the debtor list, and why does it matter to me?
Every owner who was behind with fees when the notice went out, by law, with the warning that they may attend but not vote. It matters because arrears are the gap between the budget and the bank, and because a unit's debt for the current year and the three previous ones passes to whoever buys it.
