The gardener has come every Thursday for six years. Whoever is president that year pays him in cash, and nobody remembers who first asked him to come. The day he hurts his back on the palm ladder, or the day a labour inspector asks him who he works for, the answer will be the community: Spanish law treats a community of owners as an employer like any other, with a contract to write, a registration to make before the first day and a payroll to run. This piece reads what that takes in October 2026: who decides and who signs, the contract, the Social Security, the information document that every employer owes since 5 October, what a post costs, health and safety, the concierge's flat, and the alternative of hiring a company, which since a Supreme Court ruling of 2022 is not the risk-free option many boards believe it to be.
The law calls the community an employer
The Workers' Statute does not ask whether the employer is a business. For its purposes, serán empresarios todas las personas, físicas o jurídicas, o comunidades de bienes que reciban la prestación de servicios, employers are all persons, natural or legal, and communities of property that receive the services of an employee (article 1.2). And it does not wait for a signature to find a contract: Se presumirá existente entre todo el que presta un servicio por cuenta y dentro del ámbito de organización y dirección de otro y el que lo recibe a cambio de una retribución a aquel, a contract is presumed to exist between anyone who provides a service on behalf of another and within that other's organisation and direction, and the one who receives it in exchange for pay (article 8.1).
That is the test for the Thursday gardener. If the community tells him when to come and what to do, lends him the tools and pays him a regular sum, he is its employee, whatever anyone calls the arrangement. A self-employed gardener looks different: his own tools and van, other clients, an invoice with his tax number, and the freedom to send someone else. The first needs a contract and a registration; the second needs an invoice and proof that he is registered as self-employed.
Getting it wrong has a price before anything goes wrong. No solicitar la afiliación inicial o el alta de los trabajadores que ingresen a su servicio, failing to apply for the affiliation or registration of the workers who enter one's service, is a serious infringement, counted once for each worker, and the fine runs from €3,750 to €12,000 (Ley sobre Infracciones y Sanciones en el Orden Social, articles 22.2 and 40.1.e).
Who decides, and who signs
Staff are a decision of the owners' meeting. The Horizontal Property Act gives the meeting the budget and the measures necesarias o convenientes para el mejor servicio común, necessary or convenient for the best common service (article 14), and it sets a reinforced majority for the service itself: El establecimiento o supresión de los servicios de portería, conserjería, vigilancia u otros servicios comunes de interés general needs the favourable vote of three fifths of all the owners, who must also hold three fifths of the quotas (article 17.3). Creating a concierge post, or abolishing one, is that kind of resolution.
The contract is then signed by the president, because El presidente ostentará legalmente la representación de la comunidad, en juicio y fuera de él, the president legally represents the community in and out of court (article 13.3). The administrator makes the payments and does whatever else the meeting entrusts to him (article 20), which in practice includes the monthly paperwork. For an owner who lives abroad, the place to look is the budget: the staff are a line in the accounts that the meeting votes, and our note on reading the annual accounts from abroad shows where to find it.
Before the first day
| The paper |
The rule |
| The community's registration as an employer |
Before it employs anyone (Real Decreto 84/1996, article 5) |
| The worker's registration with the Social Security |
Before the work starts; deregistration within six days (article 32) |
| A written contract |
Part-time, seasonal or temporary for more than four weeks (Workers' Statute, article 8.2) |
| The information document |
Before the work starts, since 5 October 2026 (Real Decreto 723/2026) |
| A record of working time |
Every day, with the start and the finish (article 34.9) |
| The holiday calendar |
Thirty calendar days a year, the dates known two months ahead (article 38) |
| A risk assessment and a prevention plan |
Ley 31/1995, articles 14, 16 and 30 |
The Social Security comes first, twice. A community that has never employed anyone must register as an employer como requisito previo e indispensable a la iniciación de sus actividades, as a prior and indispensable requirement for starting its activities, and in the same application it states which body, in practice a mutual insurer, will cover accidents at work (Real Decreto 84/1996, article 5). Then each worker is registered con carácter previo al comienzo de la prestación de servicios por el trabajador, before the worker begins to provide services, and no earlier than 60 days before (article 32.3). There is no grace period after the first day. Leaving is the other way round: since 1 August 2026 the community has six calendar days from the end of the job to deregister the worker, where it had three before.
The contract: indefinite unless there is a reason
The Statute's starting point is permanence: El contrato de trabajo se presume concertado por tiempo indefinido, the employment contract is presumed to be for an indefinite time (article 15.1). A fixed-term contract is allowed only for circumstances of production or to replace a worker, and the contract must say which and why. For a community the two real cases are these:
- Holiday cover. Among the circumstances of production the Statute counts the fluctuations que derivan de las vacaciones anuales, that derive from annual holidays (article 15.2), so the concierge's August can be covered with a temporary contract, for no more than six months.
- Replacing someone who will return. Sick leave or parental leave is covered with a substitution contract that names the person replaced and the reason (article 15.3).
Everything else is indefinite, and that includes part-time work. Four hours of cleaning a week is a part-time indefinite contract, in writing, stating the hours and how they are distributed (article 12.4.a). Its hours are recorded: the working time of a part-time employee se registrará día a día y se totalizará mensualmente, is recorded day by day and totalled each month, with a copy handed over with the payslip (article 12.4.c). For full-time staff the community keeps the daily record that every employer keeps, with el horario concreto de inicio y finalización de la jornada de trabajo de cada persona trabajadora, the specific time at which each worker starts and finishes (article 34.9). Work that returns every season, such as a summer lifeguard, is a seasonal permanent contract, also indefinite (article 16.1).
Since 5 October 2026: the information document
Real Decreto 723/2026 applies to every company and worker within the scope of the Workers' Statute (article 2.1), and a community that employs is within it. For any job that lasts more than four weeks, the essential terms of the employment must be given to the worker in writing con carácter previo al inicio de la relación laboral, before the employment relationship begins: who the employer is, the place and the hours, the pay and how it is made up, the holidays, the notice periods. Staff who were already employed on that date can ask for the same information, and the community has thirty working days to hand it over. Our sister piece on the new information duty reads the decree article by article.
What a post costs
The floor is the minimum wage. For 2026 it is 40,70 euros/día o 1 221 euros/mes, €40.70 a day or €1,221 a month, in fourteen payments, so that no full-time worker can earn less than €17,094 a year (Real Decreto 126/2026, articles 1 and 3). The employer's Social Security contributions add about 30.65 % to that, plus the accident premium of the activity: a full-time concierge on the minimum wage costs the community about €22,300 a year before that premium. A cleaner on ten hours a week costs a quarter of that. The arithmetic, line by line, is in our sister piece on what an employee costs in 2026.
Above the floor there is, in this province, only the contract. The national register of collective agreements, which we consulted on 4 October 2026, lists no agreement for the employees of residential buildings in the province of Las Palmas or for the Canary Islands as a whole, although Madrid's appears in the same search. Without one, pay, categories and extras are whatever the contract says, never below the Statute and the minimum wage. If your administrator applies an agreement to the community's staff, ask which one and why.
Holidays belong in the budget too. En ningún caso la duración será inferior a treinta días naturales, in no case shall they be shorter than thirty calendar days, and the worker must know the dates at least two months ahead (article 38). A community that knows in June when its concierge is away can plan the cover instead of improvising it.
Health and safety is not only for big employers
The Prevention of Occupational Risks Act has no small-employer exemption: el empresario deberá garantizar la seguridad y la salud de los trabajadores a su servicio en todos los aspectos relacionados con el trabajo, the employer must guarantee the safety and health of the workers in its service in every aspect related to the work (Ley 31/1995, article 14.2). In practice that means a prevention plan and a risk assessment of the actual tasks (article 16): the ladder, the pool chemicals, the bin store. It also means someone to run it. The Act lets a small employer do so personally only if he habitually works at the workplace (article 30.5), which a community cannot do, so the usual answer is a contract with an external prevention service. When a contractor's people work in the building alongside the community's own, the two employers must coordinate (article 24).
The concierge's flat
Where the post comes with a flat, two rules decide most disputes. The flat is pay in kind, and pay in kind can never be more than thirty per cent of the salary, ni dar lugar a la minoración de la cuantía íntegra en dinero del salario mínimo interprofesional, nor reduce the full amount in money of the minimum wage (Workers' Statute, article 26.1). The minimum is paid in cash, and the flat comes on top. And the flat is not a tenancy. The tenancy act leaves out of its scope El uso de las viviendas que los porteros, guardas, asalariados, empleados y funcionarios, tengan asignadas por razón del cargo que desempeñen o del servicio que presten, the use of the dwellings that porters, guards, employees and officials have been assigned by reason of the post they hold or the service they provide (Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos, article 5.a). The right to live there comes with the job and ends with it.
Abolishing the post takes two steps, and the first does not replace the second. The meeting votes to end the service, with the three fifths of article 17.3. The dismissal then follows the Statute, with its causes and its forms. When it is a dismissal for objective causes, the letter is delivered together with la indemnización de veinte días por año de servicio, compensation of twenty days' pay for each year of service, up to twelve monthly payments (article 53.1.b).
Hiring a company instead: what the Supreme Court said in 2022
Many boards outsource to avoid all of the above, and for the paperwork it works: the company is the employer. For the risk it works less well than it used to. The Statute makes whoever contracts out its «own activity» answer for the contractor. It answers for the Social Security debts the contractor runs up during the contract until three years after it ends, and for unpaid wages it responderá solidariamente durante el año siguiente a la finalización del encargo, is jointly and severally liable during the year after the contract ends (article 42.2). For years the courts held that a community of owners was not that kind of principal. On 27 May 2022 the Supreme Court decided otherwise in a case about a concierge service: La Comunidad de Propietarios participa de la condición de agente económico, the community of owners shares the condition of an economic agent, and the service it had contracted out was its own activity (Social Chamber, judgment 486/2022). The community was ordered to pay, jointly with the company, the wages the company owed its concierge.
Three precautions follow from the article itself and from that ruling:
- Ask for the certificate before signing. The principal must check that the contractor is up to date with the Social Security by requesting a certificate; if the Treasury does not issue it within thirty days, the principal is released from that liability (article 42.1).
- Ask for proof every month. A contract that obliges the company to show the payslips and the contribution receipts of the people it sends, and lets the community withhold payment if it does not, turns a year of exposure into a monthly check.
- Read the contractor's own agreement before changing company. The cleaning companies of this province have a collective agreement of their own; before the contractor changes, read what it says about the people who have been cleaning the building.
The ruling was about a concierge. It did not decide whether a lift maintenance company or a pool treatment company carries out the community's «own activity», and we would not assume that it does or that it does not.
A checklist for the board
- List everyone who works at the building. For each person: employee, company or self-employed. The cash arrangement that nobody remembers starting is the first one to settle.
- For each employee, the file. Contract, registration, information document, payslips, time record, holiday calendar, risk assessment.
- For each contractor, the proof. Certificate from the Social Security, monthly evidence of wages and contributions, liability insurance.
- One line in the budget. Salary, contributions, holiday cover and prevention service, voted by the meeting before the year starts.
What we do in the communities we administer
In the communities we administer in Corralejo and across Fuerteventura, the staff are part of the administration: contracts written and registered, payroll and Social Security filed every month by the labour specialists of AAA+ Consulting, the advisory firm behind this brand, holidays and substitutions planned, and the cost inside the budget the meeting has voted. When a community comes to us with staff, their rights come with them: we review the contracts, correct what needs correcting and carry the employment on. What the fee covers is set out in our note on administrator fees; the service itself is described on our page about community staff and payroll, and you can ask for a quote.
Common questions
A few hours of cleaning a week: does that really need a contract?
Yes, if the person works for the community regularly, under its instructions and for pay. The hours do not change that; they change the contract, which will be a part-time one, in writing, with the hours stated and recorded, and with the worker registered with the Social Security before the first day.
Is there a collective agreement for concierges in Fuerteventura?
We have not found one. The national register of collective agreements, consulted on 4 October 2026, shows none for the employees of residential buildings in the province of Las Palmas or for the Canaries. The contract, the Workers' Statute and the minimum wage of €1,221 a month in fourteen payments set the terms.
If we hire a company, is the community free of risk?
No. Since the Supreme Court's judgment 486/2022, a community that contracts out its concierge service answers jointly for the wages the company leaves unpaid, during the year after the contract ends, and the Statute adds three years for the Social Security debts. Certificates and monthly proof are how that risk is managed.
Can the community abolish the concierge's post?
The meeting can end the service with three fifths of owners and quotas. The employment then has to be ended as the Workers' Statute requires, which for a dismissal on objective grounds means twenty days' pay per year of service, up to twelve monthly payments. If the post came with a flat, the right to live in it ends with the job.
