The minutes reach you in Hamburg a week after the junta you did not attend: under item four, «nombramiento de cargos», the presidency of the community has fallen to you. It is not a mistake and it is not optional. It is also far less alarming than the first reading suggests, because the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal — the Act that governs every community of owners in Spain — says exactly how the post is filled, how long it lasts, how you can be relieved of it and what it makes you responsible for. This is how we explain it to the owners abroad in the communities we administer.
How the president is chosen
The community's governing bodies are the owners' meeting, the president (with vice-presidents if it wants them), the secretary and the administrator (Ley de Propiedad Horizontal, art. 13.1). The president is appointed «among the owners, by election or, failing that, by rotation or by lot» (art. 13.2). Election comes first; most communities never get that far, and the turno — the rotation, usually in the order of the units — or the draw decides. Being an owner is the only condition the Act sets: nothing in it asks that you live in the building, on the island or in Spain.
The appointment lasts one year unless the statutes of the community say otherwise (art. 13.7); the meeting that appoints can also remove, before the year is up, in an extraordinary session called for that purpose (arts. 13.7 and 14.a). Vice-presidents are optional, appointed the same way, and they stand in for the president when he or she is absent, unable to act or the post falls vacant (art. 13.4) — which, for an owner abroad, is the first thing to ask for. Unless the statutes or the meeting provide the posts separately, the president is also the community's secretary and its administrator (art. 13.5); the administrator's post may be held by any owner or by a professionally qualified person or firm (art. 13.6).
Can you refuse?
No — and yes. «The appointment is mandatory», the Act says, and then, in the same sentence, it opens a door: the owner designated «may ask the judge to be relieved within the month following their accession to the post, invoking the reasons that assist them» (art. 13.2). The judge decides summarily, through the same channel the Act uses for deadlocked votes (art. 17.7), and in the same ruling names the owner who will hold the post until the community appoints again within the deadline the court sets. The matter may also go to the judge when, for whatever reason, it proves impossible for the meeting to appoint a president at all (art. 13.2).
Three things about that door. The month runs from the day you take office, not from the day you read the minutes, so an owner abroad should answer the notice the week it arrives. The Act lists no valid reasons: age, illness and living far from the building are the ones owners invoke, and the judge weighs each case — distance is an argument, not an automatic pass, and a refusal is possible. And the courtroom is the expensive door. Before it, ask the meeting: an extraordinary junta can accept your resignation and elect a neighbour who wants the post, or appoint a resident vice-president and leave you the signature. In the communities we administer that conversation settles most cases before anyone reads article 13.2 twice.
What the president actually does
The president «holds the legal representation of the community, in court and out of it, in every matter that affects it» (art. 13.3). In practice that means a short list of acts that nobody else can perform:
- Calling the meetings. The president convenes the annual junta and any other the president thinks fit or a quarter of the owners request, with the agenda, place, date and time, and must add any item an owner asks for in writing (arts. 16.1 and 16.2).
- Signing the minutes. The minutes are closed with the signatures of the president and the secretary at the end of the meeting or within the ten natural days that follow; from that closing the resolutions are enforceable (art. 19.3).
- Countersigning the arrears certificate. A claim against a debtor through the special payment-order procedure needs the secretary's certificate of the debt with the president's visto bueno — unless the secretary is a professional administrator who will not act in the claim (art. 21.3). Our arrears piece walks through the procedure.
- Stopping prohibited activities. The president, on their own initiative or at any owner's request, formally demands that a nuisance or prohibited activity cease and, with the meeting's authorisation, brings the cessation action (art. 7.2).
- Receiving the administrator's reports. Urgent repairs are ordered by the administrator, who must report them immediately to the president (art. 20.c).
Everything else — preparing the budget and the accounts, sending the notices, keeping the books and the documents, ordering the maintenance, paying and collecting, executing the resolutions on works — is the administrator's job (art. 20). A community that has no professional administrator lays all of it on the president. That, more than the signatures, is what makes the post heavy; and it is the part that can be delegated.
What you are liable for
Start with what you are not liable for. The community answers for its own debts with all its funds and credits; only subsidiarily, after a demand for payment, may a creditor go against each owner for their share of what remains unpaid (art. 22.1) — and that is every owner's exposure as an owner, president or not. The president is the community's organ of representation: a contract signed in the community's name, within what the meeting resolved, binds the community, not the person who signed it.
Personal liability begins where the mandate ends. The courts have held presidents personally answerable when they acted without a resolution or against one, ordered works or signed contracts the meeting had not approved, or restricted a neighbour's use of the common elements with no legal or statutory basis. Outside the mandate the general rule applies: whoever causes damage to another by fault or negligence must repair it (Código Civil, art. 1902). Ignoring a known danger in the common areas — a loose railing reported twice, a pool without its safety checks — is the kind of omission that can be laid at the president's door.
The discipline is simple. Act on resolutions and keep them in the minutes; leave the technical decisions to the administrator's written advice; spend inside the budget or take the extra to a vote; and ask whether the community's insurance carries the civil liability of its governing bodies — many community policies offer that cover as an extension, and for a president abroad it is worth the premium. Our community insurance service explains what to look for in the policy.
Holding the post from abroad
Being represented at the junta by a signed writing (art. 15.1) is your right as an owner; the presidency itself is not a seat you can send someone to. Where the Act gives you a stand-in is the vice-president (art. 13.4). So the protocol we propose to the owners abroad who are made president in the communities we administer runs like this:
- A resident vice-president, appointed by the same meeting, who can receive a courier, meet the plumber and sign in an emergency.
- The administrator as secretary-administrator (arts. 13.5 and 13.6), so that notices, books, urgent repairs, payments and collections do not wait for your time zone.
- The junta online or in hybrid form, where the statutes or the junta provide for it and identification and the vote are guaranteed — you chair from your desk, but the Act does not yet regulate it expressly (a reform has been before Congress since May 2026), so the proxy remains the safe route; our AGM piece for owners abroad covers the notice, the proxy and the vote.
- A domicile for notifications in the community's file (art. 9.1.h), an e-mail beside it, and ten days in the calendar after every meeting for the minutes to reach you and come back signed.
- The year's two dates: the ordinary junta, where the accounts you will be signing are read the way our annual-accounts piece reads them, and the meeting where the turno moves on and you hand over.
For the communities we administer the paper does not travel by 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. A president in Hamburg sees what a president in Corralejo sees.
Where we come in
Our administrators in Fuerteventura act as secretary-administrator for communities whose president lives in another country: they prepare the budget, the notices and the minutes, order the urgent repairs and report them the same day, keep the books and the documents at every owner's disposal, and put in front of the president only what the president must sign. See our community administration service, or ask for a quote. If your community has an administrator who does not work this way, changing administrator is a resolution of the junta, not a battle.
Common questions
Can a non-resident owner be president of the community?
Yes. The Act requires the president to be an owner and nothing more — not residence in the building, on the island or in Spain. Living far away is a reason you may put to the judge to be relieved within the month after taking office; it is not a bar to the post, and it is not an automatic release either.
How long does the post last, and can I be removed or re-elected?
One year, unless the community's statutes fix another term. The meeting can remove the president before the year ends in an extraordinary session called for that purpose, and nothing prevents re-election. When the year ends the community appoints again — by election or, failing that, by rotation or lot.
Is the president paid?
The Act says nothing about pay, so the post is unpaid unless the meeting agrees a compensation, which some communities do by resolution. If yours does, treat the sum as income and ask your tax adviser how it is declared.
What happens if nobody wants to be president?
The appointment is mandatory: if nobody stands for election, the rotation or the draw decides, and the owner designated holds the post unless the judge relieves them. If the meeting cannot appoint a president at all, the matter may be taken to the judge, who names one; that designation runs until the community appoints again.
