The flat in Corralejo empties in the last week of September and will not see its owner again until Easter. Between the two visits it will face a flexible hose under the kitchen sink, a terrace drain and the first rains of autumn, a residual-current breaker that trips one night above a fridge that was left full, a neighbour's leak that has to be traced through your bathroom, and a junta notice served on an empty door. None of this needs you on the island. All of it needs someone with a key, a page that says what they may do, and a channel that tells you what happened. This is the absence protocol we ask owners abroad in the communities we administer to leave behind — and the law that sits under each line of it.
What the law expects of an empty flat
Absence changes nothing in the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal, and that is precisely the problem: every duty it places on an owner keeps running while the flat is empty. You must keep your own unit and its private installations in good repair «en términos que no perjudiquen a la comunidad o a los otros propietarios, resarciendo los daños que ocasione por su descuido o el de las personas por quienes deba responder» — in terms that do not prejudice the community or the other owners, making good the damage caused by your neglect or by that of the people you answer for (LPH, art. 9.1.b). You must allow in your flat «las reparaciones que exija el servicio del inmueble» — the repairs the building's service requires — and the temporary easements that common works need, with the right to be compensated for the damage they cause (art. 9.1.c), and you must «permitir la entrada en su piso o local a los efectos prevenidos en los tres apartados anteriores» — let the community in for those purposes (art. 9.1.d). If you notice that the building needs an urgent repair, you must tell the administrator «sin dilación», without delay (art. 7.1).
The duty that catches most owners abroad is the quiet one. Every owner must give the community's secretary an address in Spain for notices; failing that, «se tendrá por domicilio para citaciones y notificaciones el piso o local perteneciente a la comunidad, surtiendo plenos efectos jurídicos las entregadas al ocupante del mismo» — the flat itself is the address, and a notice handed to whoever occupies it is fully valid. If it cannot be delivered there, it goes on the community's notice board and takes full effect three natural days later (art. 9.1.h). An empty flat, in other words, receives its convocations, its debtor lists and its levies on the board, and the deadlines run whether you have read them or not.
Behind the LPH stand the general rules. Whoever causes damage to another by fault or negligence must repair it (Código Civil, art. 1902), and the owner of a building answers for the damage that results from its ruin «si ésta sobreviniere por falta de las reparaciones necesarias» — for want of the necessary repairs (art. 1907). A burst hose that floods the flat below is not bad luck in the eyes of the law; it is a private installation that was not kept in good repair, and the bill follows the origin, as our piece on leaks explains.
Keys: who holds them, and under what mandate
The keyholder is the whole protocol in one person. A neighbour who lives in the building, a friend on the island, the cleaner, a letting agent, the administrator's office: any of them can do it, and the choice matters less than the page that goes with the key.
Handing over a key with the authority to enter and act is, in law, a mandate. The Civil Code allows one to be «expreso o tácito», and the express one may be given «por instrumento público o privado y aun de palabra» — in a public or private document, or even by word of mouth (Código Civil, art. 1710). Verbal is valid and useless: the day the keyholder stands in your hallway with a plumber and a neighbour who wants to know by what right, a signed page is the answer. The Code also fixes the limit of a general mandate: «no comprende más que los actos de administración» — it covers acts of administration only, and anything that disposes of the property needs an express mandate (art. 1713). Letting in the community's contractor, closing a stopcock, calling a plumber, airing the flat and photographing it are acts of administration. Signing anything about the property is not, and the page should say so.
What we ask every owner abroad in the communities we administer to put on that page, with a copy lodged with the administrator:
- Who holds the key, with phone and e-mail, and a second person who can be reached when the first is away.
- What for: entry for the community's repairs and inspections under article 9.1.c and d; entry in an emergency; a monthly visit to air the flat, run the taps and check the ceilings; letting in the contractors you name.
- Spending authority: whether the holder may call a plumber or an electrician without asking you first, and up to what amount.
- The record: every entry noted with date, reason and photographs, sent to you — and to the administrator when the entry concerns the community.
- What the holder must not do: pass the key on, let anyone in unaccompanied, or sign anything.
- Until when: a date, or «until revoked in writing», and the instruction to return the key on that day.
Two keys, not one: the holder's, and a second set somewhere the holder can reach if the first is lost. And a word on key boxes. The small combination safes screwed to a door frame are convenient, and they are exactly the kind of thing a home policy asks about: the second-home wording we read excludes theft when the home did not have the security measures declared in the particular conditions, and another excludes thefts brought about by the insured's negligence. Ask your insurer in writing before you install one, and never leave the code where the box is.
Emergencies: who may enter, and how
Water pouring through the ceiling of the flat below, smoke behind a closed door, a smell of gas on the landing. The law draws three situations apart.
With consent, at any time. If you or your keyholder open the door, or authorise the administrator to let a contractor in, nobody's rights are touched. This is why the keyholder exists: the community's plumber can be inside the same morning, and the duty of access under article 9.1.d is met.
Without consent, in a real emergency. A home is inviolable under the Constitution: «Ninguna entrada o registro podrá hacerse en él sin consentimiento del titular o resolución judicial, salvo en caso de flagrante delito» — no entry without the owner's consent or a court order, except in flagrante delicto (Constitución, art. 18.2). The exception for emergencies belongs to the police, not to the president. Under the public-security act, «será causa legítima suficiente para la entrada en domicilio la necesidad de evitar daños inminentes y graves a las personas y a las cosas, en supuestos de catástrofe, calamidad, ruina inminente u otros semejantes de extrema y urgente necesidad» — the need to prevent imminent and serious damage to people or property, in a catastrophe, an imminent collapse or a comparable case of extreme and urgent necessity, is a sufficient lawful cause for entering a home (Ley Orgánica 4/2015, art. 15.2), and the officers then send their report to the court without delay (art. 15.4). The civil-protection act applies the same rule when an emergency requires entering a home (Ley 17/2015, art. 7 bis.4). So the protocol for an unreachable flat with water coming out of it is not a locksmith: it is 112, and the officers or the firefighters on the landing decide whether the case is grave enough to open the door. A locksmith who opens a door on a neighbour's word, without the owner's consent and without that call, exposes everyone involved to the offence of entering another's dwelling (Código Penal, art. 202).
Without consent, without an emergency. A slow leak, a repair the junta has approved, an inspection the insurer wants — and an owner who does not answer, or refuses. The community has no right of self-help. Its remedy is the court: the actions the LPH gives to the junta and to the owners, other than pure money claims, go through the ordinary procedure (Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil, art. 249.1.8.º), a route measured in months, during which the damage continues and the refusing owner accumulates liability under article 9.1.b. Every one of those months is what a keyholder and a signed mandate would have saved.
Whichever door it is, the administrator's role is written in the law: to attend to the conservation of the building «disponiendo las reparaciones y medidas que resulten urgentes, dando inmediata cuenta de ellas al presidente» — ordering the urgent repairs and measures and reporting them at once to the president (LPH, art. 20.c), who represents the community in and out of court (art. 13.3). And the evidence starts on the landing: photographs with the time on them before anything is mopped, the contractor's note on where the water came from, the neighbour's account, and the insurer's expert as soon as the claim is opened — the file that decides who pays.
Before you leave: water, power, air, post
The checklist is short, and each line removes one of the classic claims.
Water. Close the general stopcock — the one inside the flat, usually behind a small hatch near the entrance or under the kitchen sink — and, if the meters sit in a shared cabinet, know which valve is yours. The flexible hoses under sinks and behind the toilet and the washing machine are the commonest origin of a private leak, and a supply interruption followed by the return of pressure is the classic moment for a tired one to fail. Switch off the electric water heater at its breaker. Clear your terrace drains: a summer of calima leaves them full for the first rains of autumn. The roof outlets are the community's job, which is why they sit on our autumn checklist and why a tired membrane is what our roof piece is about.
Power and gas. Empty the fridge and leave its door ajar: three of the wordings we have read exclude spoiled food once the home has been empty for more than ten days, so a full fridge behind a tripped breaker is a loss nobody insures. Cut the circuits you do not need and leave on what must stay — the alarm, the router if you monitor the flat. Close the valve on any butane bottle and, if you can, keep the bottle out of the kitchen.
Air. Fuerteventura's air carries salt and its winter humidity is real; a closed flat grows mould on north walls and inside wardrobes. The keyholder's monthly visit — windows open for an hour, taps run so that the traps stay wet, ceilings and the cupboards under the sinks checked — is worth more than any gadget, and a cheap humidity sensor that sends a reading to your phone is a good second line.
Post and notices. Article 9.1.h is why the letterbox matters: a convocation or a levy delivered to the flat is validly delivered. Give the community's secretary an address in Spain, by a means that proves receipt — the administrator's office, under the mandate our power-of-attorney piece describes, or a person who will forward what arrives — and ask the keyholder to empty the box on every visit. Leave the administrator your phone number and your e-mail, and the keyholder's: a repair that waits for an answer waits for you.
A record on the way out. Ten dated photographs — the stopcock closed, the breakers, the ceilings, the terrace — fix the state of the flat for the insurer and, if the community's works damage something inside, for the compensation article 9.1.c gives you.
If the flat is let while you are away, the manager or the tenant is your keyholder in practice and the mandate should say so; what a holiday let needs from the community is a subject of its own.
Your home policy while the flat is empty
The community's building policy covers the common elements and the community's liability — our piece on what the community's policy covers goes through it — and nothing inside your flat. An owner abroad needs a home policy of their own, and the policy needs to know that the flat is empty most of the year.
The insurance contract act places three duties on you that an absence touches. Clauses that limit your rights must be highlighted in the policy and «específicamente aceptadas por escrito» — specifically accepted in writing (Ley 50/1980, art. 3); the clauses on unoccupied homes are such clauses, and they are the pages to read. During the contract you must tell the insurer, as soon as you can, of any change in the circumstances you declared in the questionnaire that aggravates the risk (art. 11.1): a flat insured as a habitual home and now visited twice a year is, in the wordings we have read, exactly such a change — they price and condition a secondary home differently. A loss must be notified within seven days of learning of it unless the policy allows longer (art. 16), and you must use the means at your disposal to limit the damage (art. 17) — the keyholder who closes the stopcock at eight in the morning is doing exactly what the law asks, and the reasonable cost of that salvage is the insurer's.
What the wordings say. We read the general conditions of several insurers sold in Spain in September 2026, and the thresholds vary far more than owners assume. One defines a habitual home as one that «no permanece deshabitada más de 30 días consecutivos al año», a secondary home as one lived in at least once a month or fifteen days a year, and an unoccupied home as one lived in less than fifteen days a year — three categories, three prices, and a claim filed under the wrong one is a claim in trouble. Another insures second homes only under a modality of their own and treats as secondary any home occupied by the insured for less than four months a year. On water, a second-home wording excludes damage from frozen pipes and from taps or valves not closed «si la vivienda ha estado deshabitada más de 3 días seguidos». On theft, jewellery outside a safe is excluded after 96 or 120 consecutive hours empty in two wordings and after thirty consecutive days in a third; one wording excludes simple theft without force outright when the home is let or empty for more than thirty consecutive days; spoiled food goes after ten days. None of these is a rule of law — they are contract terms, and yours will differ — but each of them is a reason to declare the flat as what it is, to ask the insurer in writing what «deshabitada» means in your policy, and to keep the keyholder's visits on record.
The protocol, on one page
- A keyholder named, with a substitute, and the signed mandate lodged with the administrator.
- Two keys; no key box without the insurer's written answer.
- Stopcock closed, water heater off, hoses checked once a year, drains cleared.
- Fridge empty, unneeded circuits off, gas valve closed.
- A monthly visit: air, run the taps, check ceilings and the cupboards under the sinks, empty the letterbox, photograph.
- An address in Spain for notices, given to the secretary by a means that proves receipt; your phone and e-mail with the administrator.
- A home policy declared for a second home, with water damage and third-party liability in, the unoccupancy clauses read, and the administrator as a contact the insurer may call.
- The emergency line: keyholder first; if unreachable and the damage is grave, 112 — never a locksmith on a neighbour's word.
- A record: dated photographs on leaving, and every entry noted with date, reason and pictures.
- Fees and IBI on direct debit, so that an empty flat never appears on the debtor list of a convocation.
Where we come in
For the owners abroad in the communities we administer, the absence protocol lives in the unit's file: the keyholder and their substitute, the mandate, the insurer and the policy number, the address for notices, the contacts that answer. An incident — the neighbour's photograph, the porter's call, water on the stairs — is reported from the phone; we dispatch a vetted contractor and close the ticket with before-and-after photographs, and you see it from wherever you live, the same day. Insurance renewals sit among the deadlines we watch for you. See our administration for non-resident owners and our maintenance and contractors service, or ask for a quote.
Common questions
Can the community enter my flat while I am abroad?
Only with consent, through 112 in a grave emergency, or by court order. Articles 9.1.c and 9.1.d of the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal oblige you to allow the repairs the building's service requires and to let the community in for them, but they give nobody the right to force your door: a keyholder with a signed mandate meets the duty; without one, an emergency that threatens serious damage is a matter for the police under article 15.2 of Ley Orgánica 4/2015, and anything less goes through the courts.
Do I have to tell my insurer that the flat is empty most of the year?
Yes. The insurance contract act requires you to declare, as soon as you can, any change in the circumstances you gave in the questionnaire that aggravates the risk, and the wordings we have read classify a home as habitual, secondary or unoccupied by how many days a year it is lived in — with separate modalities, exclusions on water damage and theft, and thresholds that run from three consecutive days to thirty. Declare the flat as a second home and read the clauses on «vivienda deshabitada» before you need them.
What should the written key mandate say?
Who holds the key and who substitutes for them; what they may do — enter for the community's repairs and inspections, enter in an emergency, visit monthly, let in the contractors you name — and what they may spend without asking; that every entry is recorded with date, reason and photographs; that they may not pass the key on or sign anything; and until when. A mandate in general terms covers acts of administration only, which is exactly the scope you want.
What happens to community notices while I am away?
Unless you have given the secretary an address in Spain, the flat is your address for every notice, a delivery to whoever occupies it is valid, and a notice that cannot be delivered goes on the community's board and takes effect three natural days later. Give an address in writing — the administrator's office under a mandate, or a person on the island — and have the keyholder empty the letterbox on every visit.
