Hiring works and services for the community: quotes, the contract and who answers if something goes wrong

The façade needs painting, and three quotes have reached the president's table: two from building firms and a much cheaper one from a painter who works alone and will «bring a couple of lads». A community of owners signs contracts all year round, for the lift, the pool, the cleaning, the garden and, every so often, a work on the building itself, and most of them never give trouble. The ones that do raise the same question every time: who answers? This note follows a contract from the vote to the last invoice: who decides and who signs, what the law says about quotes, what the contract should contain, which papers to ask a contractor for and why, what the community must do about safety when there is work on the building, and who answers for defects, unpaid bills and accidents.

Who decides, and who signs

The Horizontal Property Act gives the decision to the owners' meeting, to which it falls to Aprobar los presupuestos y la ejecución de todas las obras de reparación de la finca, sean ordinarias o extraordinarias, approve the budgets and the carrying out of all repair works on the property, ordinary or extraordinary (Ley 49/1960, article 14). Works that the building needs for its conservation are obligatory and need no prior resolution of the meeting, whose part there is to share out the cost and fix how it is paid (article 10); the budget of the work is still the meeting's to approve. Some works have rules of their own, among them accessibility works and energy improvements.

Two people act between meetings. The administrator can order what cannot wait, disponiendo las reparaciones y medidas que resulten urgentes, dando inmediata cuenta de ellas al presidente o, en su caso, a los propietarios, ordering the repairs and measures that are urgent and giving immediate account of them to the president or, where appropriate, to the owners (article 20), and the meeting is informed of them afterwards (article 14). And the president signs, because El presidente ostentará legalmente la representación de la comunidad, en juicio y fuera de él, en todos los asuntos que la afecten, the president legally represents the community, in court and out of it, in all matters that affect it (article 13). The administrator then carries out what was agreed on works and makes the payments (article 20). A burst pipe is repaired first and reported afterwards; repainting the façade waits for the meeting.

Three quotes are good practice, not law

No article of the Act says how many quotes a community must ask for. Three is a habit of careful administrators, and what makes it useful is less the number than that the quotes can be compared: the same measurements, the same materials named by make and quality, the same extent of work, the tax included or shown apart, a time for completion, and the safety measures priced as a line of their own. Spain's national institute for safety and health at work, in a worked example about a community's works, describes a firm that presenta el presupuesto más barato sin especificar partidas en seguridad y salud, submits the cheapest quote without itemising health and safety, and a second, dearer firm whose offer breaks down measurements, materials, labour, the subcontracting it plans and the protections it will install; the community in the example chooses the second (INSST, technical note NTP 1072, of 2016). A quote that says «painting of façade, lump sum» cannot be compared with anything.

What the contract should say

A works contract binds even when it is agreed by word of mouth. Put it in writing, and let it deal with these points.

• The price. Whoever takes on a work for a lump sum on an agreed plan no puede pedir aumento de precio aunque se haya aumentado el de los jornales o materiales, cannot ask for a higher price even if wages or materials have gone up; more is due only for a change that adds work and that the owner authorised (Civil Code, article 1593). Say in the contract who may authorise extras, and that it must be in writing.
• The payments. The Code's own rule, unless otherwise agreed or customary, is that el precio de la obra deberá pagarse al hacerse la entrega, the price of the work is to be paid on delivery (article 1599). Every earlier payment is something the community concedes: tie each one to a finished stage, never to a date.
• A retention. For building work, the Building Act itself accepts, in place of the insurance that covers defects in finishes during the first year, la retención por el promotor de un 5 por 100 del importe de la ejecución material de la obra, the retention by the promoter of 5 per cent of the material execution cost of the work (Ley 38/1999, article 19). The figure is a reasonable reference for any contract.
• Delay. A penalty for each week of delay spares the community from proving what the delay cost. In a penalty clause la pena sustituirá a la indemnización de daños y el abono de intereses en caso de falta de cumplimiento, the penalty takes the place of damages and interest in case of non-performance, unless otherwise agreed (article 1152), and a court will adjust it in fairness when the obligation was performed in part or irregularly (article 1154).
• Stopping the work. El dueño puede desistir, por su sola voluntad, de la construcción de la obra aunque se haya empezado, the owner may withdraw from the work at will even after it has begun, but must pay the contractor its expenses, the work done and the profit it would have made (article 1594). Walking away from a contractor who is merely slow is therefore expensive. Ending the contract because the contractor has broken it is a different route (article 1124), and worth legal advice before the letter is sent.
• Delivery. Finish with a signed record of what is received and what remains to be put right, with a date for it. In building work within the Building Act that record starts the guarantee periods, and silence counts: if thirty days pass from the written notice that the work is finished and the promoter has stated no reservations or reasoned refusal in writing, the work is taken as received (Ley 38/1999, article 6).

Service contracts: read the exit before signing

The lift, the cleaning, the garden and the pool are contracts that run on, and here the community has a protection that few presidents know. The consumer Act counts as consumers, besides natural persons, las entidades sin personalidad jurídica que actúen sin ánimo de lucro en un ámbito ajeno a una actividad comercial o empresarial, entities without legal personality that act without a profit motive outside a commercial or business activity (Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2007, article 3), a description that fits a community of owners having its building maintained. For continuing service contracts the same Act says that se prohíben las cláusulas que establezcan plazos de duración excesiva o limitaciones que excluyan u obstaculicen el derecho del consumidor y usuario a poner fin al contrato, clauses that set an excessive duration, or limits that exclude or hinder the consumer's right to end the contract, are prohibited, and that the contract must set out expressly how the consumer can end it (article 62). The Act gives no number of years. Read the duration, the automatic renewal and the notice period before signing, not on the day the community wants to change supplier.

The papers to ask for, and why

Before the signature, ask the firm for a short file. Each paper has a reason.

• Social Security. This is the paper that can cost the community money. When a contractor is declared liable to pay a worker's benefit, which is what follows from not registering the worker or not paying the contributions (Real Decreto Legislativo 8/2015, article 167), and the work was contracted, the Act says that el propietario de esta responderá de las obligaciones del empresario si el mismo fuese declarado insolvente, its owner shall answer for the employer's obligations if the employer is declared insolvent (article 168), and it carries that liability over to the contributions (article 142). The only exception printed is for the repairs that a householder may contract for their own home. Ask for the certificate that the firm is up to date with the Social Security and for proof that the people who will be on site are registered.
• Wages. The Workers' Statute makes a business answer for the wages and contributions of the contractors it uses for its own activity, and then exempts whoever is not acting as a business: there is no such liability cuando el propietario o propietaria de la obra o industria no contrate su realización por razón de una actividad empresarial, when the owner of the work does not contract it by reason of a business activity (Real Decreto Legislativo 2/2015, article 42). A community that has its stairwell painted is on that side of the line.
• Tax. The General Tax Act makes those who contract work answer for certain taxes of their contractor, but only for works or services correspondientes a su actividad económica principal, belonging to their main economic activity (Ley 58/2003, article 43), words that do not describe a community having its own building repaired. A certificate that the firm is up to date with its taxes is still a cheap sign of who you are dealing with.
• The construction register. Firms that mean to be contracted or subcontracted for work on a construction site must Estar inscritas en el Registro de Empresas Acreditadas, be entered in the Register of Accredited Companies (Ley 32/2006, article 4). The registration lasts three years (Real Decreto 1109/2007, article 6): ask for proof that it is current.
• Insurance. Ask for the civil liability policy and the receipt for the current premium, and check that the activity insured is the one you are hiring and that the sum insured bears some relation to the damage the work could do.
• Special trades. Some work needs an accreditation of its own. In the institute's example the old downpipes are of fibre cement, and the contractor brings in a firm from the register of companies with asbestos risk to remove them.

Safety on site: what the community must do

Start with what the community is not. The rules on coordinating the safety of several firms in one workplace apply within employment relationships, and the institute's answer for communities turns on whether the community has staff of its own. If it employs a porter or a gardener, the prevention rules apply to it, coordination included. If it has no employees and buys its services from specialised firms, communities no pueden adquirir la condición de empresario principal, cannot acquire the status of principal employer (INSST, frequently asked questions on the coordination of business activities, as read on 6 October 2026).

Construction work is another matter, and the word covers more than it seems: the decree on safety in construction lists repair, maintenance, and conservation work such as painting and cleaning among its examples (Real Decreto 1627/1997, annex I), although the institute adds that appearing on the list is not enough by itself. For that decree the promoter is cualquier persona física o jurídica por cuenta de la cual se realice una obra, any natural or legal person on whose behalf a work is carried out (article 2), and the institute's guide to the decree names the communities that promote works to repair, renovate, maintain or improve their buildings: el promotor es la propia comunidad de propietarios representada por su presidente, the promoter is the community of owners itself, represented by its president (INSST, technical guide on construction works, edition of November 2019). Three duties follow.

• A coordinator. When more than one firm takes part in the work, or a firm and self-employed workers, or several self-employed workers, the promoter designará un coordinador en materia de seguridad y salud durante la ejecución de la obra, shall appoint a health and safety coordinator for the execution of the work, before it starts or as soon as that becomes known (article 3). The coordinator is a qualified technician, an architect, a technical architect or an engineer in the institute's example, and appointing one does not close the matter: La designación de los coordinadores no eximirá al promotor de sus responsabilidades, the appointment of the coordinators shall not release the promoter from its responsibilities.
• The safety study. Where the work needs a project, the promoter must see that a health and safety study, or a basic one for smaller works, is drawn up with it (article 4). A work without a project has no study, and the institute recommends that the contractor plan the prevention in a document of its own.
• The opening notice. Until 2010 the promoter had to give notice to the labour authority before work began; that article is repealed. The notice that a site is opening se presentará únicamente por los empresarios que tengan la consideración de contratistas, shall be filed only by the employers who are contractors (article 19). The promoter, the institute adds, gives the contractor the data it needs and sees that it is done.

One way of hiring changes the community's position. A promoter that hires self-employed workers directly tendrá la consideración de contratista respecto de aquéllos, shall be treated as the contractor in respect of them (article 2), with a contractor's duties. The decree exempts the work that a «cabeza de familia», a head of household, may contract for their own home, and the guide describes that person as aquella persona que construye o repara una vivienda (de la cual es titular) para su utilización propia o de su familia, someone who builds or repairs a dwelling of their own for their own or their family's use: a definition written for a person and a home. The simple course for a community is one firm that takes the whole job as contractor. The contractor's duties are then that firm's, and the community keeps the promoter's, the coordinator among them whenever the firm subcontracts.

Not appointing the coordinator, or not having the study drawn up, when they are required is a serious infringement, and the Act that punishes it names los promotores y propietarios de obra, the promoters and owners of works, among those responsible (Real Decreto Legislativo 5/2000, articles 2 and 12), with fines from 2,451 to 49,180 euros (article 40).

Who answers if something goes wrong

Two lines of the Civil Code explain much of that table. El contratista es responsable del trabajo ejecutado por las personas que ocupare en la obra, the contractor is responsible for the work done by the people it employs on the job (article 1596): the community deals with one firm and need not chase its subcontractors. And those who put their labour and materials into a work contracted for a lump sum no tienen acción contra el dueño de ella sino hasta la cantidad que éste adeude a aquél cuando se hace la reclamación, have no claim against its owner beyond the amount that the owner owes the contractor when the claim is made (article 1597). That is the legal reason never to pay ahead of the work: what the community still holds is what an unpaid subcontractor can reach, and no more.

The community answers too, as a debtor: con todos los fondos y créditos a su favor, with all the funds and credits in its favour, and after them each owner who was party to the proceedings, for their share of what remains unpaid, unless that owner is up to date with the community (Horizontal Property Act, article 22). And doing nothing has an answer of its own. The owner of a building is liable for the damage caused by its ruin, in whole or in part, si ésta sobreviniere por falta de las reparaciones necesarias, if it comes about through lack of the necessary repairs (Civil Code, article 1907).

Permits and tax, briefly

Most community works need a prior communication to the town hall or a licence, according to what is done, and scaffolding that rests on the pavement can call for a licence by itself: the map is in our note on roof works. On tax, compare quotes with IGIC included and with the rate that each contractor applies stated on the quote.

What we do, and what we do not

In the communities we administer in Fuerteventura, significant jobs go to the meeting with three comparable quotes and our written recommendation, from trades that we vet and review every year; the work is checked on site before an invoice is paid. Our fee is agreed in advance, never a percentage of the works, and we take no commissions from suppliers. We are not the technical director of a work or its safety coordinator: those are independent technicians, and we ask the community to appoint them when the work calls for it. See our community maintenance service and what an administrator's fee covers when a work has to be managed, or ask for a fixed-fee quote.

Common questions

Does the law oblige the community to ask for three quotes?

No. The Act asks the meeting to approve the budget and the carrying out of repair works and says nothing about how many quotes it must see. Three comparable quotes are good practice, and the meeting is free to ask for them.

Can the administrator hire a contractor without calling a meeting?

For what is urgent, yes: the Act lets the administrator order urgent repairs and measures and requires immediate account of them to the president or the owners. The rest, the budget of a repair work and its execution, belongs to the meeting.

We want to hire a painter and an electrician, both self-employed, for the stairwell. Do we need a safety coordinator?

If the job is construction work in the decree's sense, yes: several self-employed workers on one work is one of the cases in which the promoter must appoint a coordinator, and by hiring them directly the community is treated as their contractor. One firm that does the whole job with its own staff avoids both.

The contractor has gone under with the work half done, and the tiler it never paid wants the community to pay. Must it?

Only up to what the community still owed the contractor when the tiler made the claim. A community that has paid for no more than the work done owes nothing further, which is the point of paying by finished stages.

The lift company says our contract renews by itself for years. Are we tied?

Not necessarily. In a contract between a business and a community acting as a consumer, clauses that set an excessive duration or hinder the right to end the contract are prohibited, and the contract must say how to end it. The Act sets no number of years, so the answer depends on the clause: have it read before the renewal date.