Your community has decided, or is about to decide, to do without a property manager. Now comes the practical part: how to run a community of owners without a property manager without the building suffering and without breaking the law. The good news is that Spain’s Horizontal Property Law expressly allows it, and that the work, properly organised, is far more manageable than it looks. In this guide we walk step by step through everything that needs covering: roles, meetings, accounts, minutes, incidents and arrears, and how a platform for self-managed communities can do the heavy lifting.
If you still have doubts about the legal side of the decision, start with our article on whether a property manager is mandatory: the short answer is that it is not. Everything below is checked against the consolidated text of Law 49/1960 published in the BOE.
1. Organise the roles: president, secretary and administrator
First, be clear about who does what. A president is always mandatory: they are appointed from among the owners by election or, failing that, by rotation or by lot, and the role cannot simply be refused, the appointee can only ask the judge for relief within the month following the appointment, stating their reasons (article 13.2).
If you appoint nobody else, the president also takes on the duties of secretary and administrator (article 13.5). But the meeting can share out the work by majority resolution: one resident as secretary, another as administrator, or both roles in the same person (article 13.6). Unless the bylaws say otherwise, every appointment lasts one year (article 13.7). Sharing the roles is the first smart decision of a self-managed community: it stops the whole weight landing on one person. We have a dedicated guide on the duties of the president of a community without a manager.
2. Call the annual meeting the way the law requires
The owners’ meeting must gather at least once a year to approve the budget and the accounts (article 16.1). It must also be called whenever a quarter of the owners, or owners representing 25% of the participation quotas, request it.
The notice is issued by the president and states the business to be discussed, the place, the day and the time, on first and, where applicable, second call. It must include the list of owners with outstanding debts and warn that they may be deprived of their vote (articles 16.2 and 15.2). For the ordinary annual meeting, the notice goes out at least six days in advance (article 16.3). If the first call does not gather a majority of owners representing a majority of quotas, the meeting is held on second call with no quorum requirement, even the same day, half an hour later (article 16.2).
One trick the law allows: if everyone is present and you all agree, the meeting can be validly held without any prior notice (article 16.3). In small buildings this is common. And remember that ordinary resolutions pass by a majority of owners and quotas; on second call, a majority of those attending suffices, provided it represents more than half the value of the quotas present (article 17.7).
3. Keep the accounts and the budget up to date
Each year the meeting must approve the plan of foreseeable expenses and income and the corresponding accounts (article 14.b). In practice, running a community of owners without a manager means someone has to prepare that budget, issue the fees, pay the utilities and be able to show where every euro went.
Do not forget the reserve fund: it is mandatory and must hold no less than 10% of the last ordinary budget (article 9.1.f). It exists for conservation, repair and refurbishment works, and the community may use it to take out insurance or a maintenance contract. We explain the whole money circuit in how to keep a community’s accounts.
4. Draft and keep the minutes as article 19 demands
Every meeting must be recorded in the minute book, which is certified by the Land Registry (article 19.1). The minutes have mandatory minimum content (article 19.2): date and place, who called the meeting, whether it was ordinary or extraordinary, whether it was held on first or second call, the list of attendees and represented owners with their quotas, the agenda, and the resolutions adopted with the votes where relevant to their validity.
The minutes are closed with the signatures of the president and the secretary at the end of the meeting or within the following ten calendar days; from closing, the resolutions are enforceable (article 19.3). And the secretary must keep the minute books and preserve for five years the notices, communications and other meeting documents (article 19.4). If you have to draft your first one, here is a legally valid template for owners’ meeting minutes.
5. Handle incidents and contractors with a method
This is where the absence of a manager shows most. A leak, a broken intercom, the hallway light: without a system, every fault becomes crossed phone calls, quotes nobody writes down and invoices that surface months later. The minimum viable method is simple:
- A single channel for reporting faults, instead of the stairwell and three WhatsApp groups.
- A record of every incident: who reported it, what was decided, which contractor handled it and what it cost.
- Quotes always in writing, even from the plumber you trust.
- One clear owner per incident, who need not always be the president.
6. Have a plan against arrears before you need it
Unpaid fees are the problem that wears down self-managed communities the most, because chasing a neighbour is uncomfortable. The law gives you tools: the meeting can adopt deterrent measures such as interest above the legal rate or the temporary loss of the use of services and facilities, provided they are not abusive and do not affect habitability (article 21.1). A debtor owner may attend meetings but not vote (article 15.2).
If it goes further, the community can claim the debt through the special order-for-payment procedure, attaching a certificate of the debt resolution issued by whoever acts as secretary with the president’s approval (articles 21.2 and 21.3). Don’t get caught without paperwork: the key to that procedure is having every fee and every missed payment documented. We have a full guide on what to do about arrears in a community of owners.
7. Lean on a tool built for self-management
Everything above can be done with folders, spreadsheets and willpower. But it is precisely the part that automates best: receipts can go out on their own, the meeting notice can draft itself with the requirements of article 16, the minutes can be written by the time the meeting closes with everything article 19 demands, and incidents can log themselves when a neighbour describes them from their phone.
That is FixrOS: the platform self-managed communities use to keep fees, minutes, incidents and legal duties in one place, with automatic alerts for every legal deadline. Find out how to run your community without a manager with FixrOS and book a free demo.
Common mistakes when running a community without a manager
- Not funding the reserve fund. It is mandatory (at least 10% of the last ordinary budget) and you will be glad of it the day an urgent repair appears.
- Calling the annual meeting late, or without six days’ notice. A defective notice can end in resolutions being challenged.
- Incomplete minutes, or minutes not signed in time. Until the minutes are closed, resolutions are not enforceable.
- Accounts living in one person’s head. Transparency prevents half of all disputes between neighbours.
- Letting missed payments slide. The later you claim, the harder it is to collect.