Changing the property administrator of a Spanish community

A Spanish community of owners can replace its administrador de fincas at any time and without giving a reason: the owners' meeting can remove them before their one-year term ends, unless the bylaws say otherwise (article 13.7 of the Horizontal Property Law). At a second call, the vote needs a majority of those attending who hold more than half of the shares present, not half of the building.

That is the detail most foreign owners get wrong.

The majority, call by call

Removing and appointing the administrator follows the general rule in article 17.7.

In a 30-flat complex in Marbella where most owners live abroad, nine owners holding 35 % of the shares turn up at the second call. Five of them, with 20 % between them, vote for a new administrator: that carries, because they are a majority of those present and 20 % is more than half of the 35 % in the room. Proxies count as attendance, so owners abroad should send one rather than stay away and hope the vote fails.

Who calls the meeting

In Spain the president calls the owners' meeting, not the administrator (article 16). If the president will not, a quarter of the owners, or owners holding 25 % of the shares, can ask for it and call it themselves if nothing happens. Put two items on the agenda: removing the current administrator and appointing the next one, so the bills of the following month still get paid.

The contract, and when changing costs money

The post itself is the meeting's to take away; the service contract with a professional administrator is a separate thing and may set a notice period or a fee for ending it early. Read it before you call the meeting, because the notice clause is the only part of this process that can cost the community money. Without a serious, documented reason, the cleanest route is to vote the change at the ordinary meeting where the one-year term ends: you wait a few months and nobody argues about an invoice. If there are reasons, such as accounts never presented, arrears never chased, or repairs approved and never carried out, write them into the minutes with dates, since they are what the community relies on if the outgoing administrator claims the rest of the year. It also helps to compare the candidates' fees line by line, splitting the flat fee from what is charged on top: claims handling, extra meetings, the debt certificate a notary asks for when a flat is sold.

Getting the paperwork back

Article 20 makes the administrator keep the community's documents at the owners' disposal, but sets no deadline for handing them over. Write one into the minutes, with the list: minute book, accounts and receipts, current contracts and insurance, owners in arrears, keys and access to the community's bank account.

Get two quotes before calling the meeting, and bring the handover list already written. If the community is thinking of doing without a professional altogether, the rules for self-management are in a community without an administrator, and a shared tool such as Vecinly keeps the documents where the next change of hands cannot lose them.

Information updated September 2026. This article is for information only and does not constitute legal advice.