Setting up and self-managing a condominium in Portugal

Portuguese owners can run their building themselves: the law only requires an administrator elected by the assembly, who may be one of the owners or a hired firm (article 1435 of the Civil Code). What cannot be skipped is the common reserve fund of at least 10 % of each owner's contribution, fire insurance and minutes of every meeting.

The owners' meeting ended at eleven at night and you walked out with a new job title: administrator of your own building. The following Monday you discover that the condominium needs its own taxpayer number, two bank accounts and a minutes book, and that none of this is handled at the same counter. Self-management is perfectly legal and increasingly common in smaller buildings, but it comes with its own paperwork.

None of this requires a management company. It requires method.

Does the condominium need its own tax number?

In practice, yes, and it is step one.

The condominium applies for a legal-entity identification number (NIPC) at the national registry of legal persons. Without it, the condominium cannot operate as an entity: banks will not open an account, the electricity, water and lift-maintenance suppliers will not sign contracts, and invoices end up in a neighbour's personal name, with the tax and liability problems that drags along. Keep every invoice in the condominium's name from day one.

How many bank accounts does it take?

Two. The first is the operating account, where the monthly fees come in and where the stairwell electricity, cleaning and insurance get paid. The second holds the common reserve fund (fundo comum de reserva), which the law requires in order to pay for the conservation of the building (article 4 of Decree-Law 268/94).

What that article says about the fund:

• Each owner pays at least 10 % of their share of the other expenses; the assembly may set a higher percentage, never a lower one
• The money is deposited with a bank, and the owners' assembly administers it
• If the assembly votes to use it for something other than conservation, the owners have 12 months to top it back up with an extraordinary contribution

Mixing the reserve fund with the day-to-day account is the classic self-management mistake: the year the façade needs repairs, the owners discover the cushion has been quietly eaten by running costs, and the 12-month top-up lands on everyone at once.

The minutes book, fire insurance and the annual meeting

Decree-Law 268/94 requires minutes (atas) of every owners' meeting, drawn up and signed by whoever chaired it and signed by the owners present. Treat the minutes book as the building's most valuable document: it is the memory of every decision and, for approved fees, it serves as an enforceable title against owners who do not pay. Fire insurance is compulsory for both the units and the common parts (article 1429 of the Civil Code). If an owner fails to take it out within the deadline and for the amount set by the assembly, the administrator must arrange it and can recover the premium from that owner. Many buildings opt for a single multi-risk condominium policy, which spares the administrator from checking policies one by one and tells a new administrator, in the first month, exactly where each unit stands.

The ordinary assembly meets in the first fortnight of January to approve the previous year's accounts and the budget, with 10 days' notice by registered letter. Our guide to the January condominium assembly walks through the December calendar.

Can I refuse to be the administrator?

You can refuse to be elected. But if nobody is, the court appoints an administrator at the request of any owner, and until someone is elected or appointed the duties fall, provisionally and compulsorily, on the owner holding the largest share of the building, unless another owner has volunteered and told the others (article 1435-A of the Civil Code). That rule has been in force since 1994.

The role can be paid, runs for one renewable year, and its duties are listed in article 1436: convening the assembly, preparing the budget, collecting fees, paying common expenses, checking the insurance and the reserve fund, presenting accounts. An administrator who neglects those duties is civilly liable for the omission, which includes letting overdue fees go uncollected.

Management company or self-management?

Do the maths unit by unit. In a building of thirty-odd units, with lifts, a garage and a cleaner on payroll, a management company wins the argument easily. In a building of six to twelve units, that same fee can cost more than the stairwell cleaning, and that is where self-management pays off, especially if the tasks rotate among neighbours.

What traditionally killed self-management was the logistics: receipts, minutes, fee reminders, reserve-fund accounting. Community management software such as Vecinly keeps fees, communications and documents in one place and leaves the owner-administrator only the decisions that are genuinely theirs.

How other European countries set the legal minimum is compared in reserve funds across Europe, country by country.

Before your first meeting as administrator, open the second account for the reserve fund and ask for a copy of the fire insurance policy. The rest can wait for January.

Information updated in September 2026. This article applies to condominiums governed by Portuguese law, is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.