Setting up and self-managing a condominium in Portugal

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. Condominium self-management is perfectly legal in Portugal and increasingly common in smaller buildings, but it comes with its own paperwork. And the first rule worth memorising: the common reserve fund is mandatory, funded with at least 10 % of each owner's fee, under Decree-Law 268/94.

None of this requires a management company. It requires method. The route below is exactly what a professional administrator would do in the first month, just at your own pace and without a monthly invoice.

Does the condominium need its own tax number?

It does, and it is step one of everything.

The condominium applies for its legal-entity identification number at the Portuguese national registry of legal persons, through a form signed by the acting administrator, together with the deed constituting the horizontal property or an up-to-date land registry certificate. Without that number, the condominium simply 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 all the tax and liability problems that drags along.

The condominium's tax number also brings duties: when the condominium pays service providers, it may have to report those payments to the Portuguese tax authority. Keep every invoice in the condominium's name from day one; reconstructing a year of expenses from loose receipts is one of the most thankless tasks a novice administrator can inherit.

How many bank accounts does it take?

Two, and the separation is not a whim. 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 conservation and improvement works on the common parts.

The essential rules of the reserve fund:

• Each owner contributes at least 10 % of their regular fee; the assembly may set a higher percentage, never a lower one
• The money is deposited with a bank, managed jointly by the assembly and the administrator
• The balance may only be used for conservation and improvement works, and that use must be recorded in the minutes

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 financial cushion has been quietly eaten by running costs.

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 subscribed by the owners who attended. 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, under article 1429 of the Portuguese Civil Code. If an owner fails to take it out within the deadline set by the assembly, the administrator must arrange it and charge the cost back. Many buildings opt for a single multi-risk condominium policy, which spares the administrator from checking policies one by one.

As for the calendar, the ordinary assembly meets in the first fortnight of January to approve the previous year's accounts and the budget for the year ahead. The convening notice goes out by registered letter (or by notice with a signed receipt) with 10 days' notice, stating the day, time, place and agenda. A late notice is ammunition to challenge everything decided at that meeting.

Can I refuse to be the administrator?

You can, nobody is forced to accept the role. But the law does not leave the building adrift either: under article 1435 of the Civil Code, the administrator is elected and dismissed by the assembly, and if nobody is elected, the court appoints one at the request of any owner. Since Law 8/2022 there is also a provisional administrator: until someone is elected or appointed, the duties fall by default on the owner holding the largest share of the building.

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, presenting accounts. It is real work, reason enough for the assembly to set a compensation for whoever takes it on.

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: the volume of contracts, retainers and arrears justifies the monthly fee. 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 never the law; it was the logistics: receipts, minutes, fee reminders, reserve-fund accounting. Today, a condominium management platform such as Vecinly automates that layer (fees, communications and documents in one place) leaving the owner-administrator only the decisions that are genuinely theirs.

Setting up a self-managed condominium in Portugal comes down to four foundations: its own tax number, two separate accounts, an up-to-date minutes book and verified fire insurance. With those in place and the January assembly on the calendar, running the building stops being an act of courage and becomes a routine, shared, documented and considerably cheaper.

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