Homeowners' meeting in Andorra: how to convene and hold it

Friday evening, the shared room, ten folding chairs and the accounts folder on the table. The president checks the clock, counts the heads that have shown up and hesitates over whether to start. That scene replays every year in thousands of buildings across the country and it's exactly where most of the headaches begin. Because convening and holding a homeowners' meeting in Andorra (the junta de propietaris) does not run on instinct, nor on copying what a cousin does in Barcelona or Toulouse: the Principality has its own rulebook and everything (who calls it, how many must attend, which votes are needed, how the decision is recorded) flows from Law 12/2004 on horizontal property, not from Spanish or French law.

The distinction is not lawyerly hair-splitting. Applying the wrong quorum, or counting majorities the Spanish way, is the fastest route to leaving a perfectly reasonable decision at the mercy of any owner who wants to knock it down.

Why Andorra doesn't follow Spanish or French law

This is the most common rookie mistake and the most expensive.

Many owners (especially non-resident ones from across the border) assume the rules of their home country apply here too. They don't. The governing text is Law 12/2004, of 30 June, in its consolidated version, and it sets every rule of the game. That means the reforms making noise elsewhere stop at the border. Neither France's co-ownership regime nor Spain's 2025 changes (mandatory pre-court mediation, a reinforced majority to curb tourist lets) apply in Andorra. Anyone preparing a meeting off a Madrid or Paris property blog is counting votes from the wrong manual.

Who can call the meeting and how much notice is required?

The power to convene sits with the president or, by delegation, the administrator-secretary. But they don't hold the only key: a quarter of the owners, or a group representing 25% of the participation quotas, can force one too. It's the safety valve that stops a significant minority from depending on the president's goodwill to get an item onto the table.

The ordinary meeting must be held at least once a year, with one non-negotiable job: approving the budget and the annual accounts. Everything else (an urgent repair, a change of administrator, a dispute with a neighbour) goes to an extraordinary meeting. Notice is what separates the two: the annual ordinary meeting must be called at least fifteen days ahead; extraordinary ones, with as much lead time as possible so the notice reaches everyone in time.

The notice has to spell out three blocks of information and dropping any one of them hands ammunition to whoever wants to challenge the outcome:

• The full agenda, because you cannot vote on what wasn't announced
• The place, day and time of the first call and, where relevant, the second
• Compliance with the notification procedure the law lays down for reaching each owner

That last point sinks more decisions than any other, especially in a country with so many non-resident owners. It's worth walking calmly through how to notify the meeting without a slip before treating any notice as done.

Quorum and majorities: how many owners and how many quotas?

This is where the arithmetic turns decisive and where Andorra's double rule trips up newcomers: counting heads is almost never enough, you always have to count quotas as well.

On the first call, the meeting is validly constituted if a majority of owners, who between them represent a majority of the participation quotas, are present. Fall short of that double threshold and the second call opens, this time with no quorum requirement. A trick that saves a whole second sitting: you can run both on the same day, leaving at least thirty minutes between them, provided the first notice says so.

For the votes, the law scales the bar to the weight of the decision:

• Ordinary administration: a majority of owners representing a majority of the quotas (on the second call, a majority of those present who exceed half of the quotas in the room)
• New common services such as a lift, concierge or heating: three-fifths of the owners and three-fifths of the quotas
• Amending the deed of constitution or the statutes: unanimity of all owners

And a detail that's easy to miss: an owner who turns up with overdue, uncontested debts may speak and give an opinion, but does not vote, and their quota counts toward no majority. Clearing arrears before you convene isn't a formality. It's pure arithmetic.

The minutes and the minute book: sealing the decision

A decision recorded nowhere barely exists in the eyes of the law. That's why Law 12/2004 requires every resolution to be entered in a minute book, numbered and signed by the president and the administrator-secretary. It's not decorative paperwork: it's the evidence that will one day land before the batlle, the Andorran judge, if someone challenges it.

The minutes of each meeting must carry a minimum set of data: date and place, whether ordinary or extraordinary, first or second call, the list of those present and represented with their quotas, the agenda, the resolutions and (crucially) a named record of who voted for and against. They're signed at the close of the session or within the following ten days; once closed, the resolutions are enforceable and a copy goes to each owner.

In small communities the law lets an owner take on the administrator-secretary role unpaid when there are fewer than fifteen units. Keeping the book in order then becomes a real chore and a community-management software that stores the minutes and logs every notice spares more than one nasty surprise.

A meeting's validity isn't won in the room: it's won earlier, with a notice sent on time and properly served, and sealed afterwards, with spotless minutes in the book. In between, count owners and quotas correctly. Doing it with the Andorran manual in hand (not the neighbouring country's) is the only guarantee the decision will hold the day someone tries to reopen it.

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