How to remove your condominium administrator in Portugal, legally

The contract with the management firm went way back, renewed in silence year after year, and nobody in the building could quite remember signing it. The accounts came late, the lift sat idle for three weeks waiting on a quote and at the last meeting one neighbour said out loud what half a dozen were thinking quietly: what if we ran this ourselves?

The question always lands in the same place, can a condominium get rid of the company that manages it? It can, and faster than you would think. Removing a condominium administrator does not depend on the contract expiring or on anyone's goodwill: the assembly can vote it out at any time, by a majority of the permilagem, of the whole building if the meeting runs on first convocation, of those present if it runs on second. What Portuguese law will not allow is being left with no administrator, which is why the right move is not to fire the firm and appoint nobody, but to swap the paid company for an in-house administrator, elected in the same act.

Can we really fire the management company?

The question usually comes wrapped in fear, but the answer is plain.

Managing the common parts of a building under horizontal property rests on two bodies: the owners' assembly and an administrator. That administrator can be a neighbour or a hired firm, what the law does not allow is a vacuum. So when a condominium decides to end its relationship with the managing company, the building does not go without administration; the role simply changes hands.

And replacing is a right of the assembly, not a favour from the firm. Under article 1435 of the Portuguese Civil Code, the administrator is elected and removed by the assembly. The service contract you signed with the company is one thing; the office of administrator is another. Confusing the two is the mistake that keeps many buildings hostage to a firm they no longer want: they wait for the contract to run out, when a single resolution was enough to change hands.

How do you convene the assembly to remove the administrator?

Here is the catch. An extraordinary assembly is normally called by the administrator, who, in this case, is precisely the party you want gone and will hardly summon its own dismissal. The law foresees the deadlock: it can be convened by owners representing at least 25% of the permilagem, the thousandths that measure each unit's share of the building. You do not need a majority; a quarter of the total value is enough to put the matter on the table.

The convening notice goes by registered letter (carta registada) to every owner, at least ten days in advance, and must set out the agenda clearly. This is where buildings trip up. A well-drafted notice does not just ask for the removal: it also asks for the election of the successor, on the same day. If electing the new administrator is not on the agenda, the assembly can dismiss the firm and be left, itself, with nobody at the helm until the next meeting.

At a minimum, the notice should contain:

• The date, time and place of the meeting and who is convening it
• An express item to remove the administrator in office
• An express item to elect the new administrator, naming candidates if there are any

Keep the receipt for every registered letter. A removal decided at a badly convened meeting is one the ousted firm can challenge, and some managing companies do it on principle.

The vote and electing the successor in one act

Once the assembly meets, the vote count depends on the convocation. On first convocation, removal requires a majority of the votes representing the capital invested: more than half the permilagem of the whole building, whether those owners turn up or not. Half an hour later the assembly runs on second convocation and decides by a majority of those present, provided they represent at least a quarter of the building's total value. That is why almost every removal is decided on the second: gathering half the permilagem of an entire building is rare. No unanimity is needed, and no waiting for the contract's anniversary.

In the same act you elect the successor, almost always a resident willing to take on self-management. All of this must be written into the minutes (ata), the document that proves to the bank, the utilities and the firm itself who is in charge from now on. Since Law 8/2022, the ata can be signed electronically and its resolutions take effect once it is approved, without waiting on paper signatures that used to drag on for weeks.

A word from anyone who has drafted plenty of minutes: write the resolution surgically: the assembly resolves to remove firm X from the office of administrator, with immediate effect, and to elect owner Y as administrator for the current term. Vague minutes that merely say management was discussed change the signatory on no bank account at all.

Do you need just cause? The compensation maths

This is the question that separates theory from the invoice. To remove the administrator, the assembly need prove no fault: case law holds that removal by the assembly rests on the owners' mere will, with no requirement of justa causa (just cause). The office is taken away because the assembly wants it so.

The contract, though, is another story. Terminating the contract with the management company before its term, without a serious reason, can force the condominium to compensate it. The Supreme Court of Justice and the appeal courts have held that the ousted firm is owed indemnização (compensation) unless the condominium shows justa causa, accounts left unrendered, breaches, silence, work done badly. That is why the same minutes that remove the firm should record, in black and white, the concrete grounds: they are the difference between a clean exit and an extra cheque. Check the termination clause too; many set a notice period that, if honoured, avoids the compensation argument altogether.

The firm is gone: now you run it

With the company removed, the part that frightens people turns out to be the liberating one. Demand the handover of everything: keys, documents, the condominium's tax number, access to the bank accounts, the book of minutes and the list of pending invoices. Without an orderly handover, the new administrator spends the first months rebuilding what the firm kept in a drawer. From there the job is familiar, collect fees, pay the common expenses, keep the insurance and the reserve fund. The first headache is usually the oldest one: the unpaid fees the firm never got round to recovering. What once made self-management painful was the paperwork; today a community-management software handles fees, communications and documents in one place, leaving the neighbours only the decisions that are genuinely theirs.

Removing a condominium administrator in Portugal is no war: it is a properly convened assembly, a permilagem majority, carefully written minutes and a successor elected the same day. The firm may argue over its exit invoice, never over the assembly's right to decide who manages the building. Swap the managing company for a neighbour with method and the building stops paying a monthly fee, and starts running its own home.

Updated 29 July 2026. This article is for information only and does not constitute legal advice.