Can I be forced to be president of the owners' association? Can I get out of it if I am elderly or do not live in the building?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

Yes. In Catalonia, serving as president is compulsory for owners, although the owners' general meeting can accept a well-founded excuse. Neither age nor living elsewhere gets you out of it on its own, because the law has no list of excuses and being an owner is all it takes to be president. If you have a serious reason, put forward your excuse in writing and with supporting documents before the meeting or at the meeting itself. If the meeting rejects it, you can challenge in court the resolution appointing you president, as with any other resolution. How the president is chosen The “Código Civil de Cataluña”, the Catalan Civil Code, states that holding office in the owners' association (the “comunidad de propietarios”) is compulsory, but it allows the meeting to take well-founded grounds for excuse into account. The president is appointed by the owners' general meeting. If nobody puts themselves forward, the president is chosen by rota or by drawing lots among the owners who have not yet been president. Anyone who has already held the post is left out until everyone else has had a turn. Not attending the meeting does not get you out of it, because the rota or the draw can fall on someone who is absent. The president receives no pay for the post, although they are entitled to be reimbursed by the association for the expenses the post causes them. Age, living elsewhere and other excuses Age alone does not get you out of it. Nor does living in another city, because the law only requires you to be an owner, not to live in the building. What counts is that the meeting considers the reason you give to be well founded, for example an illness, a disability, having to care for a relative or living far away or abroad. For the meeting to take it into account, it is advisable to: Put forward the excuse in writing before the meeting or at the meeting itself and ask for it to be recorded in the minutes. Attach supporting documents, such as a medical report or a certificate of registration on the municipal register (“empadronamiento”) in another city. If you are appointed at a meeting you did not attend, send your excuse in writing to the secretary as soon as you receive the minutes. If in the end it falls to you, bear in mind that the day-to-day work is usually done by the managing agent, if the association has one. In addition, the meeting can appoint a vice-president to stand in for you when you are absent or unable to perform the role and to do whatever you expressly delegate to them. If the meeting rejects the excuse If you believe the meeting has not properly considered a serious reason, you can challenge the resolution in court. To do so, you must: Have voted against it or, if you did not attend the meeting, have objected in writing to the secretary, by a method that leaves a record, within a month of receiving the minutes. Be up to date with payment of what you owed the association when the resolution was adopted or have lodged the amount, that is, deposited it at the association's disposal. Bring your claim in time. Depending on the grounds, the time limit is one year or three months from when you receive the minutes, so the prudent course is not to let three months go by. Before suing, it is advisable to propose negotiation to the association in writing, although it is not clear that the law requires this in order to challenge a resolution. Bear in mind that a challenge does not suspend the appointment. Until the judge decides, you will remain president, unless you ask the judge to suspend it as an interim measure and the judge agrees. As the post lasts one year, the case may end after your term of office is already over. In the rest of Spain, the Horizontal Property Act (“Ley de Propiedad Horizontal”) allows you to ask the judge to relieve you of the post within a month of the appointment.