Can I see the owners' association's accounts and invoices? And what if the managing agent will not show them to me?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

Yes. When the owners' general meeting is to approve the accounts, the documents, including in principle the invoices, must be available to you from the moment the notice of the meeting is sent out. Ask for them in writing and specify what you want to see. If you are not shown them, say so at the meeting, ask for this to be recorded in the minutes and vote against the accounts. If they are approved even so, you can challenge the resolution in court, without letting the time limit run out. What the law says The annual general meeting is held once a year, among other things, to approve the previous year's accounts and the budget, which the managing agent prepares. The “Código Civil de Cataluña”, the Catalan Civil Code, requires the documents on the matters to be discussed to be sent to the owners with the notice of the meeting, or the owners to be told where they are available. If the owners' association (the “comunidad de propietarios”) has a professional managing agent, the agent must keep them available to the owners from the moment the notice is sent out. The agent can send them to you or let you consult them, for example, at their office. On the other hand, Catalan law has no express rule allowing you to examine all the invoices at any time of the year. Even so, the documents belong to the association and not to the managing agent, so it is reasonable for you to ask for them when you need them. The secretary, who is usually the managing agent, must keep the accounting records for at least five years. In the rest of Spain, the Horizontal Property Act (“Ley de Propiedad Horizontal”) expressly states that the managing agent must keep the association's documents available to the owners. If you are not shown them Ask for them in writing, by a method that leaves a record, such as a “burofax” (a certified letter with proof of content). Say which documents you want to see and, if it is before a meeting, point out that the law requires them to be available to you from the notice of the meeting. At the meeting, say that you have not been able to examine the accounts, ask for this to be recorded in the minutes and vote against. If you did not attend the meeting, send the secretary your objection to the resolution in writing, by a method that leaves a record, within a month of receiving the minutes. Without that written objection, you will not, in principle, be able to challenge it. If the lack of transparency recurs, ask the president in writing to include a change of managing agent on the agenda of the next meeting, before it is called. The challenge A resolution approving the accounts without the documents having been made available to you can be challenged in court. Whether the challenge succeeds depends on the case. To bring a challenge, you must be up to date with payment of what you owed the association when the resolution was adopted, or lodge the amount, that is, deposit it at the association's disposal. A challenge does not suspend the resolution, so keep paying the service charges in the meantime. In addition, anyone with service charges outstanding to the association cannot vote at meetings. The time limit runs from when you receive the minutes and, depending on the grounds, it is one year or only three months, so do not wait. Before suing, the prudent course is to propose negotiation to the association in writing, although it is not clear that the law requires this in order to bring a challenge.