Attending a Homeowners’ Association Meeting in Barcelona

A meeting with the homeowners association can be boring and time-consuming.

They usually take place during the week, and just when you get home after a long day of hard work and want to put your feet up, you see the meeting on your calendar…

So no, no time to relax, because all property owners who live in the building have to attend the meeting.

These meetings, however, deal with interesting and important issues that have to do with the building you live in.

So even if you don’t feel like participating, just go, and don’t be surprised when all of a sudden things get interesting when other attendants start a big argument during the meeting.

In today’s article, ShBarcelona will highlight some important aspects of the homeowners’ association meetings and how to survive them.

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Practical information on homeowners’ association meetings

There was a series on television in Spain called “Aquí no hay quien viva” (There’s no one living here), and it showed the life of a group of residents and the conflicts they had.

Sometimes the situations these residents were in seemed a bit strange or exaggerated, but most of the time you saw the same things happening in your own environment.

Living in a community is not always that easy, and wherever there are people, there are bound to be conflicts.

Luckily not everyone needs to be present at homeowners’ association meetings, only property owners should attend.

So people who are living in the same building, but who have rented their apartment, do not have to go to these meetings, nor do they have to pay contribution or other expenses from the homeowners association.

It is good to know that the regular meetings only take place once a year, and usually the following subjects are on the agenda:

• Appointing or replacing the president, secretary, and administrator
• Resolving claims made by owners of apartments, offices or other properties
• Approving the annual income and expenditure plan and providing clear accounts of previous years
• Approving budgets or property repair works to solve problems (claims)
• Approving or changing the statutes
• Regulating the use of communal areas
• Handling Q&A’s

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If necessary, for example when there is an urgent issue, a special meeting can be arranged, and when this happens, take the following information into account:

• Special meetings must be communicated with all residents and in time, so that everyone can attend the meeting.
• If a property owner doesn’t live in the building itself, but he still lives on Spanish territory, then he must be informed of the special meeting to offer him the possibility to attend. The law is very clear on this subject: every homeowner must be informed when it comes to information that is of interest.
• It is possible to arrange for a special meeting on short notice, provided that all owners can be informed of the meeting.
• If not all owners have been informed of the meeting, this is in violation of the law, and it is then possible to take it to Court.

Have you ever attended homeowners’ association meetings? Any advice?