Real estate13 min read

Improperly called meetings in communities of owners

Who can call an owners' meeting in Spain, why the Supreme Court requires owners holding 25% to ask the president first, and the time limits for challenging the resolutions of an improperly called meeting.

Written by Coda Nuance Legal

Published on 17 November 2025

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In this article11 sections

Updated on 27 September 2026. The rules of the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal on who calls owners' meetings have not changed, but we have corrected the statement that resolutions adopted at an improperly called meeting are "null and void": they have to be challenged within the time limit. We have added the Supreme Court's June 2025 case law, the prior negotiation attempt (MASC) required since 3 April 2025, and the status of the reform on online meetings, which is not yet law.

In communities of owners (comunidades de propietarios), conflicts often arise when a group of neighbours tries to take over the management or replace the president and the property manager (administrador) without following the procedures laid down in the Horizontal Property Act (Ley de Propiedad Horizontal, LPH). How the owners' meeting (junta) is called is not a mere formality: it decides whether the resolutions stand or end up being annulled by a court.

Who can call the owners' meeting

The rule is in Article 16.2 LPH: the meeting is called by the president and, "failing that" (en su defecto), by the promoters of the meeting. The property manager often drafts and sends the notice, but does so on the president's instructions; the law does not give the manager that power on their own.

There are three qualifications:

Vice-president: if the community has one, they stand in for the president in case of absence, vacancy or inability (Art. 13.4 LPH).
Promoters: one quarter of the owners, or owners representing at least 25% of the ownership shares (cuotas de participación), may ask for a meeting to be held (Art. 16.1 LPH). Their power to call it is subsidiary, as explained in the next section.
Universal meeting: the meeting is valid without being called by the president if all the owners attend and so decide (Art. 16.3 LPH). If a single owner is missing, this route is not available.

If you do not reach that 25%, you still have a tool: any owner may ask the president in writing for an item to be discussed at the next meeting, and the president must include it on the agenda (Art. 16.2 LPH).

The prior request to the president: what the Supreme Court said in 2025

For years, some Provincial Courts (Audiencias Provinciales) accepted that owners holding 25% could call the meeting directly. The Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo) settled the debate in two judgments of 2 June 2025 (STS 867/2025, appeal 1443/2020, and STS 868/2025, appeal 2058/2021):

According to the Supreme Court, the words "failing that" in Art. 16.2 LPH "cannot be understood as an empty formula": they mean that the promoters' standing is subsidiary to the president's.
The promoters must first ask the president to call the meeting. Only if the president, without justification, fails to do so within a reasonable period may they call it themselves.
In the STS 867/2025 case, neighbours who met the Art. 16.1 LPH threshold called a meeting without first asking the president, and that meeting removed her. She challenged it, and the Supreme Court upheld the first-instance judgment, which had annulled the resolutions.
In STS 868/2025, several owners sued the community asking for two meetings called in that way to be declared valid. The Supreme Court dismissed the claim and accepted that the community, as defendant, could ask by way of counterclaim (reconvención) for them to be declared invalid. That standing was recognised to the community in its position as defendant: if you are the president being challenged, do not treat it as a route to sue in the community's name; the safe course is to challenge as an owner, meeting the requirements and time limits of Art. 18 LPH.

Neither the law nor these judgments set a number of days. The sensible approach is to give the president a short period proportionate to the urgency of the matter, state it in the request itself and keep proof that the president received it.

How to call the meeting properly if the president does not

Gather the support you need: one quarter of the owners or 25% of the shares.
Send the president a request signed by the promoters, by a method that proves receipt (a burofax, that is, a certified communication with proof of content and delivery; a registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt; or hand delivery with a signed receipt), with the agenda you propose and the deadline you are giving.
If the deadline passes without a meeting being called, call it together with the other promoters, meeting all the requirements in the next section and notifying all the owners.
Record in the minutes who called the meeting and which owners promoted it, as required by Art. 19.2.b) LPH, and keep the prior request.

Requirements for any notice of meeting

Requirement	What the LPH requires
Content	Items to be discussed (agenda), place, date and time of the first and, where applicable, second call (Art. 16.2).
Owners in arrears	List of owners who are not up to date with payments and a warning that they may lose their vote (Arts. 15.2 and 16.2).
Notice period	Annual ordinary meeting: at least 6 days. Extraordinary meeting: whatever is needed for everyone to learn of it (Art. 16.3).
Second call	At the place, date and time stated in the first notice (it may be the same day if at least half an hour has passed); if none were stated, a new notice within the 8 calendar days following the meeting that was not held, with at least 3 days' notice (Art. 16.2).
Service	At the address in Spain each owner has notified; failing that, at the flat or premises; if that proves impossible, on the community notice board with a note signed by the secretary and approved by the president, effective after 3 calendar days (Art. 9.1.h).
If an office-holder is to be removed	The president or other office-holders may be removed before their term ends by resolution of a meeting called in extraordinary session (Art. 13.7), with the majority set in Art. 17.7.

Another common mistake is adopting resolutions on items that were not on the agenda, which also opens the door to challenging them.

What about video-conference meetings or notices by email?

The LPH does not regulate online attendance or notices by email, and Organic Law 1/2025 did not amend Articles 9, 15, 16 or 19. A bill before the Congress of Deputies (Congreso de los Diputados, the lower house of the Spanish Parliament; file 122/000240) would allow video-conference attendance, email addresses for notices and an electronic minutes book, but as of 27 September 2026 it is still at the amendment stage: it is not yet law. If your community uses these methods, make sure every owner receives the notice through the legal channel and is able to attend, because if someone challenges the meeting this will have to be proved.

What happens to the resolutions of an improperly called meeting

A widespread idea needs correcting here, and the previous version of this post repeated it: the resolutions of an irregular meeting do not simply disappear.

The LPH treats them as challengeable resolutions because they are contrary to the law (Art. 18.1.a).
According to the Supreme Court (STS 342/2018, of 7 June), resolutions that breach the LPH or the community's statutes are voidable and subject to a time limit; only resolutions that breach other mandatory or prohibitive laws, morality or public order, or are adopted in fraud of law, are null and void with no time limit.
Unless a court suspends them, the resolutions are enforceable from the moment the minutes are closed (Art. 19.3), and a challenge does not suspend their enforcement unless the court orders it as an interim measure (Art. 18.4).

The prudent approach, therefore, is to treat a defect in how the meeting was called as a breach of the LPH subject to a time limit, and to act as soon as possible.

Time limits for challenging

Situation	Time limit	Counted from
Resolutions contrary to the law or the statutes (an improperly called meeting falls here)	1 year	The date the resolution is adopted
Resolutions seriously harmful to the community or to an owner, or adopted in abuse of rights	3 months	The date the resolution is adopted
Absent owners	The same limits	The date the resolution is notified to them under Art. 9

These are strict time limits (caducidad, Art. 18.3 LPH): if they expire without a claim being filed, the resolution becomes final.

How to challenge: requirements and steps

Check that you have standing. A challenge may be brought by owners who recorded their dissent at the meeting, owners who were absent for any reason and owners wrongly deprived of their vote (Art. 18.2). If you attend a meeting you believe was improperly called, ask for your objection to the call to be recorded in the minutes and vote against.
Bring your payments up to date. You must be up to date with all overdue debts to the community, or deposit them with the court, before challenging; this does not apply if you are challenging resolutions on ownership shares (Art. 18.2).
Try negotiation first (MASC). Since 3 April 2025, a civil claim is only admissible if the parties have first tried an appropriate dispute resolution method (medio adecuado de solución de controversias, MASC): direct negotiation or negotiation between lawyers, mediation, conciliation, the opinion of an independent expert, or a confidential binding offer (Organic Law 1/2025, Art. 5). If you negotiate directly or through lawyers, the request suspends the time limit for bringing the challenge (caducidad) from the date the attempt to deliver it is recorded, and the count resumes if there is no first meeting or written reply within 30 calendar days (Art. 7.1); if a mediator, a conciliator or an expert is involved, separate rules apply (Art. 7.2). You will have to file the document proving that attempt with your claim (Art. 264.4 of the Civil Procedure Act, Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil, LEC).
Ask for interim measures if it is urgent. You may ask for the resolutions to be suspended; the court decides after hearing the community (Art. 18.4 LPH) and will normally require security (caución) to cover any loss the measure may cause (Art. 728.3 LEC). Interim measures requested before the claim do not require a prior MASC (Organic Law 1/2025, Art. 5.3), but you must justify the urgency and then file the claim within a short period, in principle 20 days (Art. 730.2 LEC and Art. 7.3 of Organic Law 1/2025).
File the claim. It is heard in ordinary proceedings (juicio ordinario, Art. 249.1.8 LEC) before the court of the place where the building is located (Art. 52.1.8 LEC), with a lawyer and a court representative (procurador; Arts. 23 and 31 LEC).

Documents, passwords and banks in the meantime

After an irregular meeting, outgoing office-holders often wonder whether they must hand over keys, documents and passwords. There is no automatic answer, because the resolutions are presumed enforceable until a court suspends or annuls them. Bear in mind that:

The community is the data controller for the owners' personal data and a hired property manager is a data processor, according to the Spanish Data Protection Agency (Agencia Española de Protección de Datos, AEPD). When their engagement ends, the property manager must return or delete the data as the controller decides (Art. 28.3.g of the General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR), that is, as the validly appointed bodies of the community decide.
The data must be protected against unauthorised access (Art. 5.1.f GDPR): handing passwords or files to someone without a valid appointment may create a data protection problem.
The secretary keeps the minutes book and must keep notices and communications for five years (Art. 19.4 LPH); the property manager keeps the community's documents available to the owners (Art. 20.1.e).

Banks usually ask for a certificate of the minutes before changing the authorised signatories on the community's account. There is no specific rule on their liability if the appointment comes from an irregular meeting; the general rules on due diligence apply. If you are the legitimate president or property manager, notify the bank in writing that the appointment is being challenged and provide the supporting documents.

In practice: document everything, do not hand over access without advice while the appointment is disputed, challenge within the time limit and, if it cannot wait, ask for an interim suspension so that the court decides who holds the office.

Common mistakes

Calling a meeting with 25% without first asking the president.
Not notifying all the owners, or notifying them at an address other than the one they gave.
Voting on items that were not on the agenda.
Letting the challenge deadline pass in the belief that the resolutions are "null and void".
Suing without first trying MASC, or without being up to date with payments.
Assuming that video-conference meetings are already regulated.

If the building is in Catalonia

In Catalonia the LPH does not apply; the fifth book of the Catalan Civil Code (Código Civil de Cataluña) does, and it has its own rules:

Who calls the meeting: the presidency; in case of vacancy, inaction or refusal, the vice-presidency and then the promoting owners (Art. 553-21.1).
Notice and means: at least 8 calendar days, unless the statutes provide otherwise or it is an extraordinary meeting on urgent matters; email may be used if the authenticity of the communication and its content is guaranteed (Art. 553-21.2 and 3).
Who may challenge: only owners who voted against, absent owners who objected and owners unlawfully deprived of their vote; in addition, you must be up to date with the debts that were overdue when the resolution was adopted, or deposit the amount (Art. 553-31.2 and 3).
Time limits: one year (resolutions contrary to the law, the deed of constitution or the statutes, or abusive) or three months (contrary to the community's interests or seriously harmful to an owner), counted from notification of the minutes (Art. 553-31.4).

Frequently asked questions

Can the property manager call the meeting on their own?

The LPH does not give them that power. They usually prepare and send the notice on the president's instructions, and the minutes must state who called the meeting.

Can the meeting be held again, properly called this time?

Nothing prevents it, and it is often the quickest and cheapest way out: a new meeting called with all the requirements can deal with the same items again.

In short

Following the legal procedure for calling meetings not only protects the validity of the resolutions: it also protects all the owners and the professionals involved in managing the community. And if the meeting has already been held improperly, what matters most is not letting the time limits run out.

If your community is in this situation, whether you are the president being challenged or one of the neighbours who wants to change the management, you can book a real estate law consultation. We will review the notice, the minutes and the deadlines with you, and prepare the prior negotiation attempt before the time limit for challenging expires.

Legislation and sources

Before you apply this to your own case

This article is general information and reflects the rules in force on the date of publication. It is not legal advice on a specific matter: one nuance — a date, a tax residence, a single clause — can change the answer entirely. If your situation looks like the one described here, talk to us before you decide.

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Written by

Coda Nuance Legal

The Madrid law firm of Irene Cobo Navarro, lawyer

Advice in Spanish and English on tax, immigration, inheritance, property, employment and social security, and contracts. Published prices, a detailed quote before we start and direct contact with a person.

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