Service
Running your community of owners
In Spain this job is called administrador de fincas. It is the full service set out in article 20 of the Horizontal Property Act. We add two things most firms do not do. We check the accounts against the bank every three months. And we prepare the meeting so that an owner living abroad knows what they are voting on.
Why communities change administrator
A comunidad rarely changes its administrator just because the service feels poor. It changes the year a large bill appears that nobody expected. Or the year an owner asks for an invoice and never gets it. Both happen for the same reason. Nobody was checking.
What Veridia does, precisely
Accounts and reconciliation
We keep the accounts up to date, prepare the yearly budget and chase unpaid community fees. Every three months we compare the bank balance with the accounts and give the committee the result in writing.
General meetings
We send the notice in both languages, fifteen days before. With it goes a sheet that explains each point and how many votes it needs. We write the minutes, and we send you a short summary of the decisions within forty eight hours.
Tendering works and services
For any job over 3,000 euros we get at least three quotes. The committee sees them side by side before anything is signed. If we have any link to a supplier, we say so.
Incidents
One way to reach us, one person with a name, and a promised reply time. Urgent problems and ordinary ones have different times.
Records
We keep every contract, invoice, bank statement and set of minutes. If an owner asks for a copy, we send it. We do not ask you to come to our office to look at it.
The words you will see, and what they mean
Property in Spain comes with its own vocabulary, and the English words people use for it do not always match. Here is the short version.
| What you may see | What it means here |
|---|---|
| Comunidad de propietarios | Your community of owners. Every flat owner in the building belongs to it, and it votes on the budget and the repairs. Most people shorten it to la comunidad. |
| Administrador de fincas | The firm that runs the comunidad day to day. This is the job Veridia does. It is the term you will see on your paperwork. |
| Community administrator or community manager | The usual English translation of administrador de fincas. |
| Block management | What the same job is called in the UK. Spanish law is different, but the idea is the same. |
| HOA or homeowners association | The nearest American term. A comunidad works differently, but owners often use this word. |
| Community fees or cuotas | What each owner pays every month or quarter towards the shared costs. |
| Junta or general meeting | The meeting where owners vote. The yearly one is the junta ordinaria. |
| Derrama | An extra one off payment, on top of the normal fees, usually for a large repair. |
| Ley de Propiedad Horizontal | The Horizontal Property Act. The Spanish law that governs how every comunidad works. |
We are English speaking community administrators, so you can use whichever of these words you are comfortable with. Your neighbours, your notary and your paperwork will use the Spanish ones.
What Veridia does not do
We do not act as your lawyer and we do not give tax advice. We do not audit accounts and we do not do building work. When your comunidad needs a lawyer, a surveyor or an auditor, it hires them directly and pays them directly. We add nothing on top. This is written into our conflicts policy.
This article lists what an administrador de fincas must do: keep the building running properly, prepare the budget, look after maintenance, carry out what the meeting decided about works, make payments, collect the community fees, act as secretary and keep the records safe.
Questions
How often should a community's bank account be reconciled?
Spanish law sets no frequency. Common practice is once a year at the annual close. Veridia does it quarterly, because a discrepancy found in March gets explained and corrected, while the same discrepancy found in December is already a problem that has to go to a general meeting.
Can an owner demand a copy of a community invoice?
Article 20.e of the Horizontal Property Act puts the community's records in the agent's custody and requires them to be available to owners. The argument is usually about whether inspection at the office is enough or a copy must be handed over. Veridia hands over copies.
How many quotes must be obtained before contracting works?
The Horizontal Property Act sets no minimum. It is a matter of good administration. Veridia obtains at least three above 3,000 euros and gives the committee the comparison table before anything is signed.
Where we work
We look after communities between Manilva and Benalmadena. Each area has its own page, with what we find there: Estepona, Marbella, Mijas, Fuengirola, Benalmadena and Manilva and Casares.