In many General Assemblies might arise some doubts about who is entitle to vote. Two different aspects should be taken into consideration. First of all, the only one who has the right to vote is the owner or someone authorized by the owner registered in the community. The tenant, relatives or whoever may be occupaying the property could not vote unless he has the proper authorization from the owner. In case the property belongs to more than one person, the coowners will name the one to represent to all of them with the community.

          Having said this, the owner will only be able to vote supposing he is up to date in the payment of all the community fees owed by the time of the celebration of the assembly, as it is said in the Horizontal Property Law, article 15.2:

“ Proprietors who are not up-to-dated in the payment of all the due debts with the community at the moment of beginning the meeting, and they have not refuted them judicially or proceeded to the judicial or notarial consignment of the owing sum, will be able to participate in their discussions, although they will not be entitled for voting.”  

          In my day by day routine as solicitor and administrator, I have faced many different situations that should be clarified:

1) Let´s suppose the owner consider he should be compensated by the community for whatever reason, but this compensation has not been officially approved by the community.

For instance, a) the owner has suffered any damage and he would have to receive some money from the community that is pending to be approved; b) The owner has paid some money on behalf of the community and he would have to receive the money back, etc. and this payments are still pending to be approved ). In these cases, unless the owner pays his fees he will not be able to vote, because he is not legally up to date in the payment until his credit against the community is approved.

2) The owner may consider the community fees are wrong, but unless he has previously sued the community in court or has made a notarial consignment for the amount owed, he would not be allowed to vote.

          3) Another difficult situation arises when the owner wants to pay his community fees with a cheque at the beginning of the meeting.

          When the payment is made in cash there would not be a problem, but when the owner wants to pay with a cheque the situation is quite different.    The article 1.170 of the Spanish Civil Code establish that when paying with a cheque the payment will be considered done at the time the cheque is cashed but not before. The logical reason is that there is no guaranty that the owner has enough money in his bank account and the cheque will be properly attended. As a consequence of this, the owner who pays with a cheque at the beginning of the meeting could not legally vote in the general assembly.

          Taking all this into consideration, should you be sure you will be entitle to vote in the General Assembly, please verify in advance that you are registered in the community as the owner of the property or represent of the coowners; you have with you an authorization in writing properly signed supposing you are not the owner; and make sure that all the fees for the property are paid before the beginning of the meeting.

  Jose Luis Navarro. Intercala´s solicitor and property administrator