Community Law Corner: Article 6
Removing the community administrators without
paying compensation
José Luis Navarro www.intercala.com
The Solicitor and Property Administrator for Intercala Administration
and
Pete Woodall (Woody's Los Boliches)
This article first appeared in the Euro Weekly News, Costa del Sol Edition in November 2011
The current crisis has swelled the number of debtors in many communities throughout Spain
and in some strange way we tend to attribute this increase of debtors to the community administrators.
Making the administration possibly unfairly responsible for these financial short comings is further compounded
when an extra community fee is levied to cover the level of services needed or even worse sees services reduced simply because of the lack of funds. From this a desire to replace the administrator could easily arise.
Such an action is not without consequences and should be considered carefully.
The contract with the community administrator is usually a result of an agreement reached at the annual general meeting,
the contract is for one year and unless there is a decision to the contrary will remain in place year after year.
However if there is discontent and a change to the administration is sought then the actual reasons for the change have to be looked at in depth or else there may well be a case for paying out compensation to the administrator for unfair dismissal.
The Law of Horizontal Property makes proviso for this change under article 13 section 7. Unless the statutes of the community do not dispose the opposite, the administrator will be appointed for one year,
but can be removed before this if an agreement is reached by the General Assembly in an extraordinary meeting.
Bearing in mind that a contract is usually for one year the first points to clear up are the reasons for early dismissal. If the reasons are fair, bad management, poor accounting or general negligence then there is no compensation. If however the court decides in favour of the administrator and sees the reasons as clearly unfair then the judge will generally instruct the community to pay damages.
If this is the case then the level of compensation has to be established by the court. In some instances the court orders that the rest of the payments pending should be made until the contracted year ends. Which could be seen as unfair as the now ex-administrator would continue to be paid for doing no work, so this is not a common resolution. In fact the courts generally calculate the appropriate compensation according to the damage actually suffered by the administrator as a consequence of the dismissal.
The bottom line is if you are considering changing your community administrators for what ever reason then don't do it lightly and look before you leap and as usual, at Intercala Administration we strongly suggest you seek proper and competent advice in all matters regarding the law.
As usual,
We at Intercala Administration strongly suggest you always seek proper and competent advice in all matters regarding the law.
Removing the community administrators without
paying compensation
José Luis Navarro www.intercala.com
The Solicitor and Property Administrator for Intercala Administration
and
Pete Woodall (Woody's Los Boliches)
This article first appeared in the Euro Weekly News, Costa del Sol Edition in November 2011
The current crisis has swelled the number of debtors in many communities throughout Spain
and in some strange way we tend to attribute this increase of debtors to the community administrators.
Making the administration possibly unfairly responsible for these financial short comings is further compounded
when an extra community fee is levied to cover the level of services needed or even worse sees services reduced simply because of the lack of funds. From this a desire to replace the administrator could easily arise.
Such an action is not without consequences and should be considered carefully.
The contract with the community administrator is usually a result of an agreement reached at the annual general meeting,
the contract is for one year and unless there is a decision to the contrary will remain in place year after year.
However if there is discontent and a change to the administration is sought then the actual reasons for the change have to be looked at in depth or else there may well be a case for paying out compensation to the administrator for unfair dismissal.
The Law of Horizontal Property makes proviso for this change under article 13 section 7. Unless the statutes of the community do not dispose the opposite, the administrator will be appointed for one year,
but can be removed before this if an agreement is reached by the General Assembly in an extraordinary meeting.
Bearing in mind that a contract is usually for one year the first points to clear up are the reasons for early dismissal. If the reasons are fair, bad management, poor accounting or general negligence then there is no compensation. If however the court decides in favour of the administrator and sees the reasons as clearly unfair then the judge will generally instruct the community to pay damages.
If this is the case then the level of compensation has to be established by the court. In some instances the court orders that the rest of the payments pending should be made until the contracted year ends. Which could be seen as unfair as the now ex-administrator would continue to be paid for doing no work, so this is not a common resolution. In fact the courts generally calculate the appropriate compensation according to the damage actually suffered by the administrator as a consequence of the dismissal.
The bottom line is if you are considering changing your community administrators for what ever reason then don't do it lightly and look before you leap and as usual, at Intercala Administration we strongly suggest you seek proper and competent advice in all matters regarding the law.
As usual,
We at Intercala Administration strongly suggest you always seek proper and competent advice in all matters regarding the law.