Regarding notices of meetings section 16 (2) of the Horizontal Property Act provides
´The notice shall include the items to be dealt with (the agenda)…...´
In the light of the statutory guide that voting provisions are satisfied only if every owner is given the opportunity to vote, the importance of the notice provisions and due observance of them is obvious.
It is not required by the Act to include a detailed explanation on the business agenda but it must be included all business to be transacted.
The Supreme Court has declared the nullity of those resolutions passed hidden in the ‘question time’ or ‘any other businesses’ at the end of the meeting because business can be transacted only if details of it are included in the notice convening the meeting.
Section 16 (3) provides that the notice period for general meetings shall not be less than six days prior to the meeting, whereas extraordinary meetings shall be ‘with sufficient time to inform all parties involved’
That time shall be counted from the date in which the notice is received.
Depending on which court, the consequences of failing to comply with the required terms could entail:
i. Nullity or no effect of the notice, meeting and resolutions adopted.
ii. Avoidability, which means challenging independently each resolution within three months under section 18 (3).
There is no provision in the Act about the owners’ prior right of information about the annual accounts. Therefore it is not a legal requirement. This issue has been dealt by the Supreme Court in its ruling of 16 April 1993. The Court of Appeal of Lleida (25-Oct-2001) CA Murcia (23-Oct-2003), CA Alicante (19 01-2006) CA Madrid (27-4-2007) took the same approach´ All of these judgements refused the owners’ right of prior information
Section 16 (1) provides that the meeting of the commonhold association shall be held at least once a year to approve the budget and the accounts
The accounts referred in this section are those for the next and previous year. (Bear in mind that if you notice anything wrong with those accounts you must put on record your objection during the meeting, otherwhise it'll be very difficult to challenge those accounts)If you want to examine the accounts of more years you should request the Owners’ committee to examine and resolve any matter whatsoever which concerns the commonhold. For this purpose a request in writing should be sent to the president setting out clearly the items requested to be dealt with. The president shall then include them in the agenda of the following meeting (section 16 (2)
It is compulsory for the president to include such business if such a request has been made in writing and is clearly expressed.
The only legal resource available for any owner to whom a proposal has been rejected would be to take legal action through ordinary proceedings asking the court for an order which obliges the president to include the owner’s request.
Due to the slowness of Spaniard justice it must be also applied, within the action, for any required precautionary measures.
Resolutions adopted in a meeting where the president refused to transact any business could not be void if those businesses did not affect the resolutions adopted.
This message was last edited by spanishsolicitor on 07/08/2009.