A community president in Spain self-assigns himself an €86,700 wage!

Raymundo Larraín Nesbitt, February, 19. 2024

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21^st of February 2024

In a remarkable turn of events, we learnt this week that a British community president (Mr. S.H.) of Torrre Bemerjo, Estepona, self-assigned himself an annual wage of almost €87k. On top of this, he is also waived from paying the community fees (a further €8,000). So defacto, he's earning 95,000 a year, this is more than what Spain’s president earns a year! Apparently, he's been doing this for years until an owner instigated a legal procedure against him at Estepona's law courts.

After having being appointed multiple times as president of my community, I can personally attest to how ungrateful and time-consuming this task is (at least 1 to 2 hours every day). If it were up to me, hands down I believe a community president should be compensated financially for his time and effort (whether as a testimonial wage or excluding him/her wholly or partially from paying the community fees).

When Spain’s Horizontal Property Act, that rules all community of owners in Spain, came into force in 1960, still under General Franco’s dictatorship, there were no garden communities as we know them now. If you read the law, it is apparent it was drafted by lawmakers with the idea in mind of concrete buildings in large cities. Not the kind of huge sprawling developments we have today with multiple pools, large mature gardens, water features, golf courses, lakes, etc.

This pre-constitutional law expressly bans community presidents from earning any money in their role. Personally, I find this totally unfair (understatement). However, that’s the law we have, and we need to follow it until a new one is enacted.

What this community president has done is unlawful, and he will be taken to court and lose. It seems he had a large number of proxy votes assigned by fellow owners which gave him the majority vote as they did not attend the general assemblies, so he voted on their behalf to assign himself a huge wage at the expense of the whole community of owners.

I’ve visited this community at Torre Bermejo several times, because it has a lovely restaurant next to the beach. The gardens and community in general are all very well kept. By experience, I can tell you a lot of work has been put into the community to make it look so good.

I hope one day this law is amended so that the role of community presidents in Spain is duly acknowledged by way of a financial compensation of sorts for all their hard work.

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Community related articles

Community of Owners – 26^th June 2009
Community of Owners – 8^th July 2012
Challenging Assembly Resolutions (AGMs and EGMs) – 10th October 2011
Community of Owners Insurance Policies – 8th August 2013
Decree 218/2005. The one about rentals and properties for sale in Andalusia – 8^th August 2016
Buying in a Community of Owners – outstanding debts! – 21^st September 2017
Community of Owners in Spain – 8th December 201
A community president in Spain self-assigns himself an €86,700 wage! – 21^st February 2024

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