Change administrator in a community of owners

A simple process that can improve many aspects of the community.

It may seem risky to write a post called "changing the administrator in a homeowners' association" to start this blog, but at Southern We believe in our work and that nothing is forever.

If an administrator simply does not perform his duties or disappears when he is most needed, or if it is observed that he is delaying tasks and is slow to complete work, the best thing to do is to change the administrator. In some cases, an improvement of the community starts with a change of administrator.

The process of changing administrator

Change administrator in a community of owners

The phases of the process.

The three questions we are always asked when we are consulted about this procedure are usually the following:

Who is responsible for convening the owners' meeting?

Far from what everyone assumes that it is the administrator who actually convenes the owners' meetings, the reality is that the convenor is the president of the community, who, in any case, can delegate the communication of the owners' meeting to the property manager.

Fortunately, we can now also convene by e-mail and hold general meetings of owners, whether extraordinary or not, through platforms such as Zoom in compliance with all legal requirements

It may happen that the president of the community cannot be reached. It may also be that he/she is reluctant to change for whatever reason. In this case, the horizontal property law in article 16, foresees that a meeting can be called with the consent of a quarter (25%) of the owners or with the coefficient of 25% over the total of the community represented by the owners. It expressly states that "the call of the meetings shall be made by the president and, failing that, by the promoters of the meeting (...)".

What items need to be on the agenda?

We have to start from the idea that the administrator is really like another employee of the communities and therefore the process of change is given by the same requirements that we would take into account for the change of any other service.


In order to carry out this change of administrator, a simple majority of the owners' meeting must vote in favour.

This meeting may be convened in extraordinary session and exclusively for this purpose.

In order to avoid procedural defects, the order would be to first vote on the removal of the previous director, and then proceed to the vote on the appointment of the new director.

A simple majority is the necessary result for both decisions to be carried out. In this way, it is possible to separate the two votes: on the one hand the dismissal and on the other hand the new recruitment.


Our advice will always be that the two should coordinate for the call to address this issue.

Is it essential that the director who is to be removed be present at the meeting?

The answer is that he does not have the right to attend the meeting, and therefore the community can deny the presence of the outgoing administrator at the meeting that will deal with his dismissal.

Undoubtedly, the attendance of the outgoing property administrator is an inconvenience for the owners to be able to freely express their opinions and therefore vote, without any pressure, on how the administrator's management has been.

It confuses the fact that in favourable situations, the presence of the administrator is indispensable to run a meeting properly, but this should not be confused with a right as such.

How to call a termination meeting and avoid a challenge

As in any other case, it is necessary to take into account an order of issues for the meeting to be considered correctly convened, such as the following:

  • Specify who convenes the meeting.
  • That the day and time of the first and second summons appear.
  • Indicate where the meeting is to be held.
  • List the agenda items to be discussed.

What a change of administration looks like in reality.

For those of us who work in administration, this is a common problem and we are familiar with the process.

The most normal thing in the world, and this is a common scenario, is for a member of the community to contact us, (either by mail, by coming to the office or by telephone), so that we can give advice on how to change the administrator before the current administrator is dismissed.

If you have transmitted confidence, the next thing he will ask us to do is to call the owners' meeting, and even to attend it. When Meridional is asked for this type of action, we obviously get to work. When the time comes, we go, we introduce ourselves, we solve doubts and we leave the meeting so as not to interfere in the debate and subsequent vote.

This type of prior advice is completely free of charge. We also understand that beyond the business benefit, there is a community of owners that is going through a compromised moment and needs help to stabilise a situation or even maintain the necessary services.


At Meridional we believe that in order to be successful during the change process, it must be a professional who carries out, manages and monitors this procedure from start to finish..

A community of neighbours tied to an ineffective administrator or change to a proactive one?

This is one of the first questions we should ask ourselves if we see that for some time nothing is working well in our community. Some more reflections on the relationship between homeowners' associations and property administrators always lead us to think about the fundamental work of an effective property administrator, beyond paying bills and claiming from debtors.

Is "the bad things known" really better than something new to be known in property management? We never cease to be amazed at how many people are really unhappy with the way their housing communities are managed.

Transparency is the basis for trusting the administrator.

There is dissatisfaction in management, not only from the point of view of repairs and maintenance, but also in terms of the costs of such works and the transparent procurement of the professionals who will be working in our community.

Often the administrators themselves are also providers of other essential services for the community, and the good practice of requesting and comparing several quotes is abandoned. Out of habit, what is already in place is left in place and other options that may be more convenient or more economical are not analysed.

Poor management of communities not only influences us to feel that we are in an environment that we do not like or is unhealthy for the owners, but can also have a great impact on the valuation of our homes.

At Meridional we care about the people who live in the communities.

It may seem like just advertising, but at Meridional we get involved, we believe in the spirit of service, in being proactive, listening and responding to the concerns of the communities, giving transparency to the supplier selection processes, informing in time about how certain procedures are going, how a repair is progressing or if a breakdown has been completed.

We are not doing anything new or surprising, we are simply doing what is essential for a community and we are doing it well, transparently and with a very involved team. That's our differentiation. There is no other trick.

At Meridional we have created our own office, bright, friendly and always open. We deal directly with you, there is no chain of internal consultations that makes us slower than reasonable. It's as simple as that: we are always there and we are what you see.

No two communities are identical

We are also aware that no two communities are the same. We adapt our services to each community, to each peculiarity, to each need. Each community has a different approach because it has different needs; this allows us to be an efficient property administrator because we do not apply the same recipe for different problems.

Improving well-being by changing managers

Changing things is the only way forward, but the problem, in many cases, is the inertia of years and how complicated the process for a change of administrator can seem at first sight to help improve our well-being, if not directly create it. Choosing a manager with extra services that facilitate our quality of life, is another way to improve our quality of life.

So yes, it can be complicated, but it is not always so: you may be surprised how, once you start the conversation about the possibility of change, people are willing to help, they get involved in looking for a new community management.

Besides, we always find that in the end, inertia can only cause more harm and no "known bad" is better!


We hope that this article has been of interest to you and that we have been able to answer some of your questions or doubts. If so, we look forward to hearing from you.

If you need to change the administrator in your community of owners, you can ask us for a quote and we will tell you how good it will be for you to manage your community. Please do not hesitate to contact us contact with us.

Each community is unique and as such, we treat it as such, making highly personalised budgets and taking into account the objectives and needs of each community.

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