Who Is Really Keeping an Eye on Your Community?

Recently, police in Orihuela arrested a 45-year-old property administrator, who is suspected of misappropriating more than €17,800 belonging to two homeowners' communities. According to investigators, the woman allegedly used forged signatures of community representatives to obtain money through bank cheques. The alleged scheme may have been operating for around two years. The investigation is ongoing, and police have not ruled out the possibility of further victims coming forward.

This is not the first case of its kind in Alicante province. In 2024, police investigated another case involving a former property administrator suspected of misappropriating more than €88,000 from a homeowners' community. She also had documentation belonging to approximately ten other communities, and investigators identified more than 200 bank transfers.

There is another figure worth keeping in mind. Statistics from the Alicante College of Property Administrators for 2020 recorded 75 complaints and claims concerning the work of registered professionals. The complaints included problems with changing administrators, failure to hand over documentation, questions concerning budgets and accounts, insufficient responsiveness to repair issues, and failure to implement decisions taken by the community's General Meeting.

Of course, this does not mean that 75 administrators were found to have committed wrongdoing. These were complaints received and dealt with by the professional organisation.

But the latest case brings us back, once again, to an issue that concerns many of us:

How well is our shared property actually being managed?

Because the apartment belongs to us. The parking space belongs to us. And the swimming pool, garage, gardens, entrances, lifts and other communal property are also partly ours.

And here we have a very concrete example.

In autumn 2025, a fire broke out in the underground car park of a large residential complex in Torrevieja, in Punta Prima.

Around twenty vehicles and a substantial part of the garage were damaged. The affected area was cordoned off.

Photographs taken by residents in August 2026 show that clear signs of the fire are still visible in this section of the car park: smoke-blackened walls and columns, damaged ceiling areas and barriers.

According to residents, almost a year later, full restoration work in the damaged section has still not begun. Owners of apartments in the closed block and owners of affected parking spaces are still waiting for clear information about what will be done, when it will be done and how much it will cost.

And then summer arrived.

Owners whose parking spaces were affected began looking for available spaces elsewhere in the garage. At times, they occupied spaces belonging to other residents. The result was entirely predictable: someone comes home and finds another person's car parked in their space.

For a large residential complex during the summer season, this is no longer a minor inconvenience.

For almost a year, some owners have been unable to use part of their property normally.

We are not attempting to establish the reasons for the delay, still less to assign responsibility. That requires documentation: expert reports, correspondence with the insurance company, General Meeting resolutions, technical plans, quotations, contracts and information about the progress of the work.

But there is one question residents have every right to ask:

What exactly is being done to restore the damaged area — and when will owners be able to use their property normally again?

Don't Wait for a Fire Before Taking an Interest in Your Community

Spanish law places specific responsibilities on property administrators: they must oversee the condition of the building and its communal installations, deal with necessary works, take urgent measures when required, implement decisions of the General Meeting and keep the community's documentation.

So it is perfectly reasonable for a homeowner to ask about:

• the annual financial report;

• the community's funds and transactions;

• major payments;

• contracts with contractors and suppliers;

• quotations and invoices;

• General Meeting minutes;

• insurance documentation;

• technical reports;

• outstanding payments by owners;

• the progress of already approved works.

And if the matter is important, it is better to ask in writing.

That is not distrust. It is normal oversight of your own property.

What about an independent financial review?

Curiously, Spain has no general rule requiring a homeowners' community to undergo an audit every two years. But owners of a large complex can certainly propose an independent financial review.

And this does not necessarily mean a formal statutory audit under audit legislation. The ICAC has specifically explained that a community's accounts may be reviewed by a professional with the necessary knowledge and experience; such a review is not an official statutory audit in the legal sense.

For a community with a substantial budget and expensive infrastructure, the question is a practical one:

Wouldn't it make more sense to pay an independent professional to review the accounts every two years than to discover one day that there is nothing left to review?

The Advice to Homeowners Is Simple

Don't turn yourself into a detective.

But don't become a passenger in your own community, either.

Look at the accounts once a year.

Read the minutes.

Understand the major expenses.

Ask questions.

If a serious problem arises, ask for the answer in writing.

If a decision has been made, ask how it is being implemented.

And if a serious dispute arises with a registered property administrator, Alicante has an official procedure for submitting complaints to the professional College; the organisation also has mechanisms for dealing with such complaints and disciplinary procedures.

And above all

The community does not belong to the management company.

The administrator manages your shared property on behalf of the owners and within the powers granted to them.

That is why one of the most useful questions at a community meeting can sound completely routine:

“Please show us the documents.”

For a properly run management company, that is an entirely normal working request.

For a homeowner, it is a simple way of remembering that they are, after all, an owner — not a passenger.