Can they pay the president?

Our Community voted many years ago to pay a small yearly stipend to the president for his expenses. We approve this each year at the AGM. Now a new member declares that this payment is illegal under Spanish law and he insists that the payments stop and all the money be returned. What is the position, please?

M.M. (Costa Blanca)

The payment is perfectly legal. Spain’s law on Communities says nothing at all about payments to the president to cover his expenses. The law does not require or prohibit such payments.

If the Community approves them at the AGM, it is all right. Perhaps your new member recalls the early days of the Horizontal Law, in the 1970s, when Spanish courts ruled that the president could not receive payments.

This position changed over the years, on the grounds that being president should not cost the holder any of his own money. Also note that Catalonia, which has many of its own laws, does indeed prohibit making payments to the President.

Send your questions for David Searl through lawyers Ubeda-Retana and Associates in Fuengirola at Ask@lawtaxspain.com, or call 952 667 090.