What is an adminstrador
de fincas? Much Spanish property forms part of a complex
of buildings which share some facilities such as a swimming pool, gardens, park,
social club etc. and as such requires some sort of collective management.
These
complexes usually employ a caretaker or a gardener, or both, to take care of daily
maintenance and repair (lifts, swimming pool maintenance, gardening, distribution
of letters and parcels to the corresponding post boxes, cleaning of common areas
etc.).
In Spain most complexes, or "urbanizaciones"
as they are called here, delegate the management of the community ("communidad")
in a licensed property administrator called "administrador de fincas".
This person (or company) oversees all the administrative side of the community
management, and property owners pay a monthly fee to the administrado de fincas
to cover the cost of community maintenance and management.
The
administrador calls yearly meetings in which owners debate all issues related
to the management of the complex or urbanization and elect a representative ("presidente")
to liaise with the administrator. These meetings are chaired by the admininstrator
who takes notes and sends the minutes of the meeting and the agreements reached