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How a Condominium (Condomínio) Works in Portugal

What owning a flat in a Portuguese building means: your share, the yearly meeting, fees, the reserve fund, insurance, selling, and challenging decisions.

How a Condominium (Condomínio) Works in Portugal

Last verified: September 2026.

Who this is for

  • You own a flat, shop, or garage space in a Portuguese building, or you are about to buy one.
  • You live in Portugal or abroad. The rules are the same for resident and non-resident owners.
  • You want to know what you pay, how decisions are made, and what to do if you disagree.

Not for you if: you rent your flat. Your landlord deals with the building. Read "Renting a Home in Portugal" instead.

Updated September 2026. The 2026 social support index (IAS) is €537.13. Unpaid fees at or above that amount trigger the manager's duty to sue within 90 days.

If you own a flat in Portugal, you are automatically part of the building's condominium (condomínio). Your flat is yours; the roof, stairs, lift, and façade are shared. The owners decide how to run and pay for them at a yearly meeting, and an elected manager carries out those decisions. You must pay your share of the costs, plus at least 10% extra into a reserve fund. Your share, and your vote, depend on your flat's value in the building. Missed fees can go straight to enforcement, without a court case first.

What you own and what you share

A building split into separately owned units is under a system called horizontal property (propriedade horizontal). Each unit is an autonomous fraction (fração autónoma): a flat, a shop, a garage space, or a storeroom.

By law, these parts are always shared:

  • the ground, foundations, columns, pillars, load-bearing walls, and the rest of the structure;
  • the roof and roof terraces, even if only one flat can use them;
  • entrances, halls, stairs, and corridors used by two or more owners;
  • the building's water, electricity, heating, air conditioning, gas, and communications installations.

These are presumed shared unless your building's deed says otherwise:

  • courtyards and gardens;
  • lifts;
  • the caretaker's rooms;
  • garages and parking spaces;
  • anything not reserved for one owner.

The deed can give one owner exclusive use of part of a shared area, such as a roof terrace.

You cannot opt out. You also have no right of first refusal when a neighbour sells, and you cannot demand that shared parts be divided.

The documents that run your building

The founding deed (título constitutivo). This sets out each fraction and fixes its value as a share of the whole building, in thousandths (permilagem) or as a percentage. It may also say what each fraction can be used for, and include the building rules. Changing it needs the agreement of every owner, by deed or authenticated document.

The building rules (regulamento do condomínio). If the building has more than four owners, it must have rules covering how shared parts are used and looked after. The owners' meeting writes them. If it does not, the manager must. Rules often cover noise, pets, balconies, parking, and holiday lets.

The minutes (atas). Every meeting must produce written minutes. They record who attended, what was discussed, and each vote. The chair signs, and every owner present signs too, by hand, by qualified electronic signature, or by email confirmation. Decisions only take effect once the minutes are approved. They then bind every owner, and anyone who later rents or buys a fraction.

Before you buy, ask the seller or the manager for the deed, the building rules, the minutes of the last few meetings, and this year's budget. Together they tell you what you are buying into.

Your share: what it decides

Your fraction's share of the building's value does two jobs.

It sets your costs. Unless the deed or rules say otherwise, you pay for shared parts and common services in proportion to your share. There are exceptions:

  • If you cannot use the lift from your fraction (a ground floor shop, for example), you do not pay for it.
  • Parts that serve only some owners are paid for by those owners.
  • The building rules can split the cost of common services equally, or by use. That needs a majority of owners holding a majority of the building's value, with nobody voting against.

It sets your vote. You get one vote for each whole unit in your share. A flat with a share of 45 per thousand has 45 votes. A large flat outvotes a studio.

The yearly owners' meeting

The owners' meeting (assembleia de condóminos) is where decisions are made.

When it happens. The manager must call an ordinary meeting in the first half of January. It approves last year's accounts and this year's budget. If the building rules allow it, or a majority votes for it, the meeting can instead be held any time in the first three months of the year.

Who can call a meeting. The manager can call an extra meeting at any time. So can owners holding at least 25% of the building's value.

How you are told. You must get at least 10 days' notice. The manager sends it by registered letter, or delivers it against your signed receipt. If you asked at an earlier meeting to be contacted by email, and that is in the minutes, notice comes by email. You then confirm receipt by email. The notice gives the date, time, place, and agenda, and flags any item that needs every owner's approval.

If you live abroad, tell the manager in writing where to send notices. You can name a representative in Portugal instead.

Online meetings. The meeting is held online, usually by video call, if the manager decides so or most owners ask for it. If you cannot join online for a good reason and say so in advance, the manager must provide the means, or the meeting cannot be held online.

If you cannot attend. You can send someone to vote for you. Give them a signed, dated letter of authority (procuração). It can be another owner, your tenant, or anyone you trust.

How votes are counted

Most decisions need a majority of the votes of the whole building, not just of those in the room.

If too few owners attend to reach that majority, a second meeting takes place. Unless the notice set another date, it is one week later, at the same time and place. It can decide by a majority of owners present, as long as they hold at least a quarter of the building's value. If the manager is sure a quarter will be present, the notice can set the second meeting for 30 minutes after the first.

Some decisions need more:

  • Changing the façade or the look of the building: two-thirds of the building's value.
  • Improvements and new works (inovações): a majority of owners, holding two-thirds of the building's value.
  • Installing a lift or piped gas, in a building with at least eight fractions: a majority of owners holding a majority of the building's value.
  • Solar panels for the building's own use: a simple majority of owners.
  • Changing a fraction's use, where the deed does not say what each is for: two-thirds of the building's value. You do not need anyone's permission to change a fraction's use to housing.
  • Banning holiday lets in the building rules: two-thirds of the building's value. The ban applies only to new applications.
  • Changing the deed or splitting a fraction: every owner, or no owner against.

A decision that needs every owner can be taken by all those present, if they hold at least two-thirds of the building's value. The manager then writes to the absent owners within 30 days. Each has 90 days to reply. Silence counts as a yes.

If someone in your household has reduced mobility, you can install a ramp or a stair lift without a vote. You must tell the manager 15 days before.

The building manager

The manager (administrador) runs the building day to day. The owners' meeting elects and removes the manager. The job can go to one of the owners or to a professional company, and it can be paid. The term is one year, renewable. The manager stays in place until a successor is chosen.

If nobody is elected, any owner can ask a court to appoint one. Until then, the owner with the largest share must act as manager, unless another owner volunteers and tells everyone.

The manager's name must be posted at the building entrance. By law, the manager must:

  • call the meetings and draw up each year's budget;
  • collect fees and pay the building's bills;
  • check that fire insurance and the reserve fund exist;
  • chase owners who do not pay, with legal interest and any agreed penalties;
  • carry out the meeting's decisions within 15 working days, unless the meeting sets another deadline;
  • get at least three quotes before the meeting votes on major repairs or new works, unless the rules say otherwise;
  • keep the accounts and all building documents;
  • tell owners when the building is sued or fined, and update them at least every six months;
  • issue a statement of what you owe within 10 days of your request;
  • act in emergencies and call an extra meeting straight away to approve what was done.

A manager who fails in these duties is personally liable for the damage. If you object to something the manager did, you can take it to the owners' meeting. You can call that meeting yourself.

Paying your condominium fees

Your fee (quota) is your share of the yearly budget. The meeting sets it and when it is due. Paying is a legal duty, not an optional service charge.

Your contact details. You must give the manager your NIF, address, phone number, and email, and update them when they change.

What happens if you do not pay. The minutes of the meeting that set the fees are an enforcement title (título executivo). They must state each owner's yearly amount and due dates. With them, the building can go straight to enforcement, for example by seizing a bank balance. It does not need to win a court case first. The claim covers:

  • the unpaid fees;
  • late-payment interest at the legal rate;
  • any penalties the meeting approved or the rules set. By law, a year's penalties cannot exceed a quarter of the fraction's yearly taxable income value.

When the manager must act. The manager must start court action within 90 days of your first missed payment, if you owe at least one IAS (€537.13 in 2026). The meeting can vote otherwise.

The reserve fund

Every building must have a common reserve fund (fundo comum de reserva) to pay for its upkeep. You pay into it at least 10% of your share of the building's other costs, on top of your normal fee.

The fund must be kept in a bank. The owners' meeting manages it. If the meeting votes to spend it on anything other than upkeep, owners must pay it back within 12 months. Unpaid top-ups can be enforced in the same way as fees.

A healthy fund means the building can fix the roof or the lift without asking owners for a large one-off payment.

Insurance you must have

Who this applies to: every owner of a fraction.

  • Fire insurance on the building is compulsory. It covers each fraction and the shared parts.
  • The owners take it out. If they have not done so by the deadline, and for the amount the meeting set, the manager must. The manager then recovers the premium from the owners.
  • The cover must be updated every year. The meeting sets the new amount. If it does not, the manager applies the index the insurance regulator publishes each quarter.

Many buildings take out a wider group policy covering water damage and liability too. That does not cover your furniture, fittings, or personal liability inside your flat. For that you need your own home policy. See "Getting Home Insurance in Portugal".

Buying or selling a flat

If you are selling, ask the manager for a written statement of all charges and debts on your fraction. The manager must issue it within 10 days. It must list:

  • the current charges, what they are for, the amounts, and the due dates;
  • any debts, with amounts and the dates they arose and fell due.

This statement is a required document for the deed or authenticated sale document. Ask for it at least three weeks before the signing date.

Who pays old debts. Each debt belongs to whoever owned the fraction when it fell due. So the seller stays liable for debts before the sale. The exception is when the buyer declares, in the sale deed, that they do not need the statement. The buyer then takes on any debt the seller owed the building. Charges falling due after the sale belong to the new owner.

If you are buying, do not waive the statement. It protects you from inheriting the seller's unpaid fees.

After the sale, the seller must tell the manager by registered post within 15 days, giving the buyer's full name and NIF. If the seller does not, the seller pays the cost of tracing the new owner and any late-payment charges that result.

Holiday lets in your building

Since November 2024, an owner does not need the other owners' consent to register a flat as a holiday let. The exceptions are hostels, and buildings whose deed or rules ban holiday lets. The owners can ban them for the future by a two-thirds vote. They can also charge the holiday let an extra fee of up to 30% of its yearly fee.

If guests repeatedly disturb the building, owners holding more than half of its value can ask the mayor to cancel the registration. See "Registering a Holiday Let (Alojamento Local) in Portugal".

If you disagree with a decision

Who this applies to: any owner who did not vote for a decision.

If you think a decision breaks the law or the building rules, you can challenge it. The deadlines are short. They run from the meeting if you were there, or from when you were told of the decision if you were not.

  1. Within 10 days, you can ask the manager to call an extra meeting to reverse it. That meeting must take place within 20 days.
  2. Within 30 days, you can take the decision to an arbitration centre.
  3. To go to court, you have 20 days from the extra meeting. If you did not ask for one, you have 60 days from the original decision.

You can also ask a court to suspend the decision while the case runs.

Smaller disputes. Unpaid fees, damage, and other disputes between owners and the building can often go to a peace court (julgado de paz), where one covers your area. They handle claims up to €15,000 and cost far less than the ordinary courts. See "Resolving a Dispute through the Peace Courts (Julgados de Paz)".

Urgent repairs. If something shared needs urgent repair and the manager is absent, any owner can arrange the work. This covers problems that could quickly damage the building or put people at risk.

Changes on the way

In summer 2026, the government said a law to regulate professional condominium managers was in the legislative process. As reported, it would require management companies to hold a licence, carry liability insurance, have written contracts, and meet training standards. It must still pass the Council of Ministers and parliament. The government also plans a digital building record (Caderno Digital do Edifício), to hold a building's documents in one place, in phases. Neither was in force when this guide was checked.

Sources

Last verified September 2026. Rules and fees change; check the official source before acting.

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