Housing Secretary Drafts a Rulebook for Condominium Managers, Pledging Training and Accountability Standards
The government is preparing legislation to regulate and train Portugal's condominium-management companies, the Housing Secretary told an industry congress, warning that administrators can no longer get by on the bare legal minimum.
Portugal is moving to regulate the companies that run its apartment buildings. The Secretary of State for Housing (Secretária de Estado da Habitação), Patrícia Gonçalves Costa, has signalled that the government is preparing legislation to govern the management and administration of condominiums (condomínios), with a focus on the "regulation, training and qualification" of the firms that operate in the sector.
Speaking at the opening of the national congress of the Association of Condominium Management Professionals (ANPAC — Associação Nacional dos Profissionais de Administração de Condomínios), Costa said management companies could no longer content themselves with meeting the bare legal minimum — such as merely convening the annual general meeting to approve the accounts. The forthcoming rules, she indicated, would push administrators toward a more professional standard of service. The bill is currently working its way through the legislative process.
An industry that has outgrown its rules
The sector's own representatives welcomed the prospect of tighter oversight. ANPAC president Alexandre Teixeira Mendes argued that "modern condominium maintenance is very different from what it was twenty years ago," with energy systems, lifts, safety obligations and digital record-keeping all demanding technical specialisation. Administrators, he said, "must be held accountable" for the way they manage buildings and the common funds entrusted to them.
Condominium administration in Portugal has long operated with light regulation. Almost anyone — a resident volunteer or a commercial company — can take on the role, and the duties set out in the Civil Code (Código Civil) are relatively basic. As buildings have grown more complex and reserve funds larger, complaints about opaque accounts, deferred maintenance and unresponsive managers have become more common.
Why foreign owners should take note
The reform matters to the large number of foreign residents and investors who own apartments in Portuguese buildings. Every owner of a flat in a shared building belongs to its condominium, pays a monthly quota toward shared costs, and depends on the administrator to maintain the property and keep honest accounts. Clearer licensing, mandatory training and stronger accountability rules would give owners — many of whom manage their properties from abroad — more confidence that their fees are being handled properly.
No date has been set for the rules to take effect, and the government has yet to publish the detail of how licensing or registration would work. But the direction of travel is clear: the era of the unregulated condominium manager appears to be drawing to a close.
Source: ECO.
