The periodic electrical inspection of a building is one of those obligations nobody remembers until the notice arrives, and then everything is a rush. If you manage properties or sit on your community's committee, it is much better known about in advance: prepared for, it costs little; improvised, it costs considerably more.
Here is what you need to know without the jargon: what it actually is, which buildings are subject to it, who carries it out (not your electrician), which defects show up almost every time, and how to get the building in order before anyone arrives.
What it actually is
It is a statutory inspection of the building's communal installation: the one serving the lift, stairwell and entrance lighting, garage, pumping, irrigation and pool. It does not extend inside the flats, which are private installations.
The essential difference from an ordinary check is who does it. The periodic inspection is carried out by an authorised control body (organismo de control autorizado), an independent organisation that inspects the installation and issues a report. It is not done by the company that maintains the building, and that is deliberate: independence is the whole point of the exercise.
Here is the most frequent confusion we encounter, worth settling from the outset: the installer and the inspector are two different roles. We prepare the building, correct the defects and issue the documentation for our own work. The control body inspects and certifies. A managing agent who understands that separation stops wasting time requesting the wrong quotes.
Which buildings are subject to it
It depends on the characteristics of the communal installation, not on how the building looks or how old it is. Installations above certain power thresholds, and those that required a technical project when built, are subject to mandatory periodic inspection. Garages and premises with public access additionally have their own interval, shorter than the rest.
This is not something to establish by ear, and be wary of anyone who assures you over the phone without seeing anything: it is determined from the installation's documentation and its actual power. It is a quick check and it is worth doing before any notice arrives, because knowing you are subject to it with two years of margin is an entirely different situation from finding out with two weeks.
As a useful contrast: a private dwelling does not follow this regime, and commercial premises have their own, with considerably more frequent inspections.
Who arranges it and who is responsible
The communal installation belongs to the community, so the community is responsible for having it inspected. In practice the person who manages it is the administrador de fincas (managing agent), and the president signs whatever needs signing.
The inspection and the correction of defects are a communal expense, shared according to the participation quotas, just like any maintenance work. This is not voted on the way an improvement is voted on: where a building is subject to inspection, complying is not optional. That is an important difference from other work in communal areas, where there is genuine room for decision.
The defects that appear almost every time
After a good many buildings, the list repeats with striking regularity:
- Degraded earthing: it exists, but it is no longer as it should be. This is the number one defect in older buildings, and it cannot be spotted by eye: it has to be measured.
- No schematic and no circuit identification: a board that is neither labelled nor documented is a defect in itself, quite apart from complicating every fault.
- Undocumented modifications: work carried out over the years by different companies, none of it reflected in the building's paperwork.
- Emergency lighting and signage in the garage: units that have not lit in years or no longer hold their charge.
- Protective devices that do not match the current load: the building has accumulated loads and the board is still the original one.
- Boards that do not close or are open to anyone: doors that will not shut, missing locks, cabinets used for storage.
- New installations poorly integrated: car chargers or self-consumption added without updating the documentation for the whole.
That last point deserves particular attention, because it is the one that has grown most. In recent years buildings have added charging points and solar panels, often through different companies at different times. When what is installed and what is documented do not match, a defect follows, and correcting paperwork after the fact is always more awkward than doing it properly at the time.
What happens if it is unfavourable
It is not a disaster if it is handled. Defects are graded by seriousness, and that grading determines how long you have to correct them and whether the building has to be inspected again. Plenty of communities go through this, correct the issues and end up in order.
The real problem is letting it slide. An uncorrected unfavourable report stays on record, and that changes the community's position: if there is later an incident in the communal areas, a document exists saying it was warned and did not act. For a managing agent, that is the part that genuinely matters.
How to prepare the building
An inspection is not passed by luck, it is passed with work beforehand. What we do before the control body arrives is essentially the inspection in advance:
Gather whatever documentation exists. Installation certificates, the project if there was one, the previous inspection report, and the paperwork for everything added since. Anything missing has to be reconstructed, and that takes time.
Measure, do not look. Earthing, continuity and protective devices are verified with instruments. That is what separates a serious review from a walk round the entrance hall.
Clear the obvious defects first. Labelling, schematics, boards that will not close, emergency lighting that does not work. They are cheap to put right and they add up to a surprising number of entries on a report if left.
Bring the additions up to date. If the building has installed charging, self-consumption, or refurbished the door entry or the pool, the documentation has to reflect it.
How this plays out in Málaga
The typical profile of the province complicates two things. The first is age: much of the housing in the city and along the coast dates from the 1960s to the 1980s, with communal installations that have been extended without a single guiding standard and with documentation that is scattered or non-existent.
The second is communal facilities. Many communities here have a garage, pool, irrigation and a lift, which is considerably more communal installation than a block with no shared amenities. More installation means more to inspect and more chance that something is out of place. And if there is a communal pool, that part has requirements of its own.
There is also a calendar advantage worth using: the autumn season of owners' meetings. If an inspection is coming up, taking the item to the September or October meeting with a quote and timescales lets it be approved calmly. Discovering it in January with the notice already in hand means an extraordinary meeting and accepting the first price that appears.
Practical recommendations
Check today whether your building is subject to it and when it is due. It is a quick enquiry and it completely changes how calmly you can plan.
Keep the documentation somewhere that survives changes. Presidents change, managing agents change, and a building's paperwork gets lost at every handover. An organised digital archive is worth its weight in gold when the inspection comes.
Insist on documentation for every job done in communal areas. Every intervention, its certificate. That is how nothing is missing at the next inspection.
Do not wait for the notice to have a preliminary review. Correcting with time to spare is ordinary maintenance; correcting against the clock is urgent work and gets priced as such.
And if you are a managing agent, standardise across your buildings. A single point of contact for the communal installations across your portfolio stops every building arriving at its inspection in a different state.
Frequently asked questions
Is my building required to have a periodic inspection?
It depends on the characteristics of the building's communal installation. Installations above certain power thresholds, and those that required a technical project when built, are subject to mandatory periodic inspection, while garages and premises with public access have their own shorter interval. It is not something you can establish by looking at the building from outside: it is determined from the installation's documentation and its actual power. We check it and tell you which case you are in.
Can our own electrician carry out the inspection?
No, and this is the most common confusion. The periodic inspection is carried out by an authorised control body, an independent organisation that inspects and issues the report. The installer is the one who maintains the installation, prepares the building beforehand and corrects the defects afterwards. They are two distinct roles, and that independence is precisely the point of the inspection.
Who pays for the community's inspection?
The communal installation belongs to the community, so the inspection and the correction of defects are a communal expense, shared according to the participation quotas like any maintenance work. It is not a discretionary decision for the owners' meeting: where a building is subject to inspection, complying is not optional.
What happens if the result is unfavourable?
It is not a disaster if it is handled. Defects are graded by seriousness, and that grading determines how long you have to correct them and whether a re-inspection is required. What is a problem is letting it slide: an uncorrected unfavourable report stays on record, and if there is later an incident in the communal areas, there is a document saying the community had been warned.
Does having installed EV chargers or solar panels affect it?
Yes, considerably. Anything added to the communal installation modifies it, and has to be executed and documented accordingly. EV charging points and self-consumption are precisely what has been added most in recent years, often by different companies and without updating the building's documentation. That mismatch between what is installed and what the paperwork says is one of the most frequent causes of a defect.
Shall we prepare your building?
At VLR Instalaciones we have over 20 years of experience as electricians authorised by the Junta de Andalucía, and we work with communities and managing agents across the whole province of Málaga. We check whether the building is subject to inspection, carry out the preliminary review with instruments, correct the defects, bring the documentation up to date and issue the certificate for our work. If you manage several buildings, get in touch and we will organise it across the portfolio.
Reviewed by VLR Instalaciones, electrician authorised by the Junta de Andalucía.
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