key holding - legal requirement for non-residents?

[mummygeek]

Can anyone tell me for sure what the legal requirements are in Spain as far as key-holding goes.

As a non-resident owner of a property are you required by law to leave a set of keys to your property with a neighbour or agency. In the event that the utilities or police need access surely the law would need to be on their side if they needed to break in !

I run a website for our community of owners and my partner is the president and he is forever getting calls from annoyed neighbours who are being kept awake by house alarms going off. Chasing down someone with a key for the empty property so that the alarm can be sorted out is often a real pain. It transpires that sometimes there is no key holder.

I want to be sure of what I'm saying before I tell all owners to make sure they have an accessible key-holder.

Thank you.

[Fontanals Solicitors]

Despite there is no legal obligation to leave the keys with an agency or neighbour, it is advisable. The owners of a property would be responsible if something happens (such as a water leak) and they have not left a set of keys to give someone access to the house.