Incidents

Emergency protocol for property managers (with checklist)

Urgency levels, roles, scenario-by-scenario actions and a checklist so your firm responds the same way at 3 am as at 11 am.

María Velasco · 17 Sept 2026 · 5 min read

4 levelsof urgency in your protocol

This guide refers to owners' communities (comunidades de propietarios) in Spain and to the Spanish Horizontal Property Act (Ley de Propiedad Horizontal, LPH).

When an emergency hits, nobody reads a manual. People act with what's at hand and with what was decided beforehand. That's why an emergency protocol isn't a document for the archive: it's the list of decisions your firm makes in a calm moment so it doesn't have to improvise them under pressure.

This guide gives you the full structure: urgency levels, who does what, how to act in the seven most common scenarios and a checklist to apply it to every community.

Why your firm needs a written protocol

The law requires you to act. Article 20.c LPH tasks the property manager with ordering urgent measures and immediately informing the president. And the owners' meeting must be told about those measures (art. 14.c LPH).
Know-how can't live in a single head. If only your most senior account manager knows where block B's stopcock is, your firm is carrying a risk.
Residents judge their property manager by how they respond on the worst night of the year, not by flawless accounts.

The 4 urgency levels

Level	Definition	Examples	Response
1 — Critical	Risk to life or physical safety	Gas, fire, structural risk, falling façade elements	Call 112 immediately; then the property manager
2 — Urgent	Damage getting worse or essential service down	Active leak, person trapped in the lift, no lighting on the staircase	On-call contractor right away
3 — Priority	Real but containable problem	Broken garage door, entry phone not working	Resolved within 24–72 h
4 — Routine	Maintenance	Light bulb, paintwork, cleaning	Usual scheduling

Response times for levels 3 and 4 are indicative: adjust them to your contractor agreements.

Who does what

Role	Responsibility in an emergency
Resident who spots it	Report through the official channel, with a photo if it's safe; call 112 if lives are at risk
Caretaker (if any)	First containment: shut off water or power, cordon off, let the contractor in
Property manager	Decide on the urgent measure, call in the contractor and insurer, inform the president
President	Be kept informed and, if there's no property manager, take on their duties (art. 13.5 LPH)
On-call contractor	Carry out the work and document what was done
Community insurer	Assistance, loss assessment and cover

Action by scenario

Scenario	First action	Who to call	Afterwards
Leak or flooding	Close the stopcock; cut the power if water reaches installations	On-call plumber or the insurer's assistance line	Photos, insurance claim, check affected flats
Smell of gas	Evacuate, don't touch switches or light flames, ventilate if safe	112 and the gas distributor's emergency service	Don't restore supply without a technical inspection
Fire	Evacuate by the stairs, never the lift	112	Fire brigade report, loss assessment, notice to residents
Person trapped in the lift	Reassure them and stay in contact	Lift maintenance company (rescue service)	Log the fault and get it inspected
Power cut in common areas	Check whether it's area-wide or just the building	Electrician or electricity distributor	Check the panel and emergency lighting
Façade detachment	Cordon off the area below the point of fall	112 if there's a risk; façade specialist	Technical inspection, possibly necessary works
Intrusion or burglary	Don't go in if someone may be inside	112	Police report, locksmith, review access points

The emergency sheet for each community

Every community in your portfolio should have a one-page sheet the whole team can open on their phone:

Address, number of entrances and floors
Location of stopcocks, meters, electrical panels and gas valve
Who holds keys to plant rooms and the roof
On-call contractors by trade (with 24-hour number)
Insurer, policy number and assistance line
Lift maintenance company
President and vice-president, with phone numbers

After the emergency: closing it properly

Internal report: what happened, when, who acted, what it cost.
Claim and follow-up with the insurer.
Notice to residents: what happened, what was done, what's still pending.
Item at the next owners' meeting: urgent measures taken must be reported to the meeting.
Lesson learned: what was missing from the sheet? Add it.

Checklist for your firm

Criteria for the 4 urgency levels written down and shared with the team
Complete emergency sheet for every community
Confirmed on-call contractors (contact tested in the last 6 months)
Insurance details and assistance line for every community
Single reporting channel communicated to residents
Template for notifying the president
Template for notices to residents
Log of every emergency with date, action and cost
Annual review of the protocol

How Wabee helps

A protocol only works if it's applied the same way at 3 am as at 11 am. In Wabee, reports come in through a single channel (app or WhatsApp) with a photo; the AI classifies the urgency level using the same criteria every time and alerts the contractor; and everything is logged for the follow-up report and the owners' meeting. The protocol no longer depends on who happens to be on call.

Frequently asked questions

Does a community have to have an emergency plan? The LPH doesn't require a document by that name, but it does oblige the property manager to act on urgent matters and report on them. Some buildings may have additional obligations under self-protection or municipal regulations; it's worth checking case by case.

Who pays for an emergency repair? It depends on the source: if it's a common element, the community (and its insurer, depending on the policy); if it's private, the owner. Initial containment shouldn't wait until that argument is settled.

Do I have to report every urgent measure to the owners' meeting? Yes. The owners' meeting is entitled to be informed of urgent measures taken by the property manager (art. 14.c LPH).

Use this checklist at your next portfolio review. And if you'd like the protocol to run itself, see how Wabee does it.