Administrative procedures in Barcelona: time limits, silence and appeals
Where the other party is Barcelona City Council, the Generalitat or a national body, what usually decides the outcome is not the substance of the matter but the time limit. This guide goes through the whole procedure: how it starts, what administrative silence means, what appeals exist and when the court route opens up.
An administrative procedure is the route by which a public authority takes decisions affecting the public: granting or refusing a licence, deciding a grant application, imposing a penalty, allowing or rejecting a claim for damage. It is a regulated route, and that is both its virtue and its trap. The virtue: every step has a form and a moment, and if the authority does not observe them, the act can be challenged. The trap: the same applies to the citizen, and a missed time limit makes final a decision that was perfectly open to argument.
At Ajuridic we follow administrative files with Barcelona City Council, the Generalitat de Catalunya and the national government from the office in El Clot, in Sant Martí. This guide explains the whole route, with the rule that underpins it: Ley 39/2015, on the Common Administrative Procedure of Public Authorities.
What an administrative procedure is
It is the ordered set of steps the authority must follow before issuing an act that has legal effects. It can start in two ways, and the distinction matters more than it seems:
- At the request of the person concerned, where it is the citizen who asks for something: a licence, a grant, an authorisation, a refund of an overpayment.
- Of the authority's own motion, where the authority itself starts it: penalty proceedings, an enforcement order, a review of a licence, an inspection.
Practical questions depend on that difference, such as the effect of silence if the authority does not decide in time, or who bears the burden of proving the facts.
In Barcelona, files are dealt with by three levels of administration that are not always obvious to whoever receives the letter: the Barcelona City Council and its bodies, including the districts, which have powers of their own; the Generalitat de Catalunya and its departments; and the national government bodies based in the province. Identifying which of them issued the act is the first step: it determines which appeal is appropriate and which body must decide it.
The most frequent files in Barcelona
Licences, prior notifications and authorisations
Licences for major and minor works, activity licences, prior notifications of opening, occupation of public space for terraces, vehicle accesses and scaffolding. The dispute arises when the licence is refused, when it is granted with conditions that were not expected, or when proceedings are later opened to restore lawfulness on the basis that what was built does not match what was authorised.
Penalty proceedings
Penalties for traffic, community relations, waste, business activities or housing. They have their own rules, because they are governed by the principles applying to the power to impose penalties: presumption of innocence, the requirement that conduct be defined in advance, proportionality and no double penalising. The detail of how to respond to a penalty is in the guide to administrative fines in Barcelona.
State liability of the authority
This is the route for claiming where the operation of a public service, whether normal or defective, causes harm: a fall because of the state of the road, damage caused by municipal works, or harm arising from public healthcare. It requires proof of the harm, its financial assessment and the causal link with the service, and it has a time limit of one year from when the harm occurred or from the stabilisation of the permanent effects. Where the harm is medical, the claim overlaps with what is explained in the guide to medical negligence.
Grants, subsidies and benefits
Award, refusal, evidencing use and recovery. Recovery proceedings are especially delicate: the authority claims back what has already been received, often years later, and the time limit for replying is short.
Local taxes
Impuesto sobre Bienes Inmuebles (municipal property tax), plusvalía municipal, service charges. Here the route is partly different: against local tax assessment acts the prior recurso de reposición is usually the appropriate step and, in large municipalities such as Barcelona, a claim to the municipal economic-administrative body.
Time limits: where most matters are lost
Administrative law is, above all, a law of time limits. An error in the count is not put right with good arguments: if the appeal is filed out of time, it is not admitted and the substance is never examined, and the decision becomes final. These are the general reference points.
| Step | General time limit | Counted from |
|---|---|---|
| Appeal to a higher authority | 1 month | The day after service of the act being challenged. |
| Optional recurso de reposición | 1 month | The day after service of the act being challenged. |
| Administrative court appeal | 2 months | Service of the decision that exhausts the administrative route. |
| Recurso extraordinario de revisión (extraordinary review appeal) | From 3 months to 4 years | Depending on which of the limited grounds is relied on. |
| Claim for liability of the public authorities | 1 year | When the harm occurred or when the permanent effects stabilised. |
Working days and calendar days are not the same
Periods expressed in days are counted in working days and exclude Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, unless the rule expressly says "calendar" days. Periods expressed in months are counted from date to date, starting the day after service. If the last day is not a working day, the period ends on the next working day. And account must be taken of the Barcelona and Catalan public holiday calendars, not just the national one.
To this is added the period for deciding that binds the authority: if the governing rule does not set another, it is three months. Its expiry does not release the authority from its duty to decide, but it triggers administrative silence and, in proceedings started of the authority's own motion with unfavourable effects, lapse.
Administrative silence
Where the authority does not decide within the period, the law attaches a meaning to that absence of a reply so that the person concerned is not left waiting indefinitely. That meaning may be to allow or to refuse.
- Positive silence. The general rule in proceedings started at the request of the person concerned: once the period has passed with no express decision, the application is deemed granted. The act so produced is a genuine administrative act, and the authority can no longer issue a contrary decision afterwards: it can only review it through the procedures for review of its own motion.
- Negative silence. This applies where a rule with the rank of an act of parliament or of EU law provides for it, and in limited areas: the right of petition, activities involving the transfer of powers over public property or a public service, proceedings challenging acts and, as a general rule, liability of the public authorities. Here silence is not an act but a fiction that allows access to the courts.
The practical difference matters: against negative silence the two-month period for a contentious-administrative appeal does not run in the same way as against an express act, because the authority remains under a duty to decide. Even so, prudence suggests not letting the file go to sleep: in penalty proceedings and proceedings imposing burdens, the effect of the period passing is caducidad, which is worth relying on expressly.
Types of administrative appeal
Appeal to a higher authority
It is lodged against acts that do not exhaust the administrative route and is decided by the body hierarchically superior to the one that issued the act. It is compulsory: without exhausting the administrative route you cannot go to court. Time limit: one month from service; three months for it to be decided, after which it is deemed rejected.
Optional recurso de reposición
It is lodged with the same body that issued the act, against acts that already exhaust the administrative route. It is optional: you can go straight to court. But if you choose to lodge it, you must wait for it to be decided expressly or by silence before appealing to the contentious-administrative courts. Time limit: one month; one month for it to be decided.
Recurso extraordinario de revisión (extraordinary review appeal)
It is available only against final acts and on limited grounds: an error of fact apparent from the documents in the file itself, the emergence of essential documents produced later or produced earlier but unknown, documents or testimony declared false by a final judgment, or perversion of the course of justice, bribery or violence declared by a judgment. It is not a second chance to reopen a matter lost through a time limit.
Administrative court appeal
This is already the court route. It is filed with the Juzgados de lo Contencioso-Administrativo in Barcelona or, depending on the subject matter and the body that issued the act, with the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Cataluña. Time limit: two months from service of the act that exhausts the administrative route. The organisation of these courts has changed with the reform explained in the guide to Ley Orgánica 1/2025 and the Tribunales de Instancia.
Steps for challenging a decision
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Establish the date of service
This is the piece of information everything else depends on. You must keep the acknowledgement of receipt, the proof of electronic service or the date it was made available on the electronic office. If service is defective (wrong address, a single delivery attempt, premature publication by edict), the period has not started to run and that, in itself, is a ground of challenge.
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Read the appeal notice and check it
The decision must state which appeal is available, to which body and within what time. It is worth checking: an incorrect appeal notice does not prejudice a person who acted in reliance on it, but it can complicate the matter if nobody notices in time.
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Ask for a copy of the complete file
As a person concerned you have the right to access the file. That is where the technical reports and the background appear and, frequently, the defects: steps omitted, mandatory reports missing, no prior hearing.
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Draft the appeal with facts, law and a request
An administrative appeal is not a letter of complaint. It must identify the act being challenged, set out the facts, marshal the grounds of nullity or voidability and end with a specific request. Formal grounds (failure to give reasons, prejudice to the defence, lapse, lack of competence of the body) carry as much weight as those going to the substance.
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Put in the evidence at this stage
Expert reports, dated photographs, invoices, contracts, witness statements. Evidence that is neither provided nor put forward here is much harder to introduce later.
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Apply for suspension if enforcement causes harm
Lodging the appeal does not of itself suspend enforcement of the act. If enforcing it causes harm that is impossible or difficult to put right, the closure of a business, for example, suspension must be applied for with reasons.
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Follow it up and note the expiry date
It is worth noting the date on which the period for deciding expires, because from then on the next route opens up. Leaving an appeal unanswered and doing nothing about it is the quietest way of losing a matter.
Frequently asked questions about administrative procedures
When is it worth going to a solicitor?
As soon as the unfavourable notice arrives, or before starting a complex application. The time limits are short and some early mistakes cannot be put right later: evidence that was not put forward, representations that were not filed, the wrong appeal using up the time limit for the right one.
How long is there to challenge a penalty in Barcelona?
The general time limit for an administrative appeal is one month from the day after service, and two months for a contentious-administrative appeal. Before that, within the penalty proceedings themselves, there is a stage for representations with the time limit stated in the notice. What the document received says always governs.
Do I have to exhaust the administrative route before going to court?
Yes, unless the act already exhausts the administrative route in itself. If it does not, a recurso de alzada must be lodged; if it does, the recurso de reposición is optional and you can go straight to the contentious-administrative courts.
What documents are needed to lodge an appeal?
The original notice of the act being challenged, the identity document of the person concerned and all the documents supporting their position: invoices, technical reports, contracts, photographs. If the person concerned is a company, also the incorporation deed and the power of representation.
What happens if the authority rejects the appeal?
If the rejection, whether express or by silence, exhausts the administrative route, a contentious-administrative appeal to the Barcelona courts becomes available, where a judge reviews the lawfulness of what was done. The two-month period runs from service of that decision.
Can I appeal without a solicitor?
In the administrative route, neither a solicitor nor a court agent is required. In the contentious-administrative route legal representation is required, and before single-judge courts a court agent is optional. The fact that it is not compulsory at the administrative stage does not mean it makes no difference: that is the stage at which the evidence is fixed and the grounds that will later be argued before the judge are built.
Other related guides
Municipal law and penalties
Barcelona City Council files: representations, appeals, liability of the authorities and the contentious-administrative route.
Go to the practice areaAdministrative fines in Barcelona
Types of penalty, grading by seriousness, paying at the reduced rate versus appealing, and the defects that quash a file.
Read the guideE-scooters and personal mobility vehicles in Barcelona
A specific example of a municipal by-law: technical requirements, riding, parking and the enforcement regime.
Read the guideGuide written by the firm Ajuridic. Principal: Noemí Ampurdanés Parés, lawyer registered with the ICAB under no. 22359, with more than 30 years in practice.
It is general information only. It does not constitute legal advice and does not replace analysis of a specific case: the rules change and the outcome depends on the facts, the dates and the documents in each file.
Administrative time limits, on the calendar
Reposición, alzada and contentious-administrative, with the indicative final date counted from service.
Time limit checker
Eleven time limits covering fines, employment, damage claims and inheritance. Enter the start date and it shows the deadline for acting and how many days are left.
Check a time limitDocument checklist
The list of papers for six of the firm's procedures, tickable and printable, so you arrive at the first consultation with the file already checked.
Open the checklistIf the time limit is already running, sooner is better
Reviewing the notice and the file makes it possible to know which appeal is appropriate, to which body and how many days are left. The firm is at Carrer del Freser, 104, in El Clot, and also deals with enquiries by telephone and WhatsApp.