Your owners' community (comunidad de propietarios)

It is for anyone considering, planning or carrying out a move to Spain. After reading, you will know your rights and duties in a building or estate and how to avoid taking on trouble you did not cause. It does not cover neighbour etiquette, home repairs or tenant rules.

Start with "How a Spanish owners' community works". It covers fees, statutes, the administrator, common areas and your duties, and the other pages build on it. If you are still choosing a property, go next to "What to ask the administrator before buying into a building".

Key rules

• Reserve fund: The community must hold a reserve fund of at least 10% of its last ordinary budget.
• Tourist flat vote: Limiting tourist lets needs three-fifths of owners who also hold three-fifths of the quotas.
• Inherited debt: A buyer and the property answer for unpaid community fees of the current year and the three previous years.
• Debt certificate: The community must issue the debt certificate within seven natural days of the request.
• Challenge deadline: You can challenge an owners' decision in court within three months, or one year if it breaks the law or the statutes; absent owners have 30 days from being notified.
• Membership: Owning a home in a shared building makes you a member of the community automatically.

Your owners' community (comunidad de propietarios): the whole process, step by step

• Before buying: ask the administrator for the debt certificate, statutes and minutes (read "What to ask the administrator before buying into a building"): Early, before the deed is signed; the community must issue the certificate within seven natural days of the request

• Receive the notice of the yearly owners' meeting (read "Owners' meetings, voting majorities and proxies"): At least six days before an ordinary meeting; at least three days before an extraordinary one

• Attend or send a representative with a written proxy: On the meeting day; on first call a majority of owners and quotas must attend, on second call the meeting is valid with whoever comes

• Receive the minutes (acta) and any notification of agreements: Within 10 natural days of the meeting

• Decide whether to challenge an agreement (read "Disputes with the community over noise, tourist flats and common areas"): Within three months, or one year if it breaks the law or the statutes; absent owners have 30 days from being notified

• Prepare for any special levy (derrama) or building works, including the periodic building inspection (read "Special levies (derramas), lifts, facades and building works"): Once the meeting approves the works; the agreement sets the amounts and instalment dates, and inspection dates are set by your region or town

• If a neighbour does not pay, the community claims the debt (read "Community debt and neighbours who don't pay"): After the meeting approves the debt settlement; the debtor then has 20 working days to pay, oppose or appear

• If a dispute stays unresolved, go from the administrator to a meeting agenda item, then mediation, then court: In that order, within the challenge deadline

Documents you may need

Payments and receipts

• Statement in the deed that the seller is up to date with community payments — Community debt and neighbours who don't pay

Guarantees

• Building insurance policy and proof that it is paid — What to ask the administrator before buying into a building

Other documents

• Debt certificate — Community debt and neighbours who don't pay, What to ask the administrator before buying into a building
• Title deed of the horizontal division — What to ask the administrator before buying into a building
• Minutes — What to ask the administrator before buying into a building
• Current annual budget and the last approved accounts — What to ask the administrator before buying into a building
• Technical Building Inspection report — What to ask the administrator before buying into a building
• A written statement from the administrator on pending derramas — What to ask the administrator before buying into a building

Your owners' community (comunidad de propietarios): questions that cross several articles

Who pays a special levy approved before I buy but due after I buy?

The owner when each instalment falls due must pay the community, so a levy due after the sale falls on you as the buyer. The sale contract can make the seller pay instalments for works approved before the sale, or adjust the price. Read "Special levies (derramas), lifts, facades and building works" and "What to ask the administrator before buying into a building".

Do unregistered statutes bind me as a buyer?

Statutes that are not registered in the Property Registry do not bind a buyer acting in good faith who did not know of them. If you knew of them, they apply to you.

What majority approves a special levy for a lift or accessibility works?

A lift or other innovation needs three-fifths, while works the law makes mandatory need only a simple majority. Accessibility works requested by owners with a disability or over 70 need no vote if the cost after subsidies stays within 12 ordinary monthly fees. Read "Special levies (derramas), lifts, facades and building works" and "Owners' meetings, voting majorities and proxies".

What happens if an owner skips a meeting where a levy is approved?

You are still bound by the agreement, and the secretary must notify you by a means that proves receipt. After that you can object within the deadline, and if you do not pay your instalments the community can sue you for the debt. Read "Owners' meetings, voting majorities and proxies" and "Community debt and neighbours who don't pay".