The comunidad de propietarios in Spain: how it really works

What a comunidad de propietarios is

If you buy an apartment in a building, or a house inside a complex with shared areas, you join a comunidad. It isn't a choice and there's nothing to sign: the arrangement comes from the título constitutivo, the deed that describes the property and gives each unit its cuota de participación, a participation share expressed in hundredths of the total value. That share is the yardstick used to work out each owner's part of the costs and benefits of the comunidad: it isn't a symbolic number, it measures everything.

The share is set on the basis of the unit's usable floor area against the total, its position inside or outside the building, its situation, and the use it can reasonably be expected to make of the shared services and areas. The título can also include rules on use and purpose, a private set of statutes: watch out, those statutes don't bind third parties unless they're registered at the Registro de la Propiedad. It's the first thing I check whenever someone tells me "the rules say so".

Fees, the budget and the reserve fund

Every owner has to contribute to the general costs of maintaining the building, its services and its obligations, according to the share set in the título or agreed separately. The monthly fee you see in a listing is simply the annual budget approved at the meeting, divided by the shares and by twelve.

• The fondo de reserva, the reserve fund, is compulsory and covers upkeep, repairs and refurbishment of the building, as well as accessibility and energy-efficiency works: it can't be funded with less than 10% of the last ordinary budget.
• Derramas are one-off special levies. For improvements, whether already made or still to be made, the law says they fall on whoever owns the unit when the amounts become due: dates matter, not intentions.
• Anyone behind on debts due at the start of the meeting can speak but not vote, and neither they nor their share count towards the majorities needed.
• The comunidad can take deterrent measures against owners in arrears and has a special fast-track court procedure for claiming what it's owed: in Spain, falling behind on fees isn't just a matter of neighbourly etiquette.

The debts of whoever sold before you

This is the difference that costs the most to anyone who doesn't know about it. Anyone who buys a unit under propiedad horizontal, the Spanish regime for buildings divided into units, even with the title already registered at the Registro, is liable, with the property itself, for the amounts the previous owners owed to the comunidad, up to the limit of what's attributable to the part of the current year already due at the time of purchase and to the three calendar years before it. The property, the law says, is legally tied to meeting this obligation.

The protection exists and it's strong, but it has to be used. In the public deed of transfer, the seller has to declare that they're up to date with the general costs, or state what they owe, and has to hand over a certificate on the state of the debts that matches that declaration: without that certificate, the deed can't be authorised, unless the buyer expressly waives the requirement. That waiver is one you should never sign. The certificate has to be issued within seven calendar days of the request, so asking for it doesn't cost anyone any time.

The meeting and the majorities

The comunidad's bodies are the Junta de propietarios, the owners' meeting, the president with any vice-presidents, the secretary and the administrator. The president is appointed from among the owners and the appointment is compulsory: whoever is chosen can ask a judge to be released from it within the following month, explaining their reasons. If the property you're buying is in a small building with no professional administrator, this affects you directly.

• The Junta meets at least once a year to approve budgets and accounts; an extraordinary one can be called by the president or by a quarter of the owners.
• Notice of the annual ordinary meeting is given at least six days in advance, and lists the owners who aren't up to date with payments.
• On second call, the meeting is valid with no quorum, and can be held the same day, half an hour after the first.
• Changing the título constitutivo or the statutes needs unanimity; other decisions just need a majority of owners representing a majority of the shares.
• Some decisions have their own majorities: for example, lifts and accessibility have a lower threshold, while a caretaker, security and non-essential works need three-fifths.

The rules and holiday letting

It's the question I get asked most often, and the answer has changed. Today the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal, the law governing buildings in shared ownership, says that an express agreement approving, limiting, setting conditions on or banning holiday letting needs the favourable vote of three-fifths of the owners, who in turn represent three-fifths of the shares, and this applies whether or not it involves changing the título or the statutes.

The same majority is needed to set special contributions to costs, or an increase in the share of the common costs, for the unit where the activity takes place, as long as the increase doesn't go over 20%. And there's a line that's worth its weight in gold for a buyer: these agreements have no retroactive effect. In other words, what matters is your unit's situation at the moment the agreement is passed, and to understand that you need the minutes, not reassurances.

The comunidad's decision is only half the story: holiday letting in the Canary Islands also has its own regional tourism rules and a licence. This is a general explanation, not legal advice: get help from a qualified professional for your own case.

What I ask for before buying

1. The debt certificate I ask the administrator for this before the arras, not on the day of signing: if money is owed, it's better to know while you can still negotiate.
2. The minutes of the latest meetings That's where you find the derramas approved, any ongoing disputes, postponed works and decisions on holiday letting.
3. The título and the statutes With one check: are they registered at the Registro? If they aren't, they don't bind third parties, and that changes how much weight what's written there actually carries.
4. The budget and the participation share The approved budget and your unit's share. From there you can tell whether the monthly fee you were quoted is the real one.