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 Almost anyone who investing or buys property as a purchase in Spain becomes a member of the community of property owners. You are the owner, even if you have a 100 per cent mortgate on your property, it’s yours and you’re responsible. This community is the legally constituted body that regulates the working of the common elements of an apartment building or an estate of houses. Only those few who purchase an individual house on a village street or a country house on a tract of rural land will not become co-owners of community property.
The concept of co-ownership often seems strange to foreign property owners, especially those from the UK, accustomed to renting an apartment or purchasing on a 99-year lease, which leaves the problem to the actual owner of the freehold in Spain.
What is the community chares for?
When you buy an apartment, you become part owner of the grounds, lifts and other installations that you share with other owners. Let’s look at your obligations and you rights as a member of the community which administers these elements.
Your principal obligation is to pay the annual community charges. These charges cover the expenses for maintenance of the community’s property, such as the lift, the garden, the pool, cleaning, parking area, security, and perhaps the streets and lighting in an estate of detached villas. Some communities have very few assets held in common and so they have low fees. Others have extensive grounds or services and so their charges are higher. Some bill the members monthly, others quarterly and other annually.
Your share of the expenses is usually determined by the size of your property. If there are 100 apartments, all the same size, your share would be one per cent.
Recent charges in the law of communities make it easier for them to collect payment form those in areas. The community president can apply for a court order which allows the debt to be seized from the debtor’s bank account in as short a time as 30 days.
What rights and obligations do I have in the Community?
Your principal right in the community is to attend the annual General meeting, speak your mind, and cast your vote. If you feel the charges are too high, you can assemble a group of like-minded members and vote to have them reduced. If is not giving good service, you must assemble more that half of the votes in order to terminate their contract and hire a new administrator.
A community of property owners is real democracy at its most vital. Those with the majority of votes carry the day, and the decisions taken at the annual general meeting are the supreme authority of the community. You can be elected President, even if you are a foreigner and not a full-time resident of Spain.
The community problems with democracy.
This means that the community has all the problems of democracy. It implies that you must participate and put effort into making any change you desire. People ask haw to fire the President or change the Administrator or have some rule passed in their community. The answer is always the same. You must do it yourself. That is what democracy means. You cannot appeal some higher authority that will put things right to suit you with no effort on your part.
If you want to change the President, the Administrator, or some policy of the community, you must organise enough other members to vote in favour of your plan. You might need to obtain the proxy votes of members who are in their home countries and do not attend the AGM. You need to make sure that your proposal is listed on the agenda well in advance of the AGM, so that it can be discussed and voted upon. All this requires planning, though, and work on your part, when people have a problem with their community; they always say that “They want to do this or that. Be advised. The community is never”they. It is always we”.
Which Spanish Law control the Communities.
Communities are legally bound to function by the Law of Horizontal Property (Ley Horizontal), which sets out the rules for their operation. In addition most communities pass their own set of Statutes do deal with own specific situations.
As a member of the community, you have the right to attend the annual general meeting, and any other meetings of the community, along with the right to be properly informed in advance of the dates and the order of business of any meeting called. If you are not correctly informed, you can protest and even have the results of the meeting annulled by a court.
At the meeting you have the right to voice your opinion, the right to vote, and to present motions for the vote of the other members. You have the right to be elected and to hold office in the community. You may be the President, the Vice-President or the Secretary. People sometimes think that the professional Administrator is the real head of the Community. They are not. They are an employee of the community who takes orders from the elected President.
You legal right in the community.
You have the right to see all of the documentation and records of the community. The Administrator or other officers are legally bound to keep there records and accounts at the disposal of the members. If they refuse to show them to you, you can obtain a court order to see the documents.
You have the right to hold and to vote proxies issued by other members who are absent from the meeting. This is common practice in communities where the foreign owners are absent much of the time. Most communities in fact have a standard Proxy from on which an absent member can delegate their vote to another member.
If something is wrong or illegal in the Community.
If you feel that a decision voted by the majority of the community is illegal or contrary to the statutes, you, acting alone, can ask the local court to rule on the matter. If you feel that the decision is legal, but seriously prejudicial to your own interests, and you can unite 25 per cent of the owners and shares, you can petition the court to have the decision annulled, or you can oblige the President to call an Extraordinarily General Meeting.
You will need skilled legal counsel for either of these actions. You are obliged to abide by the statutes of the community. If these statutes require all owners to paint their properties white and forbid owners to keep dogs, then you must paint your property white and you my not keep a dog. If you violate the statutes, the community members can vote to ask the court to issue an injunction which will forbid you from entering your property for a period of up to two years. This seldom occurs but the threat is there and it has been carried out in a few isolated cases.
Both the Law of Horizontal Property and the statutes of most communities require an owner to maintain their property in good condition so that it does not cause damage to the other owners, and to permit workmen to enter the property when it is necessary for repairs on the building.
How much are the community fees?
Ask your seller or the estate agent for their last paid-up community fee receipt. The fee depends on your quota, or participation share, in the property. The fee can vary from as little as 50 euros a month in a modest apartment block up to 500 euros a month o even more on a luxury urbanisation.
Example of normal community fee in good and luxury properties.
2 bedrooms apartment in Hacienda Playa in Elvira has 130 euros/months.
3 bedrooms penthouse in Monte Halcones in Marbella has 400 euros/months.
2 bedrooms apartment in hacienda Elvira in Elvira has 120 euros/months.
3 bedrooms apartment in Los Granados de Cabopino has 260 euros/moths.
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