Communities in Spain
Properties located in a development, popularly known as
"urbanisations" in Spain; usually share communal facilities such
as gardens, and services such as those of a maintenance person.
All new urbanisations are the responsibility of the promoter or
builder until they are all completed and sold. The
responsibility is then handed to the comunidad de propietarios
(the community of property owners) which you automatically join
when you buy your property in Spain. Spanish law gives legal
status to this community so that it can regulate the joint
ownership of common property e.g. gardens, pools etc
Once you have completed on your property, you are notified and
invited to attend a meeting to formally hand over the
responsibility of general upkeep of the collective properties to
a newly formed community of owners. Amongst the owners, someone
must be elected as President and another as Vice President. An
administrator is also elected, although for the first year it is
normal practice to use the administrator put in place by the
developer. The administrator and the committee members sort out
the day to-day business of the community and call meetings when
matters arise. The committee is annually elected. They hold
yearly meetings during which a budget is approved by the Owners
covering the expenses for the year. This budget is then divided
between owners depending on the percentage contribution for each
property as set out in the title deeds.
In some urbanisations where there are a mixture of houses and
apartments, the apartment owners tend to pay a higher community
fee than the house owners. In the urbanisation where we live
owners of a two bedroom first floor apartment pay 170 euros per
quarter, whereas the owners of a three-bed roomed town house pay
just 55 euros per quarter. This is surprising, but you must
consider that the area around apartments incur more expenses
e.g. stairwell cleaning and lighting, lift maintenance, garage
cleaning and maintenance etc. There are numerous factors which
determine the cost of community fees including:
* The number of apartments that share a block. * The more there
are, the more there are to share the cost * The position. The
higher you go the more you pay and you may also be charged more
for enjoying a view! * The total number of properties in an
urbanisation. The size of a development (total area)
In some rather unfair cases where a development consists of many
phases, owners of completed phases may be expected to
temporarily subsidise the community fees of the uncompleted
phases. This is because the green areas, the pools etc which are
intended for the entire use of the development still need to be
maintained. We heard of a case in Marbella, where the owners of
the completed phase are paying one thousand euros per month
community charges. The construction of the other phases hasn't
yet started so it is likely that they will continue to pay this
for the next few years! Seems very unfair really.
The percentage of the budget that each property pays is set in
the Title Deeds (escritura) as this is determined by the
developer. The Community fees are normally paid quarterly or
half-yearly depending on the Community. Expenses vary according
to services required and include salaries and social security
for those employed by the community (gardeners, pool attendants,
hall porters etc), repairs, electricity for the lighting of
common areas, administration fees.
Every owner must pay their community fees on the date set by the
members at the Annual General Meeting. If any of the members
fail to pay the community fees, the President or the
Administrator may claim the debt, previous authorisation of the
community members, in the Court of First Instance from the city
where the block of flats is located, and even have the property
sold at auction to recover unpaid charges.
The Town Hall will also make a charge for the Rubbish collection
(Basura) from your property or development. This can be charged
annually or quarterly depending on the Municipality in which you
are purchasing the property. In certain cases, this may be
included in your community fees.
In certain municipalities, there is an annual charge for the
Recycling Tax (Tratamiento de Residuos). This covers the
recycling of waste from the numerous glass, paper, and battery
banks that are distributed throughout the area. Again in some
cases, this may be included within the Community fee.
Most properties have electricity and water meters and you will
be charged according to the amount of each consumed. Some
communities will only have one meter for the whole development
and therefore include the water in the Community Fees.
So before you purchase your off-plan property it may be an idea
to enquire about the expected community fees. Most people don't
get to know about this until it's too late....don't get caught
out, you've no excuses now!