Who cleans the stairs in your apartment block or maintains the communal pool on an urbanisation in Spain? Who pays for it, and how much? It might not have occurred to you that someone has to do these things. Or maybe you've heard of the concept of a comunidad de propietarios ('community of owners') and how it's responsible for these and other maintenance issues, but are not sure how it works.
Briefly, anyone who owns a property that involves space or facilities shared with other owners will need to take into account 'community fees', or gastos de comunidad, when budgeting for household expenses. Only the owner, never the tenant, pays these – although a landlord may factor in the cost when setting rent charges.
It's in your best interests to know how these fees are calculated, what they cover, who gets to decide everything, and the legal framework covering it all – including your own rights and duties.
If you live on an urbanisation or in an apartment block with communal facilities, you will need to pay Community fees to cover maintenance and repairs. Photo: Canva
A comunidad is run by, and for, owners of homes or businesses, to cover the costs of maintaining and repairing any communal (shared) features, and the addition of new features.
A community of owners is a legal entity and has legal personality, its actions are covered by legislation, and the percentage of costs you pay as regular and extraordinary fees are stated in the deeds to your property.
Depending upon your country of origin, you may have a similar system in place: A copropriété, in France; condomínio in Portugal; a condominium or homeowners' association (HOA) in the USA or Canada, and a freehold or a commonhold in the UK.
A comunidad de propietarios is not quite the same as a freehold, though, as we'll explain below.
Creating a comunidad de propietarios is required by law on urbanisations or in apartment blocks with five or more owners and five or more properties. Multiple owners of a single property, or an individual owner of several properties, count as one owner.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com