Property in Spain
Spanish Horizontal Property Law
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Apr 2, 2007 - 7:17 PM

In Spain, unless you are buying a detached property or a rural finca there is every chance you will come across a comunidad de propietarios. This is the name given to the organisation comprised of all the owners who have an interest in the complex or development and whose task it is to manage and look after the building and the facilities that your property enjoys along with other properties in the same development. If you buy a property that has any kind of shared facilities such as a pool, gardens, private roads (even the external walls of an apartment block), there will be such a community and you will automatically become a member as you will own proportional share of these areas and facilities.

While you may not relish the thought of annual general meetings with Presidents and treasurers and having to abide by rules and regulations made by the committee, it is actually a very useful and democratic means of managing a complex or development and can even provide a lot of useful information to you before you purchase the property.

The Ley de Propiedad Horizontal or Horizontal Property Law governs such communities and it sets out exactly what is required and how the cost of maintenance and repairs are to be divided among the owners. The first document you should look for before you purchase is the community’s master deed or titulo constitutivo. This will describe each property that forms part of the complex as well as all the facilities shared by the community. It will state what proportion of the cost is allocated to your individual property and to every other property in the community. These costs are decided by reference to the size of the property and any desirable features that may demand a premium. The master deed will also contain the community Statutes estatutos de la Comunidad which govern how the community will be run in addition to the or interior rules normas de regimen interior which govern the more mundane aspects of living in the community day to day.

When you purchase a property in a community it is essential to ensure, as far as possible, that there are no major repairs likely to be needed in the near future. While new properties will have a guarantee from the developer, older properties will not and the cost will have to be met by the residents. After the expense of purchasing the property you would not like to find that you have to contribute to substantial repairs to an area that is not in the immediate vicinity to your own property and that was not mentioned to you by the agent! One way to avoid this type of problem and perhaps find others would be to ask to look at the libro de actas which is a record of the minutes of the meetings of the committee. From this you should be able to see what problems and concerns the residents have raised with the committee of the comunidad de propietarios at meetings.