Many buildings in Spain, and thus in Tenerife, belong to an “urbanización”, most particularly divided in Community of owners (“Comunidad de propietarios”), where you have your house or your apartment.

Life together is not always easy, and to prevent problems, a Spanish law, the “Ley de Propiedad Horizontal” indicates what are the rights, but also the obligations of every owner.
They are common areas (the land on which everything is constructed, the gardens, the halls, lighting, the lifts). Therefore the Community will have to face bills for: maintenance of the building, maintenance of the lifts, care of  the swimming pool, cleaning, insurance of the building, etc.
Every owner has to pay; the rule is very simple : when the works were finished, the promoter made a “division horizontal”. You do own a percentage of the common areas, for example 0,60% and you will have to pay this proportion of the common costs. The largest is your property, then you will pay a little bit more than your neighbour if his “vivienda” (house or apartment) is smaller.
There are extraordinary expenditures (“derrama”) – for example painting the outside part of the building, divided sometimes otherwise (for example the same amount for everybody.)
It is nearly impossible to change your percentage, because everyone should agree; so if you wish to pay less, then another owner would have to pay more and he will surely not agree with that.
And the BIG problem in every Community of owners is that there are bad debtors (“morosos”); it is not fair because they use the complex while the costs are supported by the other owners, paying their community fee.
The Administrator of the complex looks after the accountancy of the complex and he is responsible for sending reminders to bad debtors, or to phone them.
If it looks like that they still will not pay, the administrator will send a recommended letter and then a burofax, the last step before legal action is taken.
In the next article, we will explain who is the Administrator, the President, etc. of your Community of owners, and how they are elected.

Stéphane MERCIER, Expertos de Tenerife S.L.