CHARGES TAXES & EXPENSES FOR PROPERTY

Service Charges in Communities

By law in Spain for communal facilities such as the garden, swimming pool, car park and lifts to be jointly owned by the individual proprietors of an apartment block or housing complex. When you buy your apartment or villa you also become the owner of a percentage of these facilities. The exact percentage depends on the value of your property within the complex as a whole. For example, in a complex of ten apartments with exactly the same surface area and value, each individual proprietor also owns one tenth of the swimming pool, garden, car park or any other communal facilities.

It therefore follows that each owner is also responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of his share or, more specifically, for the expenses arising from this. These expenses are similar to the service charges you may be familiar with at home. In Spain you and your neighbours form a legal body that is known as the “Comunidad de Propietarios”, which is similar to the residents’ associations you may have dealt with in your home country.

Being a member of this “Comunidad de Propietarios” means that you have certain obligations and rights. Your obligations include:

1. you must not damage the communal facilities

2. you must maintain your own property in a state of good repair

3. you must allow repairs to be carried out on your property which are of benefit to the community as a whole

4. you must allow workmen to enter your property in order to carry out repairs related to point 3. above.

5. you must pay your share of the service charge

6. you will be held accountable by the residents’ association (Comunidad de Propietarios) if you fail to observe any community or statutory regulations.

As a member of the “Comunidad de Propietarios” you have the right to vote and participate in making decisions and running your residents’ association. ( In the annual AGM )

Some residents’ associations are run better than others. Obviously this depends a lot on the initiative of the proprietors themselves. Problems can arise in complexes where there are a high number of non-resident owners with little or no representation and a few residents who tend to dominate the running of the association. In some cases this can result in an abuse of power.

Experience shows that professional representation is often the only way to deal with such residents’ associations. The alternative is a series of frustrating discussions and little decisive action. Non-residents can experience problems like being overcharged or finding that the services they have paid for are badly carried out or not provided at all. The situation is often further complicated because notifications of important meetings do not reach the non-resident because they are not sent to his home address or he cannot understand them because they are written in Spanish.

PREV.     NEXT

1. Finding a Property.
2. Real Estate Agents.
3. Choosing a Lawyer.
4. Negotiating the purchase.
5. The Reservation Contract and Deposit.
6. Exchange of Private Purchase Contracts.
7. Completion.
8. Registry.
9. Special Considerations when buying Off-Plan.
10. Fees when buying.
11. Taxes when buying.
12. Other Expenses.
13. Differences between the contract price & the amount actually paid.

Selling

1. Real Estate Agent & Lawyer.
2. Fees when selling.
3. Taxes when selling.

Charges Taxes & Expenses for Property

1. Service Charges in Communities.
2. Annual Real Estate Tax. ( IBI )
3. Rubbish Collection Tax.
4. Capital Assets Tax.
5. Property Owners’ Imputed Income Tax.
6. The Tax Returns.
7. Insurance.
8. Mortgages.

Other Legal Matters

1. NIE – Identification number.
2. Open Spanish Bank Account.
3. Making a will in Spain.
4. Inheritance Tax.
5. Investment Opportunities on Spain.

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