Community Law Corner: Article 2
Are your community fees clearly unfair?
By José Luis Navarro www.intercala.com
The Solicitor and Property Administrator for Intercala Administration
and
Pete Woodall (Woody's Los Boliches)
This article first appeared in the Euro Weekly News, Costa del Sol Edition in June 2011
According to the Law of Horizontal Property the expenses of a community are to be shared among the owners according to their individual quotas or percentage share. The quota is basically calculated according to the proportion of the building or
urbanization that each owner owns. These percentages or quota coefficients of all the properties in the community when added up must come to one hundred percent and are usually referred to in Spanish as the “Cuota”. This is how your community fees are usually calculated.
So for example, in an apartment block of 10 equally size apartments there would be 10 equal “Cuotas” each of 10%.
Each owner would therefore be responsible for a 10 % share of the running costs. In a perfect world that is.
The specific individual quota coefficients are usually established by the original developer as the then single owner of the property or urbanization and later just accepted as those to be used for the individual title deeds for the houses or apartments. Quotas are not necessarily based on percentage size alone, they take into account other factors as well.
Article 5, The Law of Horizontal Property in part, says that “ .. the quota coefficients will take into account, the useful surface of each house or local in relation to the total of the property, their interior or external location, their situation and the reasonable use that can be made of the services or common facilities .”
Clearly quite a few variables there to be played around with, in fact it is not difficult to find a community in which two properties of exactly the same size and characteristics have different quotas or a large apartment that pays a lower quota than a smaller one, often such inconsistencies go unnoticed and unchallenged.
The problem arises when the community fees derived from the coefficients - which were probably those decided on by that original developer - are deemed to be inappropriate or just downright unfair and a change is sought.
The Law of Horizontal Property Article 9 paragraph e ... the owner of a property within a community will be obliged to ... contribute to the general expense of proper maintenance of the property, its services, taxes, charges and any responsibilities which have not been specifically allotted to an individual, according to the quota determined in the title deed or to what has otherwise been specially determined.”
To change a quota established in the title deeds, it would be necessary for one of two things to happen - either the unanimous consent of the community or a ruling from a court judge. In most cases just forget about getting that unanimous consent, simply because the people who pay less now will probably not be willing to pay more later so the only way to resolve the problem is by starting a court procedure to obtain a Judge's ruling that changes the way the expenses are shared.
No matter how unfair a quota may seem it would be pointless to stop payment of your community fees for that reason alone as the quota coefficients and consequently the fees would remain the same until the community unanimously decided or a judge decided differently.
If you are thinking of seeking a change to the quota coefficients of your community, you will no doubt encounter stiff resistance from you normally mild mannered neighbours.
As usual
We at Intercala Administration strongly suggest you seek proper and competent advice in all matters regarding the law.
Are your community fees clearly unfair?
By José Luis Navarro www.intercala.com
The Solicitor and Property Administrator for Intercala Administration
and
Pete Woodall (Woody's Los Boliches)
This article first appeared in the Euro Weekly News, Costa del Sol Edition in June 2011
According to the Law of Horizontal Property the expenses of a community are to be shared among the owners according to their individual quotas or percentage share. The quota is basically calculated according to the proportion of the building or
urbanization that each owner owns. These percentages or quota coefficients of all the properties in the community when added up must come to one hundred percent and are usually referred to in Spanish as the “Cuota”. This is how your community fees are usually calculated.
So for example, in an apartment block of 10 equally size apartments there would be 10 equal “Cuotas” each of 10%.
Each owner would therefore be responsible for a 10 % share of the running costs. In a perfect world that is.
The specific individual quota coefficients are usually established by the original developer as the then single owner of the property or urbanization and later just accepted as those to be used for the individual title deeds for the houses or apartments. Quotas are not necessarily based on percentage size alone, they take into account other factors as well.
Article 5, The Law of Horizontal Property in part, says that “ .. the quota coefficients will take into account, the useful surface of each house or local in relation to the total of the property, their interior or external location, their situation and the reasonable use that can be made of the services or common facilities .”
Clearly quite a few variables there to be played around with, in fact it is not difficult to find a community in which two properties of exactly the same size and characteristics have different quotas or a large apartment that pays a lower quota than a smaller one, often such inconsistencies go unnoticed and unchallenged.
The problem arises when the community fees derived from the coefficients - which were probably those decided on by that original developer - are deemed to be inappropriate or just downright unfair and a change is sought.
The Law of Horizontal Property Article 9 paragraph e ... the owner of a property within a community will be obliged to ... contribute to the general expense of proper maintenance of the property, its services, taxes, charges and any responsibilities which have not been specifically allotted to an individual, according to the quota determined in the title deed or to what has otherwise been specially determined.”
To change a quota established in the title deeds, it would be necessary for one of two things to happen - either the unanimous consent of the community or a ruling from a court judge. In most cases just forget about getting that unanimous consent, simply because the people who pay less now will probably not be willing to pay more later so the only way to resolve the problem is by starting a court procedure to obtain a Judge's ruling that changes the way the expenses are shared.
No matter how unfair a quota may seem it would be pointless to stop payment of your community fees for that reason alone as the quota coefficients and consequently the fees would remain the same until the community unanimously decided or a judge decided differently.
If you are thinking of seeking a change to the quota coefficients of your community, you will no doubt encounter stiff resistance from you normally mild mannered neighbours.
As usual
We at Intercala Administration strongly suggest you seek proper and competent advice in all matters regarding the law.