Many of us live in flats, housing estates or houses that are affected by the horizontal property law. Apparently it may seem complex, but if we understand it, we can save ourselves problems with our neighbors when it comes to doing some renovation at home, using common spaces or facing the feared defaulting neighbors.

Next, We will explain a little more about the law horizontal property and how to deal with it.

 

1. Horizontal Property Law

This law, regulates the rules, rights and obligations that must be followed by the owners or neighbors of the properties that belong to the same community.

This law, has undergone several reforms since it was created. Like the one from 1999, which included community debts or delinquent neighbors, explaining who was, how to act, etc. Another of the reforms that may interest us is that of 2013, which modified everything related to the rehabilitation, regeneration and renovation of homes.

Some items we feature are:

• Article 3: Private and common elements.
• Article 7: Works, common and private elements. Forbidden activities.
• Article 9: The obligations of the owners.
•  Article 10: Carrying out works by the community.
• Article 13: Government bodies. Positions and functions.
•  Article 15: Attendance and voting in meeting.
•  Article 22: Community debts.

2. Figures in the community

2.1 The President

Is he highest representative of the neighborhood community, the position, is granted by election, lottery or rotation among the residents. It is in charge of managing matters related to the community. You must be the owner and your position cannot be waived.

Some of its functions are:

• represent the community of neighbors in court.
• sign the contracts works and services on behalf of the community.
• Judicially demand payment of debts to the community.
• Call, direct and close the Meeting of Owners.
• stop annoying activities on their own initiative or at the request of another member of the community.

 

2.2 The administrator and the secretary

He administrator is the figure that manages the economic-accounting areas, of advice, secretariat and conservation of the community at the request of the board of owners. Must be collegiate.

He secretary For his part, in the meetings he is in charge of manage official documents (take up and close minutes, save documents) or make reach the rest of the owners the communications, citations or notifications necessary for the functioning of the community.

3. Shareholders' meetings

The joints are one assemblies between owners where the community of neighbors is governed. The functions they perform are:

• appoint and depose to the people who hold the positions of the community of owners (presidency, administration and secretariat).
• Approve budgets, spending plan and execution of works.
• Reforms of the statutes of the community and approve the regulations that govern it.
• Decide on all matters that affect the community of owners.

 

Meetings must be held Mandatory once a year. If more Meetings are called in addition to this one, they will be extraordinary. Extraordinary meetings can be called by the president of the neighborhood association or the 25% of the owners.

 

4. Rights of neighbors

As we can suppose, not everything was going to be problems, we also found a series of rights which we leave you below:

• Freely use and enjoy the community of which he is co-owner (as long as his behavior is legal, appropriate to the statutes and does not interfere with the rights of his neighbors)
• Actively participate in meetings of owners and be part of the decisions that are made there.
• Deny payment of a spill as long as it exceeds the three monthly installments of expenses established.
• Modify your home as long as it does not affect the rest of the co-owners.

 

5. Obligations of the neighbors

When we live in community, we are forced to follow a series of rules or obligations to maintain harmony in our lives. Some of those obligations are:

• Preserve your property and common areas of which he is co-owner in good condition.
• Respect the time slots in which you can not make noise according to the statutes of the community.
• Do not impede the enjoyment of the common areas to the other owners.
• Respond individually for possible sanctions imposed for delaying the execution of mandatory works for the improvement of the condominium.
• Facilitate access to your home for authorized personnel to carry out repair and conservation works on the property.

 

If you want to know more

We hope this post has been useful to you and that living in community is pleasant for you. From Cartagena Homes we recommend knowing the horizontal property law to know what to expect if something happens. Contact us and we will help you carry out any procedure related to it.

On the other hand, if you want to continue discovering elements of the real estate world, do not hesitate to read the rest of the publications in our real estate blog.