Understanding the Comunidad de Propietarios — A Guide for Foreign Owners in Valencia

By Turia Property — Valencia-based property management for foreign owners

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If you own a flat or apartment in Valencia, you are almost certainly a member of a comunidad de propietarios. Most foreign owners know this vaguely — and understand almost nothing else about it.

That gap in knowledge is expensive. Foreign owners who don't engage with their comunidad have accumulated thousands of euros in unpaid fees, been voted into mandatory renovations without realising it, and in the most serious cases, had liens placed on their property. All of this is legal, and all of it is avoidable with a basic understanding of how the system works.

This guide explains what the comunidad is, what it costs, what it can decide, and — critically — what has changed recently that directly affects owners who rent out their properties.

Note: This post is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Always consult a qualified Spanish lawyer for advice specific to your situation.

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What is the comunidad de propietarios?

The comunidad de propietarios is the legal entity formed by all owners in a building or residential complex that share common elements — staircases, lifts, gardens, pools, roof terraces, entrance halls, and so on. It is governed by the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal (LPH), originally enacted in 1960 and substantially reformed multiple times since, most recently in 2021–2025.

Membership is not optional. The moment you purchase a property in a building with shared elements, you automatically become a member. You cannot resign, opt out, or ignore it — your obligations run with the property itself.

A comunidad is legally required in any building or urbanisation with five or more owners and five or more properties. Smaller buildings with fewer than five owners may still form a formal comunidad or operate through informal agreements between neighbours.

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What does the comunidad actually do?

The comunidad's role is to manage and maintain everything the owners share. In a typical Valencia apartment block, this covers:

Day-to-day maintenance — cleaning of common areas, lighting of stairs and entrance halls, door entry systems, intercom maintenance, lift servicing, and any shared garden or pool upkeep.

Administration — keeping accounts, collecting fees, paying suppliers, and filing any required tax returns for the community's own transactions.

Major works — commissioning and overseeing repairs to shared elements (roof, facade, structural elements, shared plumbing) and managing the building's long-term maintenance plan.

Legal compliance — ensuring the building meets current accessibility, energy efficiency, and safety regulations, which in Spain have been progressively tightened.

The day-to-day running is typically handled by a professional administrador de fincas (property administrator), appointed by the owners. The administrador manages the finances, coordinates contractors, and usually chairs or supports the annual general meeting (junta de propietarios).

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What does it cost?

Community fees (gastos de comunidad or cuotas de comunidad) are charged monthly and cover the ongoing running costs of the shared building. In Valencia, fees typically range from around €50/month for a basic building with minimal shared facilities up to €200–300/month for buildings with lifts, communal pools, gardens, and a concierge.

Your share of the costs is calculated according to your coeficiente de participación — a percentage assigned to each property when the building was registered, based roughly on the size of your unit relative to the whole building. If your flat is 10% of the building's total floor area, you pay 10% of community costs. This is fixed and cannot be changed unilaterally.

Community fees are tax-deductible as an expense against rental income for both resident and non-resident landlords — so keep all your receipts. This includes regular monthly fees and extraordinary charges (see below).

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What is a derrama?

A derrama is an extraordinary charge — a one-off additional payment voted on by the community to cover unforeseen or major expenditure that wasn't budgeted for. Common examples include:

• Lift motor replacement
• Roof waterproofing or major repair
• Facade renovation
• Pool resurfacing
• Upgrading communal electrical installations to meet new regulations

Derramas are approved by a majority vote at the junta de propietarios. Once approved, you are legally obliged to pay your proportionate share — typically within 30 days, unless the assembly votes to allow a different payment schedule.

There is no legal cap on derramas. A major lift replacement or facade renovation in a larger building can easily run to €1,500–3,000 per apartment. This is one of the most important things to check before you buy — the vendor is legally required to disclose any approved or pending derramas, and the notary should confirm the property is free of community debts at completion.

If you have debts to the comunidad when you sell, those debts transfer with the property. The buyer will inherit them, which is why buyers' lawyers always check community debt status at completion.

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How decisions are made — the junta de propietarios

The junta de propietarios (owners' assembly) is the community's decision-making body. It meets at least once a year (the junta ordinaria) for routine matters — approving accounts, setting the budget, appointing the administrador — and can call extraordinary meetings (junta extraordinaria) for urgent or significant decisions.

Voting is done on a double majority basis: decisions must pass both by number of owners and by coeficiente de participación (ownership share). Different types of decisions require different levels of support:

Simple majority — routine decisions: approving accounts, minor maintenance, renewing the administrador's contract.

3/5 majority — significant changes: restricting or banning short-term tourist rentals (see below), major renovations not required by law.

Unanimous agreement — changes to the building's statutes (estatutos) or any modification affecting ownership shares. In practice almost impossible to achieve in established buildings.

As a non-resident owner, you have full voting rights — but you must exercise them. You can vote in person, appoint a proxy (representante) to vote on your behalf in writing, or in some communities now vote remotely. If you don't vote, your absence does not prevent decisions being made — the community can pass resolutions without you, and you will be bound by them.

This is one of the strongest arguments for having a local property manager: someone who attends meetings, votes according to your instructions, and ensures you're not caught off guard by decisions you didn't know were being made.

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The tourist rental rule — a major recent change

This is the most significant recent development for anyone who rents their Valencia property short-term (or is considering it), and it directly affects the comunidad.

Under the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal as amended — and confirmed by a landmark Supreme Court ruling in October 2024 (rulings 1232/2024 and 1233/2024) — a comunidad de propietarios can vote to ban or restrict short-term tourist rentals in the building with a 3/5 majority (both by number of owners and by ownership share). The community can also vote to increase community fees by up to 20% for properties used for tourist rentals, even if those rentals are not banned outright.

From 3 April 2025, under Organic Law 1/2025, this went further: new tourist rental activities in multi-owner buildings now require express approval from the comunidad — meaning the default position is now that tourist rentals are prohibited unless the community actively approves them by 3/5 majority.

What this means in practice:

If you already have a valid tourist licence obtained before 3 April 2025, these new rules do not apply retroactively — your existing licence is protected. However, your community could still seek to restrict future renewals or increase your fees by up to 20%.

If you want to start a new tourist rental activity from 3 April 2025, you now need both a regional tourist licence and express community approval by 3/5 majority. Without both, it is not permitted.

For owners focused on long-term rentals — which is the model Turia Property specialises in — none of this is directly relevant. Long-term residential rentals are not subject to community approval and cannot be banned by the comunidad under current law.

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What can the comunidad NOT do?

There are limits to what the community can decide, even with the right majority:

• It cannot ban long-term residential rentals
• It cannot change your coeficiente without unanimous consent
• It cannot change the building's statutes without unanimous consent
• It cannot charge you individually for damage you didn't cause to common areas without due process

If you believe the community has made an unlawful decision, you have 30 days from the date the minutes are notified to challenge it (impugnación de acuerdos, Article 18 LPH). After that deadline, the decision becomes binding even if it was procedurally irregular.

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Practical advice for non-resident owners

1. Make sure you have a Spanish address for correspondence. The community needs to be able to reach you. If you don't have a local address, correspondence goes to the property itself — which your tenants may not pass on.

2. Appoint a representative for junta meetings. If you can't attend in person, give someone written authority to vote on your behalf. This can be your property manager, a trusted contact, or a lawyer.

3. Pay your fees on time. Unpaid community fees accumulate interest, and communities have straightforward legal routes to recover debts — including placing a charge on your property. Don't let fees accumulate unnoticed.

4. Check for derramas before you buy. Ask for a certificado de deudas (debt certificate) from the administrador at completion. The vendor is legally required to provide this.

5. Get the community documents when you buy. The statutes (estatutos), the last three years of meeting minutes (actas), and the last annual accounts give you a clear picture of the building's financial health and any pending issues.

6. Keep your contact details updated. If the administrador can't reach you, you won't know about upcoming votes or extraordinary charges until it's too late.

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How Turia Property handles this

Managing your comunidad obligations is part of what we do. We attend or represent you at junta meetings, handle all comunidad correspondence on your behalf, ensure fees are paid on time, and flag any pending derramas or significant votes before they become a problem.

For a non-resident owner, having someone locally who reads every letter from the administrador and knows when to act isn't a luxury — it's how you avoid the expensive surprises that catch so many foreign owners off guard.

If you'd like to talk through your specific property and situation:

📧 hello@turiaproperty.com 🌐 turiaproperty.com

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Turia Property is a Valencia-based property management service for foreign and non-resident owners. English-speaking, landlord-run, flat monthly fees, no lock-in.

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This post reflects Spanish property law as of June 2026. Laws change — always verify current rules with a qualified Spanish lawyer or gestor.