2003-00-00-Your Rights And Obligations

Hi Misolites,

A member of the community has asked me to post the information below. This is purely for your information.

You and the Law in Spain

Edition 14 dated 2003

You And Your Community

Your Rights And Obligations --- Page 303

As a member of the community of property owners, you have the right to attend the annual general meeting, and any other meetings of the community, along with the right to be properly informed in advance of the dates and the order of business of any meeting called. If you are not correctly informed, you can protest and even have the results of the meeting annulled by a court.

At the meeting you have the right to voice your opinion, the right to vote, and to present motions for the vote of the other members. You have the right to be elected and to hold office in the community. You may be the president, the vice-president or the secretary. You may be charged with administrating the affairs of the community.

You have the right to see all of the documentation and records of the community. The administrator or other officers are legally bound to keep these records and accounts at the disposal of the members. If they refuse to show them to you, you can obtain a court order to see the documents.

You have the right to hold and to vote proxies issued by other members who are absent from the meeting. This is common practice in communities where the foreign owners are absent much of the time. Most communities in fact have a standard Proxy Form on which an absent member can delegate his vote to another member.

If you feel that a decision voted by the majority of the comnmunity is illegal or contrary to the statutes, you, acting alone, can ask the local court to rule on the matter. If you feel that the decision is legal but seriously prejudicial to your own interests and you can unite 25 per cent of the owners and shares, you can petition the court to have the decision annulled, or you can oblige the president to call an Extraordinary General Meeting.  You will need skilled legal counsel for either of these actions.

You are obligated to pay the cuotas - community fees that have been properly voted by the members at the Annual General Meeting. If you do not pay, the community can claim the debt in court and even have your property sold at auction.

You are obligated to abide by the statutes of the community. If these statutes require all owners to paint their properties white and forbid owners to keep dogs, then you must paint your property white and you may not keep a dog. If you violate the statutes, the community members can vote to ask the court to issue an injuction that will forbid you from entering your property for a period of up to two years. This seldom occurs but the threat is there and it has been carried out in a few isolated cases.

Both the Law of Horizontal Property and the statutes of most communities make provision for such obligations as maintaining your property in good condition so that it does not cause damage to the other owners, and permitting workmen to enter your property when it is necessary for repairs on the building.

SEE: Law of Horizontal Property, Articles 9 and 10, pp.29032. For violation of statutes, see Article 19, pp. 47-48