Once you buy your apartment or villa in Spain, if it takes part of a building complex, these will be subject to the Spanish Law of Horizontal Division. Of course this law is applicable whether you are resident or not.
According to this Law, every dwelling has the co-property of the common elements of the building complex, such as lifts, stairs, façades, etc, together with the rest of owners of the block.   
Please be aware that every owner is responsible for his individual part and also for the common areas of the block. All the owners participate in the expenses of the community on a pro-rata basis.
Every apartment has a share, normally proportionate to the size of the owner’s property.

Obligations of the owners:

They must let work be carried out in their own flat when is necessary for the proper maintenance of the building or the installation of new services. They shall permit workmen entering their property and should any damage arise as a result of these works the community must pay an indemnity.
Owners must respect the indivisible parts of the complex and any installation which serve other owners.       
They must maintain their property in good condition so that it does not cause any damage to the rest of the owners.  
Of course, every owner should contribute by putting the monthly or quarterly fees, according to their community share to the maintaining costs of the complex.
The administrator of the community must be informed about the address of the owners in Spain, in order to send them those notifications relating to the community.
The owners of the community shall be informed of the sale of the property; otherwise, the seller will also be liable, together with the new owner, for the community debts of the property sold.  

The Administrator:

The Community may appoint a professional administrator to deal with the daily operation of the Community. The administrator shall manage the efficient running of the community’s common elements and he can also carry out any other function conferred by the general meeting.
The administrator will prepare a budget of estimated expenses for the coming year and present them at the general meeting for the members’ approval and they must vote to accept it or not.
He should also keep the records of the community and makes sure the minutes are properly written. All requests and needs of the owners will be directed to the Administrator.
The services of the Administrator may terminate at any time it the owners feel that the administrator is not carrying out the duties specified in the contract. This decision must be previously submitted to the general meeting for approval.

Mare Nostrum Law and Tax provides administration services for the Communities of Property Owners sited in Spain.
If you are tired of poor administration services and want to get all the letters and communication regarding the community on time and on your language, get a formal breakdown of your annual expenses, and be always advised on your community claims, please contact us and we would be pleased to help you.
Our English speaking staff is used to deal with the efficient running of the communities’ services and will ensure you are informed about your obligations and rights in your community, avoiding communication mistakes.

Our Solicitors will help and protect you in the event that you get into any Civil, Criminal, Business, Court conflict or any kind of dispute with anyone who affects your rights in any matter, using the Spanish Justice to solve it.
Every case will always get to the point of being offered between participants an amicable solution rather than continuing further with demands which will obviously take longer time and will also represent higher costs of representation. Our Firm will legally advice you at this moment and any further, unless friendly negotiations between the parties ended successfully and you instructed us paralyzing the case.

All Court procedures involve costs such as the fees of the Lawyer and the Attorney, and in case that their intervention is required, the services of Court appointed experts, Notary fees, etc. The final sentence will determine the litigation costs which shall normally be borne by the unsuccessful party, who will be obliged to bear the costs incurred by the other party.    
However, in some cases, the final sentence may determine that each party will be responsible for the costs it incurred.
The unsuccessful litigant may appeal the amount of costs of the sentence. He will be given a term to pay the costs of litigation.

We will provide you with a first class service, protecting your interests and keeping you widely informed on every step of the Court proceeding. Our experienced team of solicitors will be at your disposal at any time for you.

First of all, we would like to inform you the Spanish Tax Year is equal to the Calendar Year and it goes from January to December. Most of Spanish taxes are paid one year in arrears which means that every property owner must pay the one corresponding to year “n” in year “n+1”.

Please note you will always be liable to pay two different taxes every year; Council Rates and Property annual taxes payable to Spanish Inland Revenue.

Council Rates will have to be paid once your property is adopted by the Town Hall where the property belongs to which could take a few months after taking possession of it and signing Title Deeds. This is one of the main sources of finance from local Town Halls in Spain and that every one owing a property will have to contribute on it independently from the fact of living permanently into that property or only using it periodically.

Depending on the qualification of residence of each one, there are very important differences of taxation. People are considered residents in Spain for Spanish tax purposes if they live in Spain for a period of time longer than 183 days per year (approximately six months) or if the centre of their economic interests is located in Spanish territory. In case that none of these factors were clear, people would be considered residents in the country where their families live permanently (i.e. spouse, children under legal age, etc). Accordingly to this fair comment, we could legally distinguish between two different groups of people; RESIDENTS & NON-RESIDENTS.

There would be a first block on which there would be people who would buy a Spanish property for coming periodically on their holiday times. Taking into consideration the majority of the International Double Taxation Agreements, people under these circumstances must pay taxes on their properties or possessions or investments in Spain wherever they are located no matter if the owner is resident in a different country of where those investments are located or built in. In other words, people who are considered Spanish Non-Residents must pay a yearly tax called Wealth & Income Tax on their property in Spain.

Your non-resident tax calculation on your property is based on two different values. The first one is which appears on your purchase title deeds and is the one which is used to calculate your Spanish Wealth Tax. The second value is the one which appears on your local council rate bill and is the one which is used to calculate your imputed income tax. In case that you have a mortgage or a loan on your property, we must not forget to off set the value of it on the 31st of December every year against the payment of your Wealth tax.

We must call your attention in the importance of paying this tax every year. If you decided not to, you would easily get into serious problems in case (for example) you wanted to sell your property and save having to pay sale profit taxes if applicable. So that, it is important that you pay it every year and you keep your tax liabilities up-dated at all times.

Every year you should contact the Tax Office in the country where you are permanent tax resident in order to find out if this tax that you are liable to pay in Spain as the owner of a property and as non-resident can be off set against the personal income tax that you are liable to present and pay every year.

Our Firm will assist those people who decide to come to Spain to live or retire and possibly buy a property to live in for good or establish their own business.

Our first recommendation will be applying immediately for Civil Residency in order to be able to get integrated into the Spanish public system as soon as possible. This integration will permit you as a client of our Firm getting yourself registered for Health purposes, Tax purposes and other important practical matters that will make your life easier and safer and will make you feel fully integrated (i.e. driving licence registration, Town Hall Registration, International Double Taxation avidness, etc).

We will be pleased to guide you all along this process and will also inform you about all the obligations, annual liabilities and advantages in all matters that you will be able to take of after our service is completed.