Can the owners' association (the “comunidad de propietarios”) ban dogs, or stop them using the lift? What are the rules for pets in the common areas?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

The owners' association can regulate, by a simple majority of those voting at the owners' general meeting, how the common areas are used with animals, for example by requiring dogs to be kept on a lead or their droppings to be picked up. Banning people from keeping a dog inside their flats could only be done in the by-laws, with the votes of four-fifths of the owners and of the participation shares, but it is highly debatable whether a general ban would be valid. A complete ban on dogs using the lift is also doubtful, because the law does not allow an owner to be deprived of the use of a common part without their consent. What the owners' association can always require is that the animal does not cause nuisance or damage. The common areas and the lift The rules for using the entrance hall, the staircase, the lift, the garden or the pool are usually set out in the internal rules, the owners' association's house rules. They are approved by the owners' general meeting by a simple majority of those voting and are also binding on tenants. They can provide, for example: That dogs are kept on a lead in the common areas and muzzled when the law requires it. That they are not let off the lead in the garden or allowed into the pool area. That their droppings are picked up and their urine is cleaned up. The national animal welfare act also requires this in places where people pass. That same act requires anyone with an animal to prevent it from causing nuisance, danger or harm to people. That a neighbour who would rather not share the lift with the animal is allowed to go first. A complete ban on dogs using the lift goes further. The “Código Civil de Cataluña”, the Catalan Civil Code, requires the express consent of an owner whom a resolution deprives of the use of a common part. That is why it is doubtful that such a ban would stand, especially in a tall building. There is no new rule that allows it, even though some press headlines have suggested so. In Catalonia, assistance dogs, such as guide dogs, have a law of their own that protects the right of those who need them to be accompanied by them. A rule of the owners' association that prevented them from passing through the common areas would be unlikely to be valid. Inside the flats The by-laws, the owners' association's basic rules, which are usually recorded at the “Registro de la Propiedad”, the Land Registry, can restrict the activities carried on in the flats. Changing them requires the votes of four-fifths of the owners, who must also represent four-fifths of the participation shares, the percentage of the building that corresponds to each flat. Until they are registered, they do not bind anyone who buys a flat without knowing about them. Even so, it is highly debatable whether the owners' association can impose a general ban on keeping animals at home. Some provincial appeal courts (“audiencias provinciales”) have annulled resolutions of owners' general meetings that did so. What is not valid is banning it in the internal rules, which only regulate coexistence and the use of the common areas, or by a simple-majority resolution of the owners' general meeting. In the rest of Spain, the Horizontal Property Act (“Ley de Propiedad Horizontal”) generally requires unanimity to change the by-laws. If you rent your home, the tenancy agreement can indeed prohibit you from keeping animals, but that is a matter between you and the landlord. If the animal causes a nuisance Continuous barking, dirt, smells or keeping too many animals in a flat can amount to an activity contrary to normal community life, which article 553-40 of the Catalan code prohibits. The president must demand that whoever is causing it stop, by a means that leaves a record, such as a “burofax” (a certified letter with proof of content). If it continues, the owners' general meeting can resolve to sue that person so that the court orders the activity to stop and, in serious cases, deprives the person responsible of the use of the flat for up to two years. Before suing, the law requires an attempt at negotiation. Each neighbour affected can also bring an individual claim to have the noise or smells reaching his or her home stopped. Whoever keeps the animal is liable for any damage it causes.