How are service charges (owners' association fees) shared out? Can the allocation be changed?

The general rule and the special rules

The “Código Civil de Cataluña”, the Catalan Civil Code, requires the common expenses to be paid according to the participation share or according to the special rules set by the deed of constitution, which is the deed by which the building was divided, the by-laws or the resolutions of the owners' general meeting. The most common ones are these:

• Special shares that the by-laws set for certain expenses, such as those of each staircase in a building that has several, the pool or the landscaped areas. Those expenses are paid according to the special share and not the general one.
• Exemptions, which release some owners from the maintenance costs of specific common parts, such as the entrance hall, the staircase or the lift. They are common for commercial premises and ground-floor flats.
• The surcharge for intensive use. If a business or professional activity that makes heavy use of the common parts or services is carried on in a flat or commercial premises, its share of the expenses can be increased. The law does not allow the increase to exceed double what corresponds to it under its participation share. It is not clear whether that limit of double applies to the surcharge or to the total the flat pays, so the prudent course is for the total not to exceed double what corresponds to it under its participation share.

Special levies, which are extraordinary contributions approved by the owners' general meeting to pay for works or an expense that was not in the budget, are allocated in the same way, by participation share, unless one of these rules covers that expense.

How the allocation is changed

The majority required depends on what is to be changed:

• Creating special shares, an exemption or the surcharge for intensive use, or changing the allocation set by the deed of constitution or the by-laws, requires four-fifths of the owners, who must also represent four-fifths of the participation shares.
• Changing the participation share of a flat or commercial premises requires a unanimous resolution of all the owners, with the express consent of the owner affected.
• The installation of a lift and works to remove architectural barriers have their own rules. They are approved by a simple majority and their costs are borne by all the owners. Whether that majority is also enough to exempt an owner from paying them has not been settled in Catalonia, so the prudent course is to approve the exemption by a four-fifths majority.

The four-fifths are counted over all the owners entitled to vote, including those who do not attend the meeting. In a building with 20 owners, at least 16 votes in favour are needed that add up to at least 80 % of the participation shares. Those who did not attend the meeting are notified of the resolution and, if they do not object in writing within the following month, their vote counts in favour.

If a resolution changes the allocation without the majority required by law, it can be challenged in court by those who voted against it and by those who did not attend the meeting but objected in writing within the month following notification. They have one year from when they are notified of the minutes or, for four-fifths resolutions, of the annex to the minutes with the final result of the vote. In the rest of Spain, the Horizontal Property Act (“Ley de Propiedad Horizontal”) in principle requires unanimity to change the allocation set in the deed of constitution or in the by-laws, with exceptions such as those relating to accessibility.