How can I leave a co-ownership (“comunidad de bienes”)?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

No one is obliged to remain in a co-ownership. Under the “Código Civil de Cataluña”, the Catalan Civil Code, you can ask, at any time and without giving reasons, for what you own in common to be divided, unless you have agreed not to do so for a period, which cannot exceed ten years. You can also sell your share to the other co-owners (“comuneros”), who are the other members of the co-ownership, or to someone else. If you sell it to an outsider, the others have priority to buy it at the same price. Catalan law also allows you to renounce your share, which passes to the others, but anyone who renounces remains liable for the debts the co-ownership already had. The three ways out Ask for division. The normal course is to agree on it with the others. If there is no agreement, the decision can be entrusted to an arbitrator, if everyone accepts this, or you can go to court, after attempting to reach an agreement as the law has generally required since 2025. If the asset cannot be divided, such as a flat or commercial premises, it is allotted to the co-owner who wants it, who pays the others the value of their shares, or, if none of them wants it, it is sold and the price is shared out. Anyone who holds four-fifths or more, that is, 80 % or more, can insist on keeping the whole asset by paying the others. Sell your share. You can sell it to the other co-owners or to someone else. If you sell it to an outsider, the others have priority to buy it at the same price, with prior notice and one month to buy it or, if they were not notified, three months to claim it for themselves. Renounce your share. It passes to the other co-owners in proportion to each one's share, without you receiving anything in return and without their having to accept it, although they can refuse it. If the asset is a property, the renunciation must be recorded in a public deed. It does not release you from the obligations you already had towards the co-ownership, such as outstanding expenses or debts. The Catalan code expressly provides for this way out. Each of these ways out has its own tax consequences, which should be worked out before deciding. In most of the rest of Spain, the Spanish Civil Code (“Código civil”) also allows division to be requested at any time and an agreement not to divide for ten years at most, but if the asset cannot be divided and the co-owners do not agree that one of them should keep it, it is sold. There the others have only nine days to claim for themselves a share that is sold to an outsider. If the co-ownership runs a business In that case, leaving the co-ownership also means settling what happens to the business and meeting your obligations to the tax authorities: The usual course is for the others to buy the share of the person leaving or for the co-ownership to be dissolved and the assets and debts divided up. If only one co-owner remains, the co-ownership comes to an end and that person can carry on the business in their own name. The co-ownership must notify the tax authorities of the change of co-owners, or of its removal from the tax register, by filing the census declaration, Form 036, within the month following the change or the cessation of the activity. Removal from the register does not exempt it from filing the final returns, such as the VAT returns and, in January of the following year, the annual information return showing what corresponds to each co-owner, Form 184. The person who leaves remains liable for the business's debts from before their departure, including to the tax authorities in proportion to their share.