Community Fees Explained
When you purchase your home in Spain, and if you are part of a large development or ´urbanisation´ then you will be required to pay ´community fees´ each year, sometimes half yearly but more commonly by month. These fees are to cover the cost of the communal areas in a development/urbanisation like the swimming pool, gardens and other shared facilities, internal access roads and public lighting. These can also include the shared buildings or parks/water features and urbanisation management fees and/or administrator fees.
An urbanisation in Spain can be likened to an ´estate´, or an apartment building in the UK and Ireland. In Spain, the local authorities by statute, mandate that the owners pay for and maintain their own public facilities within the confines of their own urbanisation.
The communal areas and facilities need to be paid for and budgeted for each year and the easiest way to plan for this expense is to budget for the total cost and spread it over the number of owners who enjoy the building (in the case of apartments) or urbanisation.
In addition, funding is budgeted for items like wastewater, road networks, telecom networks, or sprinkler systems for communal areas of the urbanisation. It includes many of the behind-the-scenes physical assets that allow for the smooth functioning of the apartment block or urbanisation, allowing all owners to enjoy a peaceful, clean, hygienic and pleasant environment within the confines of the urbanisation, outside of their own unit, apartment, or home, depending on the configuration of the facility.
Your Martin Real Estate representative will explain the fees (it is also clearly shown in our Sales Literature), during your viewing trip and you should always ask for details of these charges to be explained in more detail. Past years history and details of charges and income and expenditure can easily be found in the minutes of the urbanisations annual general meeting. These will be requested by your lawyer as part of the normal due diligence conducted prior to any transaction. Of course, these Community fees normally do not apply to independent villas, where the owners are responsible for all charges and fees relating to the property they exclusively enjoy.
Community fees must be paid each year and proof may well be required from any would be purchaser should you decide to sell your home in the future. Community fees are an obligation on each owner and are viewed by the administrator as a debt owed to the community if they are not up to date and paid in full. The facility management can take legal action against any resident who does not pay. Arrears can become an obstacle to a smooth sale should a resident decide to sell their property at any time in the future, so the obligation needs to be taken seriously.
Community fees should not be confused with IBI (or local property tax), which is levied by all municipal authorities in the town or district where your Spanish property resides. IBI is in essence a local authority tax payable for the macro infrastructure of the district or town for the enjoyment of all citizens well outside the confines of the urbanisation or building where your Spanish home is located.
The final charge levied on households in Spain, is ´Basura´ or refuse charges. This covers the cost of taking away all domestic rubbish and disposing of it in an environmentally friendly manner. The charge in Spain is quite reasonable though (circa €130 per annum, in 2024), with one small catch. Unlike in the UK and other parts of Europe you must bring your own ´rubbish´, to a convenient collection point located throughout the area where you live, and this facility is managed by the local council. So, there is no home pickup service. It is in practical terms quite a good idea. It saves keeping rubbish in the home during the long sizzling summer, and it encourages a timely removal to a well-managed accessible area, where collection is made easy for municipal authorities on a frequent basis. Every household must pay the Basura charge, and you can deposit your stash, locally or several miles away where bins are empty enough to accommodate. Recycling facilities for glass bottles and plastic containers are also readily available. In the centre of major towns, collection points are available with overground shoots leading to underground containers, where waste is stored for collection by truck. Each household paying IBI, will receive a Basura, sent to their home address, billed every three months.
So, there you have it, if you have any questions on any of the above, your MRE representative will be happy to help and explain in more detail.
