Legal procedure for recovering unpaid community fees

In the article by Raymundo Larrian Nesbitt dated 26/6/99 entitled "Comunidad de Propietarios: avoid problems with your neighbours in spain", it advises that "this legal procedure in spain works surprisingly eficiently" and there is a link to "legal procedure". This link takes you to an article on community fees not a description of the legal procedure. Also my experience of the legal procedure for the recovery of community fees is that it is far from "surprisingly efficient". I accept that this may be due to the inefficiency of the lawyers that we have employed.

Can you please provide me with details of the legal procedure that can be followed to get recovery of outstanding community fees? How long should it take to get a court order for the public sale of an apartment owned by a non-paying owner in a community?

Hi David,

A debt claim against one owner in your Community is still nonetheless a legal procedure with a certain degree of complexity which requires a considerable investment of time and money to pursue successfully.

That being said, I believe that what Raymundo was trying to emphasize in his article is that the procedure in itself is faster and easier when compared with other Court procedures which often take a significant number of years to be resolved and heavy costs and legal fees to be borne by the claimant. This is because, in the case of debt claims owed to a Community of Owners, the Law provides for certain mechanisms to facilitate the proceedings:

* No need to instruct a lawyer or a Court agent for smaller debts.
* If the existence of the debt is successfully established by reference to a document, the onus of proof then shifts on to the debtor who must now prove that he has paid the debt. Nothing else can be alleged during the debt claim and therefore if he wants to put up a different defence, the debtor will have to initiate a different procedure (which will cost him money and therefore deters those claimants whose case does not have any real merit).
* Constructive notice. If the debtor/defendant cannot be located or notified, the property's address will serve as constructive notice.
* If the debt remains unpaid, the defendant's property can be auctioned under certain circumstances.

It may seem that this is not much, but in practice it translates into a faster and more efficient procedure for the recoup of monies owed.

In terms of timeframes, these will vary significantly between different tribunals and depends on what exactly happens at Court, but I would say 12 months until the property is auctioned, if the debt claim is not contested.

Of course your case may have different factors that may make it more complicated to resolve: the property might be mortgaged or leased out, the owner might have passed away, the owner might counterclaim that no community fees are owed for X number of reasons, etc. It is for this reason that even though it is not compulsory to instruct a Lawyer, it is always advisable.

I hope you find the above information of assistance and if you are looking to instruct a solicitor in your case, please leave your details in the following form:

http://www.lawbird.com/services/contact

Kind regards,