Let's talk about what our house is like. In Spain most of the citizens live in apartment buildings. We have had many inquiries about, how does the community in which I live function legally? Now we talk about some basic concepts.

Horizontal property is a type of your property. It is a property whose owner has at least a double right over the house. A right over your department and a right over the elements of common use and enjoyment of the building or complex where the department is located. There is exclusive ownership over the department and a right very similar to the property right over a single farm. On the common elements there is a solidarity use with the rest of the co-owners indissoluble to the ownership of the private element on the department. 

The apartment belongs to the owner, but his ownership of the house is conditioned by the fact that there are other owners who are on the same farm or group and who also have apartments on their property. What is the most important condition of the property right over the department in horizontal property regime? Precisely, the conditioning is the property of other owners on the one hand, and on the other, the existence of elements of common use. 

In this post we see the elements that make up the horizontal property. Are

  1. The exclusive elements, 
  2. the exclusive elements for the common benefit,
  3. the common elements and,
  4. the common elements for exclusive use. 

1. The exclusive elements. 

The private elements of a property are the dwellings, the premises and the physical spaces that can be object of separate property and that have functional independence because they have direct or indirect access to the public highway. Direct access is an exit without having to go through a common element. While indirect access is the one that needs a common element to access public roads. 

A proprietary element can have attachments. For example, a parking space or a storage room. The attachments that are determined in the title of constitution of the horizontal property are configured as physical spaces or rights inseparably linked to a private element and have no special quota. They are exclusively owned for all purposes by the owner of the apartment and are always transmitted together with the department to which they are attached. 

A characteristic of the exclusive element but which is not an annex is the quota or coefficient. It is the quota expressed in mathematical terms that determines the theoretical right on the common part, the percentage of contribution of the expenses and the voting rights in the Board of owners.

The owners, in the leasing cases or any other transmission of the enjoyment of the proprietary element, they are responsible to the community and third parties for the obligations derived from the horizontal property regime

2. The private elements for the common benefit. - 

Private elements of common benefit are those that, by provision of the law, the constitution title or by agreement of the owners' meeting, belong to all the owners in proportion to the quota and inseparably from the ownership of the specific proprietary element. These are proprietary, therefore they are not common, but they serve or have a common benefit. A real example. A developer built a residential building and built 4 commercial premises on the ground floor. As one room was not sold, it was destined to enlarge the lobbies area, another room to a meeting room and another to a warehouse at the service of the community. These premises were initially configured as private elements and were later sold to the homeowners who bought them under a common joint ownership scheme. 

They are also private elements for common benefit, the common elements disaffected by agreement of the owners' meeting have the character of exclusive element of common benefit, unless otherwise established. 

These elements pose problems for their administration. According to the CCCat "the administration and disposition of a private element of common benefit is governed by the rules of horizontal property" (art. 553-34.3).

3. The common elements  

The common elements are the set of architectural elements that give access, service, use or provide any utility to the farm. Common elements are the site, gardens, swimming pools, structures, facades, roofs, lobbies, stairs and elevators, antennas and, in general, the facilities and services of the private elements that are intended for the community use or to facilitate the use and enjoyment of said proprietary elements. (art, 553-41). 

The use and enjoyment of the common elements corresponds to all the owners of private elements and must adapt to the destination established by the statutes or the one that is normal and appropriate to its nature, without harming the interest of the community (art, 553-42) . 

4. Common elements of the house for exclusive use

In this case we are dealing with elements that are common, for example the floor or a terrace, but that their use is and also under the exclusive use of the owner of a private apartment. 

Therefore, there are certain elements that could be considered common, but that specifically appear in horizontal division writing as for exclusive use or exclusive use of a proprietary element, which will be valid as long as it has been done prior to the sale of properties, that is, when there was a sole owner, as established in the Judgment of the AP Madrid of May 21, 2013 (SP / SENT / 724332), since, subsequently, the jurisprudence does not admit this possibility, in this way the Judgment of the Supreme Court of October 23, 2009 (SP / SENT / 488247).

Other forms of use may exist alongside the title. They are the cases of tolerated or supported use by the community or approved use.

Consultation at the Bosch-Bages Notary in Barcelona any information about properties and homes.

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