EL DEBER DE CONTRIBUIR A LOS GASTOS EN LA PROPIEDAD HORIZONTAL.

Abstract

Horizontal property involves a set of legal rules that are not always terrible familiar to the average owner of a flat or shop that forms part of a building. Thus, when disputes occur in the course of civil and neighbourly relations (which are much more intense in this type of property due to the proximity of owners), they are mainly due to someone's unfamiliarity with either civic matters or the law. One of the foremost duties involved in horizontal property is the duty to pay one's share of the property's expenses. And in view of the numerous lawsuits over the issue, the latest reform of the Act introduced amendments that, first of all, help draw the line between the concept of general expenses and that of nongeneral expenses, and second, specify who is obliged to pay. In this way, one can ascertain what credits owed to the building tenants' association for certain expenses are preferred and what credits must, on the other hand, be claimed without the preferences established by the Act. Legislators' constant concern over enabling tenants' associations to collect what is owed in the fight against bad debt is also reflected in the amendments made to the so-called «monitoring» process for debt collection. The different modes of procedure that tenants' associations can call to their aid here should be borne in mind, in order to determine which procedure is best for each particular case.