Every sale of a flat in a community on Fuerteventura passes through one document that neither the buyer nor the seller has usually heard of until the notary asks for it: the certificate of the unit's debts with the community — the certificado de deudas. The Horizontal Property Act built it into the sale for a reason that surprises foreign buyers: the flat itself answers for the community fees the previous owners left unpaid, for the year of the purchase and the three years before it, whoever now owns it. This piece sets out the paragraph of the Act that governs the certificate, who issues it and within what deadline, what it must say and what the two common wordings mean, the four-year rule a buyer inherits, the seller's duties before and after the deed, the waiver a buyer is asked to sign in a hurry, and how the certificate is requested from abroad. The tax side of a non-resident's sale — the 3 % retention and the plusvalía — belongs to our sister piece on selling as a non-resident; the community side is here.
The paragraph that protects the buyer
The Act states it in one paragraph. «The acquirer of a dwelling or premises under the horizontal property regime, even with a title registered at the Land Registry, answers with the property acquired for the amounts owed to the community of owners for the general expenses by the previous owners, up to the limit of those attributable to the part fallen due of the year in which the acquisition takes place and to the three previous natural years. The flat or premises is legally affected to the fulfilment of this obligation.» Then the mechanics: «In the public instrument by which the dwelling or premises is transferred, by any title, the transferor must declare that he is up to date in the payment of the community's general expenses or state those he owes. The transferor must at that moment provide a certificate on the state of debts with the community consistent with his declaration, without which the public document may not be authorised, unless he has been expressly exonerated from this obligation by the acquirer. The certificate shall be issued within a maximum of seven natural days from its request by whoever performs the functions of secretary, with the approval of the president, who shall answer, in case of fault or negligence, for the accuracy of the data recorded in it and for the damage caused by delay in its issue» (Ley de Propiedad Horizontal, art. 9.1.e). Three actors, one deadline, one liability: the secretary who issues, the president who countersigns, seven natural days, and personal responsibility for a wrong figure.
Who issues it, and what it must say
The certificate is signed by whoever performs the functions of secretary. In a community with a professional administrator that is the administrator, who normally holds the two offices together — the Act allows the secretary's and administrator's posts to be combined in one person, and lists among the administrator's duties acting as secretary and keeping the community's documents at the owners' disposal (arts. 13.6 and 20.e). The president's visto bueno completes it; in a community without an administrator, the president is secretary and signs alone. The Act fixes the deadline and the liability but not the contents, and the contents are where a buyer is protected or not. The certificate we issue for every sale states, on the community's letterhead and with the date of issue: the unit and its participation quota; the ordinary fees invoiced and paid to that date, with any instalment outstanding and its amount; every extraordinary levy the meeting has approved, its total, the instalments already due and those still to fall due, with their dates; the contribution to the reserve fund; any claim against the unit in progress; and the balance in one line.
Two wordings circulate, and they are not the same. Al corriente de pago — up to date — means that every instalment due to the date of the certificate has been paid; it says nothing about the levy the meeting approved in May whose instalments fall due in November. Sin deudas ni derramas pendientes — no debts and no levies pending — is the sentence a buyer wants, and it is only true when the certificate has looked at the minutes of the last meetings, not only at the ledger. A certificate that says «up to date» on a flat with three levy instalments still to fall due is accurate and useless; the buyer who reads it as «nothing to pay» learns otherwise at the first instalment.
The four-year rule: what a buyer inherits with the keys
The affection is the heart of the paragraph. The community's credit for general expenses is a privileged credit and the flat is charged with it, so the community may claim the previous owners' unpaid fees from the buyer's flat — the year of the acquisition and the three previous natural years — even where the buyer bought in good faith and registered the deed (art. 9.1.e). The buyer's protection is exactly the certificate: a debt the certificate did not state is one the secretary and the president answer for personally; a debt the certificate stated is one the buyer accepted or negotiated out of the price. Beyond the four years, and for anything that is not a general expense, the debt follows the seller as a person and the community's route is the special order-for-payment procedure our piece on unpaid fees walks through (art. 21).
One rule reverses the expectation of most buyers. Levies for improvements «shall be borne by whoever is the owner at the moment the amounts affected to the payment of such improvements fall due» (art. 17.11): a levy approved before the sale but with instalments due after it is the buyer's, not the seller's, unless the private contract says otherwise. That is why our certificate lists every approved levy with its future dates, and why the contract we recommend deals with them in a clause of its own — a price reduction, a retention by the notary, or the seller's payment of the whole levy before completion.
The seller's side: the declaration, the notification, the last fees
The seller declares in the deed that they are up to date, or states what they owe, and hands over the certificate — the notary reads it into the deed. Two duties survive the signature. The seller must notify the secretary of the change of ownership by any means that proves receipt; whoever fails to do so «shall continue to answer for the debts with the community accrued after the transfer, jointly with the new owner», with a right of recourse against them — unless the community learned of the change by other means or it was notorious (art. 9.1.i). And the fees of the month of the sale are split as the parties agree; the Act says nothing, and the deed's date is the usual line.
The certificate also protects the seller. A seller who leaves a debt stated in the certificate has fixed its amount; a seller who leaves an unstated debt has left a claim that will find the buyer's flat and then, through the buyer, the seller. Our advice to every selling owner abroad is the same: ask for the certificate the day the buyer's offer is accepted, not the day before the notary, so that whatever it shows can be paid or negotiated in time.
The waiver: signing without the certificate
The Act allows the buyer to exonerate the seller from providing the certificate, and the notary will then authorise the deed on the seller's declaration alone. The waiver exists for the sale that cannot wait a week; it is signed far more often by buyers who did not understand what they were waiving. A buyer who waives takes the four years of possible debts on the flat with no certificate to hold anyone to, and no claim against a secretary who issued nothing. In fifteen years we have seen the waiver cost buyers a levy for a lift, two years of fees from an owner who had stopped paying, and once the community's legal costs in a claim already filed. The certificate takes seven natural days at most, and a good administrator issues it in two; a retention in the price for the amount the certificate shows is the alternative that costs nothing.
Requesting it from abroad
The request is made by the seller or their representative — the lawyer, the estate agent with a mandate, the buyer with the seller's consent — to the administrator, by a means that proves the date, because the seven days run from the request. We answer within the deadline with a signed PDF, the president's approval collected electronically, and send it to the notary directly when asked; the seller's payment of any balance shown is confirmed on the same day it reaches the account, and a fresh certificate follows. For the communities we administer the request lives in the owner's portal: the owner clicks, the clock starts, the certificate arrives. After completion, the new owner's details — name, address for notifications, e-mail, bank mandate — go into the register on the buyer's notification or the notary's copy, and the next fee is charged to the right person.
Where we come in
Our administrators in Fuerteventura issue debt certificates within the Act's seven days for every sale in the communities we manage, with the levies and their dates on the face of the document, collect the president's approval electronically, deal with the notary directly, register the change of ownership and the buyer's data the day the deed is signed, and advise the selling owner on what to pay or negotiate before completion. See our community accounts and arrears recovery services, or ask for a quote; our fees and levies guide explains what the certificate is counting.
Common questions
Does the buyer of a flat in Spain inherit the previous owner's community debts?
Yes, within a limit: the flat answers for the general expenses unpaid by the previous owners for the year of the purchase and the three previous natural years, even after the deed is registered. Beyond that the debt follows the seller personally. The debt certificate the seller must provide at the notary fixes the amount; a debt it did not state is the responsibility of the secretary and the president who signed it.
Who issues the debt certificate and how long does it take?
Whoever performs the functions of secretary — the administrator in most communities — with the president's approval, within seven natural days of the request. The Act makes them personally liable, in case of fault or negligence, for the accuracy of the figures and for the damage caused by delay. The request should be made by a means that proves its date.
What is the difference between «al corriente» and «sin deudas ni derramas pendientes»?
«Up to date» means that every instalment due to the date of the certificate has been paid; it does not cover levies the meeting has approved whose instalments fall due later, and those are borne by whoever owns the flat when they fall due. «No debts and no levies pending» is the sentence a buyer needs, and it must come from a certificate that lists the approved levies with their dates.
Can the deed be signed without the certificate?
Only if the buyer expressly exonerates the seller from providing it; the notary then authorises the deed on the seller's declaration alone. The buyer who waives assumes the four years of possible debts with no certificate to hold anyone to. Given that the certificate takes at most seven days, the waiver is rarely worth it; a retention in the price is the safer alternative when the sale cannot wait.
