Notes from the island.

You let your Corralejo flat for the year and live abroad. The community still looks to you for the fees, whatever the lease says; the clause that passes them to the tenant needs a yearly figure, and since 8 October 2026 neither the property tax nor the agent's fee can be passed on. The house rules reach your tenant through article 7.2, the community's notices are validly served at the flat, your tenant can carry your proxy but not vote, and the repair clock runs while you are away. October 2026.

Corrugated sheets, downpipes and tanks of fibre cement are common in Fuerteventura blocks built before 2002; the ban did not order their removal. What the law asks of a community: sound material may stay, deteriorated material must go as a compulsory conservation work; only a firm on the asbestos register may touch it, under a work plan the Canary labour authority approves; the waste leaves the island through an authorised manager; who votes and who pays; the census and the aid, October 2026.

Who buys in Fuerteventura and who lives here are two different questions with two official answers. The notaries' report of 15 October 2026 on the first half of the year, the registrars' foreign share for the province of Las Palmas to June 2026 and ISTAC's register at 1 January 2025 read for a community of owners: residents against non-residents, the nationalities, and what each figure means for the address an owner must give, the proxy, the arrears and the language of the minutes.

«Fuera de ordenación» is not one situation but three, and a community's roof, lift and terraces are judged by a different list in each. What Ley 4/2017 lets a consolidated building do since the January 2026 reform, the short list for a building out of plan, the four-year clock and the works that never prescribe, the Coasts Act's own rules in the first hundred metres, which paper says where your building stands after the Canary High Court's 2026 judgments, and why the ITE applies all the same.

An owner who disagrees with a resolution of the owners' meeting has three grounds, a standing that depends on how she voted, a debt to settle first and three months, or a year, that no letter interrupts. What article 18 says, the cheaper moves inside the community, the Supreme Court's 2013 and 2026 line on reserving the vote, the arrears exception read generously in 2024, the negotiation request that now suspends the clock, and what the ordinary trial costs in Fuerteventura.

Whose name is on the community's account, who can move the money and how an owner abroad sees it: the H tax number, the reserve fund that belongs to the community for all purposes, the signatures the meeting fixes, what the administrator pays without a vote, the annual accounts, the documents and the audit, the Modelo 347 and the withholdings, what a creditor takes first, and the e-mail that changes a supplier's IBAN.

Ley 7/2026 lets a Canary community pay a college or an accredited entity for the technical report its licence file is waiting for. What the report covers and what it leaves to the town hall, the 0.5 to 3 per cent cap on its price, the three-month deadline that does not move, the council's plenary veto, who answers for a wrong report, and which Fuerteventura works it reaches at all.

An owner dies, the heirs live abroad and the community's fees go on falling due while nobody is yet the owner. This note explains who owes the fees until the inheritance is accepted, what an heir takes on by accepting, how a community can sue an estate and how the claim reaches a family abroad (with a Lanzarote case the Supreme Court decided in 2026), what to tell the administrator and when, who attends and votes meanwhile, and what happens with a sale and with the insurance.

Why does one flat pay 2.40 per cent of everything while the ground-floor shops pay nothing for the lift? The answers are in the building's title deed and its statutes, papers most owners have never read. This note explains what each text decides, how the quota was fixed, how the Supreme Court reads the clauses that exempt some owners (with two judgments of 2026), why changing them takes every owner, what to do when a quota looks wrong and where to get a copy.

A community of owners signs contracts all year: the lift, the pool, the garden and, now and then, a work on the building. Spanish law says who decides and who signs, says nothing about three quotes, and has more to say than most presidents expect about what happens when something goes wrong: a subcontractor left unpaid, a contractor behind with the Social Security, a work with two firms and no safety coordinator. This note follows a contract from the vote to the last invoice.

The administrator who emails you about the leak is not the person who holds your keys, and neither is the agency that offered to manage everything. Spanish law gives each of the three a different client, different powers and a different bill: the community's administrator, a property manager under a mandate, and a letting agent whose fee the landlord pays. This note sets out what each one does for an owner who lives abroad, what paper each needs and who pays whom.

Salt wind, chalking paint, rust at the balcony edges: sooner or later every building on this coast repaints. Spanish law makes the repair a duty that needs no vote, leaves the colour to the community's own rules, splits the bill by quota and sends the president to the town hall with a prior notice fifteen days before the scaffolding goes up. This guide follows a Corralejo building of twenty-four flats through each step, with the levy worked out in euros.

A community in Costa Calma meets in English, and two owners object: one wants Spanish, the other wants minutes he can read. What Spanish law says about the language of the meeting, the notice and the minutes: the Supreme Court's 2002 judgment, the Málaga rulings on owners who did not understand, the Tenerife resolution annulled over an Italian notice, which text counts, what an owner abroad can ask for and who pays for it.

Eleven flats in the block are already holiday lets and a new owner wants to start. What the Canary Act asks of a new let (the town hall's planning certificate first) and gives an existing one (five years, consolidated use and a municipal notice due before 31 July 2027), the thirty-one-day presumption added in August 2026, which number goes on the advert after the Supreme Court annulled the State registry, and what the owners' meeting can decide by three fifths.

The president says the leaking roof can wait for the annual meeting. The Horizontal Property Act lets a quarter of the owners, or owners holding 25 % of the quotas, force a meeting, and in June 2025 the Supreme Court fixed the order: ask the president first, convene yourselves only if he does not act. How to write the request, how long to wait, what the call and the agenda must say, notice, quorum and majorities, proxies for owners abroad, and removing a president or an administrator.

The gardener paid in cash every Thursday is the community's employee, and the law treats the community like any other employer. Who decides and who signs, the contract and the registration before the first day, the information document due since 5 October 2026, the cost of a post at the 2026 minimum wage, health and safety, the concierge's flat, and why hiring a company no longer frees the community from risk after the Supreme Court's ruling of 2022.

No single law lists the inspections a block of flats owes: each installation has its own regulation, clock and inspector. For a community on Fuerteventura, one table with the rule, the frequency and who signs: the lift, the ten-year electrical inspection that in the Canaries reaches every building with 20 or more supplies, garages and pools every five years, fire equipment, gas, hot water, the tank, the pool and the ITE. Plus two things with no official inspection, and what a missed date costs.

The administrator asks for a Spanish account and you do not need one: a community that collects by direct debit in euros must accept an IBAN from any EU country, and the Banco de España calls the refusal illegal. What the mandate is and who keeps it, the eight weeks to undo a wrong receipt, why a standing order quietly falls behind the budget, where British and Swiss accounts stand, and the three costs of a returned receipt: interest, the bank's charge and the vote. With a checklist.

Inside your walls you may do almost anything; to the outside of them, almost nothing. The Horizontal Property Act names the terrace enclosure: three fifths of all owners, with no silent votes when the work is for private benefit. Air-conditioning units are judged with flexibility but case by case, tolerance is not consent, the community has thirty years to demand that the façade be restored, and the town hall is a second permission. With a table of works, majorities and permits.

For an owner who was not in the room, the minutes are the meeting. Article 19 of the Horizontal Property Act says what they must state, that the president and the secretary close them within ten calendar days, that they are sent to your address in Spain and that their errors can be cured before the next meeting. This guide reads it as it stands in October 2026, with the two clocks that start when the minutes arrive, a dated calendar and the digital minute book that never became law.

A flat in a Spanish community comes with a quota, a rulebook, decisions already voted and a secretary who does not yet know you exist. The first thirty days in order: the notice of the change of owner, the address in Spain the Act requires, the fees, the reserve fund and the levies voted before you bought, the papers to ask for, keys and meters, your own insurance, the notice before any works and your vote at the first meeting. With a checklist and a Corralejo case in numbers.

Three payers stand behind a storm repair in a Spanish community. Above gusts of 120 km/h, and for floods and the sea, the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros pays on the terms of the community's policy, with no deductible. Below that line the community's insurer pays if the policy's wind and rain clause is met, and a blocked drain is the community's own bill. What counts as extraordinary, what is excluded, the first seven days, how the claim runs, and one storm in Caleta de Fuste in numbers.

Every litre in Corralejo or Costa Calma was seawater days earlier. Who desalinates and moves it, who the consortium bills and how the monthly roll and the enforcement period work, what the 2020–2025 emergency changed, how a community with one meter divides the bill under the Horizontal Property Act, the 2022 rule that spares an owner with a hidden leak the punitive blocks if the claim goes in within three months, and the decree that names the community as the body that cleans the tank.

Who may watch the recordings of the camera at the pool gate, whether the community may hang the debtor list in the lobby, and who gave the WhatsApp group your number. The Regulation, the LOPDGDD and the Horizontal Property Act read together, with the AEPD's 2025 guide and six of its resolutions against communities: the vote that makes cameras lawful, the one-month rule, the two places the Act puts the arrears, the noticeboard's three-day rule, and your rights from abroad.

A Fuerteventura resort is usually several communities around one pool, gardens and gate, and owners call that shared layer «the mancomunidad». Article 24 of the Horizontal Property Act gives it three legal shapes and decides who votes on the pool, who pays for the gardens and where a resolution is challenged. The presidents' meeting, the quotas and the keys the title may change, a four-block example, the tourist block, arrears and the pool gate, insurance, liability and the three-month window.

A per-unit price says almost nothing until you know what sits inside it. The five duties article 20 of the Horizontal Property Act puts in the administrator's post and the sixth that opens the door to extras, why no fee scale exists since 2009, what a quote must tell you under the services law, what the Las Palmas college guarantees and how to check its register, the clauses that should worry a board, and two quotes for one forty-unit block in a quiet year and a year with works.

Since March 2026 a third of the owners can decide a solar or aerothermal installation, and only those who voted yes pay for it; a simple majority can bind everyone when the annual cost stays within twelve months of ordinary fees, and the reserve fund may pay for that route. The two majorities in the Act, the Canary prior-communication permit, what the 2026–2030 housing plan pays, the 60 % deduction residents get and non-residents do not, and a 30 kW roof in Caleta de Fuste worked both ways.

EU residents need no fiscal representative in Spain; British, Swiss or American owners only when the tax office requires it, on pain of a 2,000-euro fine. What anyone may do instead — a voluntary representative on the census form — matters more: without one, your own flat is your tax address, a concierge can sign for the letter, and two failed attempts plus a gazette notice make it delivered. What the administrator can be, and who is liable for the tax on your rents.

The Horizontal Property Act was written for a room: a place, a day and an hour, and not one word about video. Article 16 was last changed in 1999; the claim that juntas can be held online since the 2025 reform is a myth. The only express rule, the 2021 decree-law, expired on 31 December 2021. The bill adding video attendance, e-mail notices and a digital minutes book lapsed with the dissolution of the Cortes on 6 October 2026. Meanwhile: the hybrid junta with a proxy behind every screen.

A community pool in Fuerteventura is a registered collective-use pool whose titular is the community itself. What the Canary decree of 2005, the state decree of 2013 and the legionella decree of 2022 require: a lifeguard unless a residential pool, or a tourist establishment of up to forty units, has a barrier built to the Technical Building Code; the registry entry; the log book with two readings a day; the quarterly laboratory block; the yearly shower treatment; the incident report; who pays.

An empty flat in Fuerteventura keeps every duty the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal places on its owner: allow the community's repairs and let it in, keep the private installations in good repair, receive notices at the door. Who should hold the key and under what written mandate, who may enter in an emergency and why the answer is 112 rather than a locksmith, what to close before you leave, how home policies treat a home left empty — from three days to thirty — and the protocol on one page.

Since 1 July 2024 a new instruction fixes how often a community's lift is inspected, what the inspector may write and which upgrades an older lift must receive by fixed deadlines — one year for the communication device, the door curtain, the load control and the levelling; three to ten for the guides. Who books the inspection, what happens when a deadline passes, why the works need no vote, and a Caleta de Fuste block worked through, fund and levy included.

The flat you buy in a Spanish community answers for the fees the previous owners left unpaid — the year of the purchase and the three before it — and the certificate of debts the seller must hand the notary is the buyer's only protection. Who issues it and within what deadline, what it must say and why «up to date» is not «no levies pending», the seller's duties before and after the deed, the waiver buyers sign in a hurry, and how the certificate is requested from abroad.

One owner over seventy asks for a lift and the others do not want to pay. The Horizontal Property Act answers in three rules: accessibility works are obligatory without a vote up to one year of ordinary fees after public aid, a majority approves them above that cap, and the dissenter pays with everyone else. A worked example on a Corralejo building, the reserve fund and the levy, the State Plan grants the Canary Government opens, the regional tax deduction, and how we run the meeting.

Every community has a rulebook, and most of it is worth what the meeting knew about the law. Which rules belong in the statutes (unanimity) and which in the house rules (majority), the quiet hours and indoor noise limits that apply on Fuerteventura, what a community may say about pets and parking in 2026, and the four-rung procedure that turns a rule into a court order.

Most communities on Fuerteventura are insured by inertia — until a storm, a pool accident or a burst riser opens the policy. Whether a community must insure, what a building policy covers and quietly leaves out, why the sum insured must be the rebuild cost and not the market value, what the Consorcio adds for €420 a year, and the eight lines that decide between three quotes.

Every membrane on the island has a date on it. When a community's roof reaches it, the Horizontal Property Act makes the works mandatory — no vote on whether, only on how the derrama is shared — and the Civil Code keeps the roof common even under a private terrace. Who decides, how the reserve fund and the cuota split a €48,000 roof in Corralejo, what the specification must contain, the flood test before acceptance, and the warranties to write into the contract.

Five signatures for a flat in Corralejo, and only one needs a notary: the one that, done wrongly at home, gets refused in Spain. What needs a notarial power and what only a signed writing, the three routes from abroad — a Spanish notary, the consulate, your own notary with the Hague apostille, a sworn translation and the equivalence test — and the fourth by video-conference since 2023, what to put in the power, how to revoke it, and what your administrator can then do with it.

The new car arrives in Corralejo before the cable does. Under article 17.5 of the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal a charging point for private use on your own space needs only prior notice to the community, and the Supreme Court settled in December 2025 that a cable through the garage ceiling changes nothing. What the notice says, the four wiring schemes of the electrical code, who pays for what, when a common installation needs three-fifths, and where the grants stand this year.

The minutes arrive in Hamburg: at Thursday's junta the presidency fell to you. The post is mandatory, but the Act gives you one month to ask the judge for relief, a one-year term, a vice-president to stand in and an administrator to carry the paperwork. What only the president signs, where personal liability begins and ends, and the protocol we use so an owner abroad can hold the post without flying in.

The PDF lands in October with the convocatoria: fourteen pages, three columns and a junta you will not attend in person. What the Horizontal Property Act says the papers must contain (LPH 14, 15, 16, 19), the five pages that matter — budget against actual, the bank reconciliation, the arrears list, the reserve-fund line at 10 % or more, derramas kept apart — a ten-minute check from abroad, the red flags, and how to put a question on the agenda before you vote by proxy.

A brown map on a ceiling in Caleta de Fuste and an owner in Düsseldorf: where the water comes from, the line between common and private elements (stacks common, branches private, the terrace's waterproofing common even when the terrace is yours — Supreme Court 80/2024), who pays under LPH 9 and 10, the seven-day notice and forty-day payment clocks of the insurance law, the expert report that decides most leaks, and the protocol our administrators run.

The junta, the 2027 budget and the reserve fund; the debtor list and the five-year clock; closing the pool by the book, roofs and drains before the rains, certificates and insurance; the community's own Modelo 111 and the new freezing channel — and the owner abroad's mirror list, Modelo 210 by 31 December included.

From November 2026 the Spanish tax agency freezes bank, payment and neobank balances within hours of issuing the order. For an owner who lives abroad the danger is not the speed — it is that the letters arrive at an empty apartment, and the account that pays the community is the one that stops.

Five years to claim (the Supreme Court has settled it), a new mandatory settlement step before court, and the three-year debt a buyer's apartment answers for.

The Canary Islands ITE rule is not the one you will read on mainland sites. What your community must actually inspect, maintain, document — and how to fund it.

NIE, IBI, the Modelo 210, insurance and community duties — what a non-resident owner in Fuerteventura must actually do each year, and what happens if you don't.

Convocation, proxies, majorities and the 30-day rule — how a Spanish junta de propietarios works, and why its decisions bind you whether you attended or not.

What your cuota actually pays for, where your coefficient comes from, when a derrama is legitimate, and what happens to an owner who falls behind on payments.

Spain's 2025 reform lets a community approve, limit or ban tourist lets with a 3/5 vote, and the Canary Islands added its own law. Where that leaves owners.

What the law actually says about removing and appointing an administrator, the majority you need, the handover you should demand, and the right month to do it.