Unfortunately, not everybody is respectful towards other’s rights. This is especially frequent when living in a community. In some cases it is just a consequence of mixing cultures; in others the reasons could be the lack of education of some neighbours; or we can even find cases in which the misbehaviour is just an easy revenge against the community or any particular neighbour.   

          First of all we have to distinguish between several kinds of misbehaviour and nuisance to the community or neighbours, because all of them should be faced in a different manner:

          a) The misbehaviour could be considered in some cases a criminal offence. For instance, if you are threatened, hit, attacked, robbed by a neighbour or he/she causes intentionally damage to your belongings, this would be a criminal offence.

In the same way, it would be a criminal offence if a neighbour in the community causes any intentional damage or steals any communal elements.

          In these cases, the neighbour or the community, as the victim of the criminal offence, will have to report this situation to the Court, Police or Guardia Civil and they will deal with the situation.

          b) Sometimes, the behaviour is not against the criminal law but is causing trouble to the community. For instance, someone uses the pool out of the allowed timetable or breaks in any other way the Community rules.

The Horizontal Property Law regulates in article 7.2: “The proprietor and the occupant of the flat or premises are not allowed to develop activities which are forbidden by statutes for being harmful for the property or because they infringe the general provisions about annoying, unhealthy, noxious, dangerous or illicit activities. Supposing this is the case, the way to proceed would be:

The President of the community, on his/her own initiative or that of the owners or occupants, will require the person who is carrying out forbidden activities to immediately stop them, warning him/her that if not, judicial actions will be taken.   

If the offender persists in his /her behaviour, the President, with prior authorisation from the Proprietors Board, duly summoned to such effect, will be able to file a lawsuit against him/her. It will be carried out adjusting to the rules which regulate declaratory proceedings if the actions are not foreseen on this clause.

Once the claim against the offender has been filed, together with a certificate of the reliable requirement and the certificate of the agreement taken by the Board of owners, the Judge will be able to determine the immediate ceasing of the forbidden activity with preventive nature, and a caution regarding committing offence of insubordination. He/she will be able to decide as well all provisional measures necessary to ensure the effectiveness of the suspension of action order. The claim will be against the owner and, where appropriate, against the occupant of the house or premises. 

If the lawsuit were approved, the judge could decide, besides the definitive ceasing of the forbidden activity, and the compensation for damages and prejudicial consequences which proceeds, the privation of the right to use the house or premises for a period under three years, in accordance to the seriousness of the offence and damages caused to the community. If the offender were not the owner, the sentence could declare definitely abolished all his rights concerning the house or premises as well as his immediate dispossession.

          c) In other situations, the behaviour cannot be considered a criminal offence but is against the municipal By-laws, so the community has the possibility either to call the local police to report that someone is breaking the by-laws or can just simply start the previously mentioned procedure to take legal actions in court.

          Much misbehaviour is against the by-laws of the Town Halls, so we should take advantage of this.   

          As Courts in Spain are very busy and this procedure will take a long time, I will always recommend to call the Police, when possible, as the most effective and cheapest way to stop this kind of behaviour, especially when we are facing problems from holiday makers that are just 15 days in the property as there is no way to get any court decision within this period of time.

          Unfortunately this is a problem we have to face on the Coast every summer, so, please, be aware about it, and take into consideration that Local Police in many towns are very cooperative in order to put an end on this kind of nuisance against the municipal by-laws.