When a flat is not up to date with the community fees it is quite frequent that the community start a court procedure against the owner in order to get the fees paid.

               In most of cases, the judge will rule on behalf of the community and this court resolution is executed against any property or asset of the debtor.

               Some of the assets of the debtor that could be embargoed is the own property in the community. This embargo should be registered in the Land Registry, specifying the total amount the property will be responsible for, and this registration would be the initial step to auction the property.

               The first misunderstanding is to believe that when the embargo has been registered the debtor cannot sell the property. This is simply not true. The dwelling could be sold, but it could be still auctioned if the amount of the embargo is not paid to the community. 

               In order to buy a property, the buyer should check if everything is ok in the Land Registry, so if there is an embargo, the buyer will deduct this amount from the price of the property, and probably the community will get the debt paid.

               Normally, not all the debts to the community at the time of the selling have been pursued in court or have been registered as an embargo, so the Horizontal Property Law obliges the seller to present to the notary, to be attached to the purchase deeds, a certificate from the community regarding the existence or not of any debt at this time.

               This obligation to the seller could be released by the buyer and the notary will simple inform in the deeds that the buyer has renounced to his right to have this certificate from the community.

               Some people think that in this case, the buyer will respond for all the community fees owed to the community by the seller. Unfortunately, even in this negligent behaviour of the buyer, he will not be obliged to pay all the debts to the community but only, as maximun, the legal period stablished in the Law as a real affection of the property, what are the fees for the year in which the property is sold and three natural years back. This means that if a flat that owes community fees from 2012 is sold in October 2022, the buyer will be responsible to pay the fees on arrears for 2022, plus 2021, 2020 and 2019, and will not be obliged to pay the fees from 2012 until 2018, that the community will have to get only from the previous owner of the property and not the new one, no matter if this one refused to his right to have the certificate from the community to know the amount owed.

               In case the buyer does not refuse to this certificate, in many cases the amount owed is for a period longer than the real affection of the property ( fees of the year of the selling and three years back), and many people think that, as the buyer knows about the total debt at the time of purchasing the property, he should be responsible for this total debt, no matter the real affection period. This is also a wrong misunderstanding. No matter what the certificate says. As we mentioned before, the buyer will be only responsible to pay for the year in which the property was bought and three natural years back.

               If you are buying or selling a property, please take care of all these details or simply place the dealing in the hands of someone professional.