Some people think that the community is the only one to defend itself in court but, in fact, community owners are also entitled to defend the community interest in court.
The first problem would be to determine what would happen if the owner loose the court case and the Sentence establish to pay legal cost to the other party. The second problem could be what would happen if the community has approved not to take legal actions but one owner wants to do it.
According to Spanish Law, any owner of a community is entitled to defend in court the communal elements or any kind of interest or rights of the community, no matter what the community has agreed about it.
This is a very appropriate solution for a very common problem when, for instance, the president, or any other member of a community who has the majority of the votes from the owners, decides to make an extension in his house and take part of the communal garden; or when some of his friends has done a very unprofessional work for the community but the rest of the owner does not have enough votes in the General Assembly to sue him for compensation; or even when this president or powerful owner owes money to the community but it is not approved in the General Assembly to take him to court. In fact, it is quite common that the developers who still own many properties in a community will not be interested in voting in favour of starting a court case against himself for all the building defects of the community.
Apart from all these particular cases, the most normal situation could be as simple as the lack of community funds to afford a court procedure, so the General Assembly simply vote against any legal action.
Let´s suppose that your close neighbour has destroyed the aesthetic of the building changing the colour of his facade without the consent of the community.
Should the community does not take him to court, the only possibility you would have to restore the configuration and aesthetic of the whole community would be that some of the owners start legal proceedings against this owner to defend community interests.
In this court case two things might happen: To win or to fail.
In case he got a sentence in favour, the community will take advantage of the result. Should the sentence decide that the contestant should pay the cost for the procedure, the owner would recuperate the money paid to solicitor, procurator, etc.
On the contrary, supposing the court ruled against the owner, there will be no implication for the community.
In our Law, the communities will get the benefit on the favourable sentences but will have not responsibility in case of any sentence against. This means that, supposing the court impose the court cost in the Sentence, this cost would have to be paid by the owner and not by the community.