Guides · G-5
What must your community of owners agree before you renovate?
Short answer
Notify the community representative before internal alterations and establish whether the proposed work also needs a resolution or affected-owner consent. Voting and payment rules depend on the intervention: conservation, accessibility and alterations have distinct provisions. [1] [1] [1]
A flat is privately owned within a building with shared elements and obligations. The Ley de Propiedad Horizontal (LPH), the title, community statutes and the proposed intervention must be considered together. A municipality’s permission and a community decision serve different purposes.
Notice is the first check, not the only one
An owner must notify the community’s representative before works inside a flat. Article 7.1 allows those alterations only if they do not impair the building’s safety, general structure or exterior configuration, or prejudice another owner’s rights; notice alone does not authorise changes to common elements.[1] Send a clear description and proposed dates before starting. Include drawings where they help show the work. The representative is the president; an appointed administrator can coordinate the practical communication. Not every community has an external administrator.
Do not assume a wall or service is private simply because it is inside the flat. The technical team establishes what is affected, while title and community information help identify the ownership position.
Choose the applicable legal route
Conservation and compulsory work. Article 10.1 makes necessary conservation, safety and habitability works compulsory without a prior community resolution, and sets specific conditions for compulsory accessibility works. Not every proposed improvement has the same voting or payment rules.[1] The community may need to agree implementation and payment arrangements even when the legal duty does not depend on prior approval of the need for the work.
Accessibility and lifts. Without prejudice to compulsory works under article 10.1, article 17.2 allows qualifying accessibility works and lifts to be agreed by a majority of all owners who also hold a majority of the participation quotas.[1] Distinguish this voting route from accessibility works already compulsory under article 10.1. Do not apply a single majority to all accessibility proposals.
Specified alterations. Article 17.4 includes a three-fifths vote of all owners and participation quotas for specified structural or common-element alterations, including terrace enclosure, with affected owners’ consent where applicable. Compulsory works and other specific statutory routes must be considered separately.[1] Three-fifths concerns both the total number of owners and their participation quotas. A quotation should not assume a required resolution exists merely because a neighbour or administrator supports the idea.
Tourist activity. An owner proposing the tourist activity covered by LPH article 7.3 must obtain the community’s express prior approval. Article 17.12 requires three-fifths of all owners and participation quotas to approve, limit, condition or prohibit that activity; transitional rules for existing lawful activity must also be checked.[1, 2] Obtain the actual approval and check any transitional position, rather than asking only whether the community has previously voted to prohibit it.
What to request before designing
Ask for the relevant title/statutes, house rules, recent minutes, planned building work and any evaluation report. The IEEV.CV residential building evaluation report covers conservation, accessibility and energy efficiency. Decreto 53/2018 regulates the report and its regional registration; TRLOTUP article 189 also sets the inspection duty.[3, 4] TRLOTUP article 189 requires owners of residential buildings, both single-family and multi-family, older than 50 years to arrange a competent technical inspection at least every 10 years. The IEEV.CV must be registered for administrative effect; its findings help identify building-wide work before planning a flat refurbishment.[4, 3] Existing roof, façade or shared-pipe work can change the sensible order of your private renovation.
The project description for a meeting should show the affected elements, method, access and responsibility for making good. The administrator or legal adviser can establish how the resolution and any affected-owner consent should be recorded. Keep the relevant minutes with the project file.
Plan the construction around the building
Agree protection of lifts and stairs, deliveries, storage, removal of waste and communication about supply interruptions. Community house rules sit alongside applicable municipal requirements; they do not authorise work that otherwise breaches the law.
The appropriate declaration or licence is addressed separately. UR.LC.140 covers the specified maintenance and reform works in a dwelling or common element of a non-catalogued building. Its documentation changes with the scope; natural persons may file electronically or in person, while persons legally required to use electronic filing must do so.[5] UR.LC.135 covers the specified reform or rehabilitation of façades, roofs and party walls in non-catalogued buildings, subject to its scope and documentation requirements.[6] Before an affected stage starts, the required technical documents, public consents and private approvals should be in place.
At completion, record the condition of the common areas, provide any agreed documents to the community and close outstanding issues. The permit guide and handover checklist help connect those records.