How to reduce arrears in owners' communities: a practical guide

This guide refers to owners' communities (comunidades de propietarios) in Spain and to the Spanish Horizontal Property Act (Ley de Propiedad Horizontal, LPH).

Owners' debt to their communities stood at around €1.63 billion in 2025, according to Spain's General Council of Property Managers' Associations (CGCAFE). Behind that figure are façades that don't get repaired, reserve funds that run dry and paying neighbours who end up covering other people's share.

Arrears aren't tackled with lawyers alone. They're tackled with a system: prevent, detect early and escalate without letting months slip by. This guide explains how.

Why owners stop paying

Not all defaulters are the same, and treating them the same is a mistake:

• Forgetfulness or disorganisation: a direct debit returned after a change of bank account. A quick reminder fixes it.
• Temporary financial difficulty: responds well to a payment plan.
• Disagreement with an expense: uses non-payment as a protest. Needs explanation and transparency.
• Absent owner or institution: empty homes, inheritances, properties owned by banks or funds. These require the formal route from day one.

Prevention: what reduces non-payment before it happens

1. Direct debit with a properly signed SEPA mandate. Without a signed mandate, an owner can return debits up to 13 months later (see our guide to SEPA direct debit).
2. A clear payment calendar, shared in advance. Everyone knows how much they pay and when.
3. Advance notice of special levies. A levy announced early and split into instalments gets paid more reliably than a surprise.
4. Visible accounts. An owner who can see what their fees are spent on argues less and pays more.
5. Detection at the first returned debit. The first missed payment is the easiest to recover. The fifth is the hardest.

The legal tools worth knowing

In Catalonia, Book Five of the Catalan Civil Code applies, with its own rules on several of these points; adapt the procedure if you manage Catalan communities.

The 5-stage escalation

The key isn't harshness, it's consistency: every stage on its date, none skipped, and evidence of everything.

ADR: the step you can no longer skip

Since 3 April 2025, Spain's Organic Law 1/2025 requires proof of an attempt at out-of-court dispute resolution (MASC) before filing civil claims. There was debate over whether it applied to community debt claims, but most courts now require it. The prudent approach is to always build it into your collection protocol and document it.

The Article 21 LPH fast-track claim, step by step

1. The owners' meeting approves the debt statement.
2. Whoever acts as secretary issues the certificate, countersigned by the president, stating the amount and breakdown. If the secretary-manager is a qualified professional who isn't involved in the court claim, the president's signature isn't needed.
3. The debtor is notified; if that's not possible, notice can be posted on the community noticeboard for at least three days.
4. The claim is filed with the certificate and proof of notice. It can include fees falling due up to the notice and the costs of the claim.

Remember that community fees become time-barred after five years under the LPH: letting time pass has a cost too.

What to measure every quarter

• Outstanding debt as a share of the annual budget, per community
• Age of the debt (0–30, 31–90, over 90 days)
• Percentage recovered at each escalation stage
• Repeat defaulters

Where Wabee is heading

The collections and treasury module we're working on automates exactly this system: fees issued by ownership share, SEPA direct debit, a payment calendar, a collections agent that escalates on its own (reminder, formal letter, legal notice) and an AI that flags which owners are most likely to stop paying before it happens. The goal: no unpaid fee sitting in a drawer for three months because nobody had time to send the second reminder.

Frequently asked questions

Can an owner in arrears vote? They can attend and speak, but can't vote if they're not up to date when the meeting starts, unless they've challenged the debt in court or deposited the amount (art. 15.2 LPH).

Is ADR mandatory before the fast-track claim? Organic Law 1/2025 requires it as a general rule, and most courts apply it to community debt claims. It's best to always do it and document it.

Can the list of defaulters be published? With caution. The LPH allows notice on the noticeboard when the debtor can't be located, but indiscriminate publication may breach data protection rules. Check with your adviser.

Who pays the debt if the flat is sold? The buyer is liable, up to the value of the property, for the current year's debts and the three previous years (art. 9.1.e LPH), without prejudice to the seller's liability.

At which stage do your unpaid fees get stuck? Tell us how you collect today and we'll show you the collections module we're building. Talk to the Wabee team

Keep reading

• Special levies in owners' communities: a legal and management guide for property managers
• SEPA direct debit in owners' communities: everything you need to know
• AI payment default prediction: how to get ahead of arrears

Sources

• Spanish Horizontal Property Act 49/1960, consolidated text (BOE, in Spanish) — arts. 9.1.e, 15.2 and 21
• Organic Law 1/2025 on the efficiency of the Public Justice Service (BOE, in Spanish)
• ADR in judicial practice (Iberley, in Spanish)
• CGCAFE 2025 arrears figure (El País de los Negocios, in Spanish)