About the "real estate complexes" and about their constitution and government.

Article 24(1) of the Horizontal Property Law (hereinafter HPL) states that "The special property regime established in article 396 of the Civil Code —which refers to horizontal property— shall be applicable to those ‘private real estate complexes’ that meet the following requirements:

a.    Be made up of two or more buildings or plots of land independent of each other whose main purpose is dwellings or premises.

b.    The owners of these properties, or of the dwellings or premises into which they are divided horizontally, shall participate, as inherent to this right, in an indivisible co-ownership over other real estate elements, roads, facilities or services”.

The questions we ask ourselves are, what a “real estate complex” is, how we can identify it, and what its form of constitution and governance is, according to the HPL that regulates them.

The power of the president in a community of owners.

The Law that regulates the regime of the owners´ communities (Horizontal Property Law, hereafter LPH) refers in its article 13 to the community governing bodies, indicating as such the owner´s general assembly, the president and, where applicable, to a vice-president, a secretary and an administrator.

About the president, who "shall be appointed from among the owners", so he must be an owner (not the husband, the wife or the son of an owner), establishes Article 13.3 LPH that "shall legally represent the community both in and out of court, in all matters related to the community", also hold functions such as defending the community´s interest, requiring owners to cease prohibited activities, give approval to certificates, subpoenas and notifications issued by the secretary, convene and preside owners’ assembly, sign the minutes of the meetings, receive communications for the execution of works, etc.

On the other hand, there is no doubt that it corresponds exclusively to the owners´ general assembly, appoint and dismiss the governing bodies of the community, approve the plan of income and expenses, approve the budgets and execution of works in the community (without prejudice of the urgent measures that must be adopted), approve or reform the community statutes or the internal rules, approve modifications of the community constitutive deed or the exercise of judicial actions against the owners who have infringed it, etc.