If you live in an apartment in Spain, then you know what la comunidad is; i.e., the apartment-block administration, whose elected members run the block finances and affairs.

Each flat owner has to pay his community fees, which is how the administration is financed. If one or more apartment owners fail to pay their fees, it puts a financial burden on the rest. Guess who has become the number one defaulter on community fees across Spain? The answer is the banks. As thousands upon thousands of properties are repossessed, the onus on paying the community fees for each one falls upon its new owner, i.e., the bank that repossessed the property.

But we are not just talking about an apartment here and an apartment there, we’re talking about, in some cases where half a dozen apartments in just one block are repossessed and that means that half a dozen community fees are not paid with the consequence that the block committees are going bankrupt.

In the case of the province of Granada, 1,700 properties were repossessed during 2012, some of which were holiday homes. The Consejo General de Colegios de Administradores de Fincas calculated that high-street banks and savings banks owed over five million euros in block community fees. However large this figure might appear, it only represents 15% of what private owners owe to their respective committees, which totals 36m euros.

The situation is not much better on a regional (Andalucía) or national level; in the case of the former 11m euros is owed by banks and 47 by private flat owners, whereas in the case of the latter, on a nationwide level, banks owe 256m euros and private apartment owners 1,606m euros.

So why don’t the banks pay what they owe to the block administrations? The answer is, they won’t say – in other words, silence when asked. The banks just want to get shot of the repossessed properties as soon as possible and in the meantime ignore any bills sent to them by the block administrations.

So, what can the block administrations do in the meantime? They have two options, either raise the fees on the apartment owners that can pay, or they cut back on expenses, which means no pool in the summer, no gardener and repairs of common areas put off indefinitely.

(News: Province of Granada)