Service
Works and special levies
You pay a large extra amount and then see nothing for months. That is what destroys trust in an administrator, and publishing the figures every month fixes it.
A special levy is the exact moment a community stops trusting its administrator. You pay a large extra amount, the money goes into a contractor, and for months you see nothing: not how much has been collected, not how much has been paid, not how far along the work is.
It is not that the administrator is doing anything wrong. It is that nobody is telling you what is happening, and when people have no information they assume the worst. Publishing the figures fixes it.
This is how a levy looks in the monthly report
The figures are made up, so you can see the format. Yours would be your own.
| Approved budget | 82,000 € |
| Collected from owners | 71,500 € |
| Paid to the contractor | 32,800 € |
| Still to collect | 10,500 € |
| Contractor | [name and tax number] |
| Certified progress | 42 % |
| Next milestone | 14 October |
| Running variance | +1,850 € |
Underneath that table, in the same report: the quotes that were compared, the signed contract, every invoice paid, that month's dated photographs and the minutes that approved the work.
The four things we ask you to demand
- That the report figure matches the bank. Add up the movements for the work on the statement and compare. If they do not match, there should be a written explanation, not a phone call.
- That last month's milestone is compared with this month's. It is the quickest way to see a job slipping before anyone admits it.
- That the variance is in euros, with a reason. «Unforeseen costs» is not a reason.
- That the minutes approving the work sit underneath. The amount the meeting approved and the amount in the contract have to be the same number.
What this is not. We are not the project's technical supervisor and we do not carry out the work. We do not certify the quality of what a third party builds: that is for the surveyor the community appoints. What we do is let you follow the money and the dates without having to ask.
If the levy comes from a building defect
Then two clocks are running at once, and they are easy to confuse. The warranty under article 17 of the Spanish Building Act runs from the handover certificate. The time limit to claim under article 18 runs from when the damage appears, and it is only two years. A job can still be inside warranty while the right to claim has already expired.
That is why no repair closes a defect on our register until the community's own surveyor confirms it. A cosmetic repair that hides a symptom can falsely close a deeper problem and leave the real thing unclaimed.
Questions
What majority is needed to approve a special levy in Spain?
It depends what it is for. Works needed to keep the building standing and habitable require no prior vote and bind every owner, under article 10 of the Horizontal Property Act. Improvements that are not necessary follow the majority rules in article 17. Deciding which category a particular job falls into is for the surveyor and, if it is disputed, for the community's lawyer.
Can an owner refuse to pay a levy that was approved?
Not simply because they voted against it. A validly adopted resolution binds every owner, including those who were absent and those who disagreed. An owner who believes the resolution breaks the law or the statutes can challenge it under article 18 of the Horizontal Property Act, but the payment is due in the meantime.
What happens to levy money that is not spent?
It belongs to the community and has to appear when the project closes. It stays in the monthly report as outstanding until the meeting decides what to do with it: refund it to owners by share, move it to the reserve fund, or something else they agree. What must not happen is that it quietly disappears into the ordinary budget.