The most common mistake in Spanish residential complexes: the stain on the ceiling gets repaired, not the cause – and two years later it is back. The third time round you are told it has “always been like that”. Here you will find the tools to prevent this: a template letter, a form, an information sheet on insurance and deadlines, a checklist. All available for direct download, no mandatory forms, no request for your address.
Before you sign, pay or have anything repaired.
If the origin lies in the common elements – riser pipe, waterproofing, concrete component –, remedying it is the legal duty of the Comunidad (Art. 10.1 LPH). No resolution is needed for that. Explicitly demand in your report that the cause be remedied – not just the visible damage.
Claims against the building insurer for material damage become time-barred two years after the event (Art. 23 LCS). A written report preserves the deadline – a phone call does not. Anyone who has never reported damage from 2025 should report it this week.
The costs of a professional damage assessment can be recoverable from the insurer (Art. 38 LCS) and the community – if you have first demanded action in writing and set a deadline. Anyone who commissions an assessment straight away risks being left with the costs.
To download, print and use. No newsletter, no email request.
Fill in the form in English and receive the finished letter in Spanish – with deadline, legal basis and a copy for your file. Runs entirely in your browser; nothing is transmitted.
Letter to the administrator and president to fill in: Spanish version to send, German version for understanding, instructions and checklist before sending. (No English version yet – use the online form.)
Cause and consequential damage, the 40-day rule, default interest, the two-year limit – and when the costs of the damage assessment are recoverable. Under Ley 50/1980 and the LPH. (Text in German.)
What to do immediately, the same day and in the following days – and the three things you must never do. To print and tick off. (Text in German.)
Basic rule under Art. 396 Código Civil and the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal. What matters is not where the damage becomes visible, but what caused it (STS 80/2024).
| Component | As a rule | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Load-bearing structure: columns, beams, floor slabs, foundations | Community | Even if the damage becomes visible in your apartment – provided the cause lies in a structural defect. |
| Façade, external walls, roof, roof waterproofing | Community | Purely common areas without exclusive use rights: unambiguous. |
| Communal riser and downpipes | Community | Up to the branch into the individual apartment. |
| Balcony/terrace slab and its waterproofing | Community | The slab is load-bearing structure. With exclusive use rights: the cause decides. |
| Floor covering and upkeep of a balcony with exclusive use rights | Owner | Lack of maintenance, roots from planters, own alterations – even if the damage only becomes visible on the load-bearing slab. |
| Internal plaster, floors, sanitary installations after the branch, fittings in the apartment | Owner | Your consequential damage – with a cause in the common elements, part of the same loss event. |
| Deadline | What | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| immediately, in writing | Report the damage to the administrator and the president – in Spanish | Only written reports preserve deadlines; the president is the representative body (Art. 13 LPH) |
| 40 days | The insurer must pay the undisputed minimum amount | Art. 18 Ley 50/1980 (LCS) |
| 3 months | After that, default interest runs against the insurer; after two years at least 20 % p.a. | Art. 20 LCS |
| 2 years | Limitation of claims under the insurance contract for material damage | Art. 23 LCS |
| at any time | Demand information on insurer, policy and claim number | Owner's right to information (Art. 20 e LPH) |
The terms that appear in every letter, every meeting and every policy.
Not every case can be solved alone.
When the cause is unclear, the community does not react or the insurer refuses, you need a clear technical basis: on-site damage recording, photo documentation, damage description with possible causes and cost estimate as a basis for your report – and, if you wish, support in your dealings with insurer, administrator and community, commissioned by you. This is not a peritación (formal expert report). It is a separate service that we agree individually. Write us briefly what has happened.