Spain´s law of Horizontal Ownership applies to the owning of an apartment within a building, a bungalow with a complex, or other scenarios involving communal areas and services including swimming pools, elevators, gardens, grounds personnel, doorman, etc. In Spanish, the law is called, ´Ley de Propiedad Horizontal,´ and it is quite comprehensive in its efforts to obligate each owner to carry their fair share of the upkeep cost for the community. In any given communal ownership situation, the owners form an association called, ´La comunidad.´ They are obligated to have an annual general meeting in order to conduct the business of maintenance and operation of the community. La Comunidad is responsible for:

• having its own unique set of regulations
• clearly defining what is individually-owned and what is communally-owned
• deciding the value of ´share´ that describes the owner's stake in the whole
• collecting dues based on the owner's ´share´ (cuota de participacion)
• running the community democratically, wherein at the general meeting, officials are elected by the voting of the owners