Central heating in a Spanish community: who decides and who pays

Who decides the day the radiators come on? The question reaches the administrator every October, usually as a complaint, and it almost always carries two wrong assumptions: the government does not set it, and neither does whoever feels the cold most. Spain has no national switch-on calendar. The date, the daily schedule and even the target temperature are approved by the junta de propietarios, the owners' meeting, and the administrator simply carries out what was agreed.

That freedom has a price: anything that is not voted on ends up argued about. And this winter there is an extra reason to put heating on the agenda, because one technical obligation carries an expiry date that most communities have not noticed.

Who decides the switch-on and the schedule

Central heating is a common service, so how it runs is agreed at the owners' meeting with the ordinary majorities used for managing the building. If the statutes or the internal rules already fix a schedule, it applies without a fresh vote each year; when they say nothing (the usual case), it is decided season by season. In practice most communities switch on between mid-October and early November and switch off between late April and May. But "that's what everyone does" is no defence when somebody complains.

What holds a decision up is the written resolution.

It pays to vote on four parameters at once rather than the date alone:

• The switch-on and switch-off dates for the season
• The daily time slots, weekends included
• The reference temperature in common areas and homes
• Who may order an early switch-on during a cold snap

That last point saves the most phone calls. If the minutes authorise the president or the administrator to bring the start forward when temperatures drop suddenly, nobody has to call an extraordinary meeting in November to light a boiler. And remember that maintenance of the thermal installation is compulsory under the RITE regulations: the service check happens before the season, not when the boiler fails on the first cold day.

How the bill splits between fixed and variable

Since Royal Decree 736/2020, buildings with central heating must have individual meters or heat cost allocators so that each home pays for what it actually uses. Buildings in climate zones A and B are outside the obligation, as are cases where the installation is not technically or economically viable, which has to be proven with a study rather than assumed.

The bill then splits in two: a variable part calculated from each home's readings, and a fixed part shared by participation quota. The Ministry's criterion for applying the decree puts the fixed part at between 25 % and 40 % of the total, and the most common arrangement is 35 % fixed against 65 % variable. That fixed part is not an arbitrary toll: it covers maintenance, consumption in common areas and, above all, the heat lost through risers and floor slabs that warms even the neighbour who keeps every valve shut. Explaining it before approving the split prevents half the challenges to the annual accounts, because the flat left empty all winter still gets a bill, and there is a physical reason why.

Practical note: billing based on actual consumption must happen at least once a year. Sharing costs by participation quota alone, in a building that already has allocators fitted, is a challengeable resolution — however long "it has always been done that way".

The date most communities have not diarised

Here is the detail worth checking this season. Metering systems already installed must allow remote reading, or be replaced by systems that do, before 1 January 2027. This is not a recommendation: the regional governments inspect and fine, with penalties in the range of 1,000 to 10,000 euros depending on severity.

Many communities fitted allocators eight or ten years ago, when readings were taken door to door by a technician ringing the bell. Those are exactly the devices to check. One call to the maintenance company answers three questions: whether the current units read remotely, whether they accept a radio module, or whether they have to be replaced.

The moment to do it is now, with the autumn meeting ahead. If equipment has to be replaced, the cost goes into next year's budget and is collected through ordinary fees; if it is left until autumn 2026, it turns into an emergency levy with every installer overbooked. The gap between those two routes is several thousand euros and one very tense meeting.

Can an owner disconnect from central heating?

This is the most repeated question and the one with the least clear-cut answer. The Horizontal Property Act does not expressly regulate individual disconnection, and the provincial courts do not all pull in the same direction: some accept that an owner may stop consuming if the service is not harmed, others require the community's approval.

What is settled is the money. Anyone who disconnects still owes the costs of preserving, repairing and replacing the shared installation, because the boiler and the risers remain common elements of the building. Dropping the service exempts you from consumption charges, not from the general upkeep obligation in article 9.1.e of the Act.

Removing the service for the whole building, or replacing it with individual systems, is a different matter: that counts as suppressing a common service of general interest and needs the favourable vote of three fifths of the owners representing three fifths of the participation quotas.

If someone raises disconnection, the route that generates fewest lawsuits is always the same: a technical report showing the installation still performs as before, an express resolution setting out what that home will keep paying, and both recorded in the minutes. Without that, the owner who cuts the pipes alone usually ends up reconnecting and paying costs.

If you do one thing before the autumn meeting, call the maintenance company and ask whether your allocators read remotely. The calendar, the time slots and the cost split get voted and recorded; anyone who wants out brings their own technical report. In a community that runs without a professional administrator, those minutes are the only safety net there is.

Information up to date at the time of writing. This article is for information only and does not constitute legal advice.