How to claim unpaid community fees: the monitorio process

The debt in flat 3B is not really being paid by flat 3B. Everyone else is footing the bill without realising it: every fee that owner skips comes straight out of the community's shared funds, the money the punctual neighbours keep paying in month after month. Seen that way, claiming unpaid community fees is not a vendetta against anyone. It is simply protecting everyone's money.

Spain's Horizontal Property Law (LPH) provides a fast, affordable route for it: the monitorio process, a payment order procedure that recovers the debt without launching costly ordinary litigation from day one. It is, however, unforgiving on formalities. Ambiguous minutes or a botched notification are enough to send the community back to square one, so each stage deserves careful paperwork.

The starting point: the owners' meeting and debt settlement

For the judicial claim to succeed, the first step allows no shortcuts. A homeowners' meeting must be called, either ordinary or extraordinary, expressly including the settlement of the debtor's outstanding amounts in the agenda.

During that meeting, the exact sums pending payment are debated and approved. And it is essential that the minutes record the explicit authorisation given to the president or the property manager to initiate the appropriate legal actions. Why such insistence on the exact wording? Because the minutes are the first thing the court examines: if the authorisation is missing or the figures do not add up, the petition is dismissed and the community starts over: another notice, another meeting, several months lost along the way.

The validity of the minutes for claiming the debt depends entirely on this point being drafted with total clarity, specifying:

• Who owes the money
• Which periods the debt corresponds to
• The exact amount owed

A badly convened or badly drafted meeting invalidates everything that follows.

With the agreement approved and watertight, the next step is making sure the debtor is officially informed. That is precisely where many claims go off the rails.

Formal notification to the affected owner

Once the settlement agreement is approved, it must be formally notified to the debtor owner. The safest and legally unquestionable method is sending a burofax with acknowledgment of receipt and certification of text: it proves at once what was said, when it was sent and that it reached its addressee, three things an ordinary letter cannot demonstrate if the matter ends up before a judge. The document must be addressed to the location formally designated by the owner for community communications or, failing that, to the apartment or premises within the building itself.

Legal note: If notification proves impossible after the relevant attempts, the agreement will be posted on the community notice board, or a visible common area, for at least three calendar days. This public notice takes legal effect after said period.

The community debt certificate

If the payment request period expires without the debt being settled, the document that underpins the whole lawsuit comes into play: the community debt certificate, issued by the community secretary with the president's approval, and read by the court with the same magnifying glass it applied to the minutes, because it is the piece that connects the figure approved at the meeting with the amount claimed in the filing. Among the legal requirements is faithfully reflecting that the claimed amount exactly matches the one approved at the meeting and that the agreement was previously notified through the legal channels described.

A tip from someone who has drafted plenty of these: always attach a month-by-month breakdown of what is being claimed. A single global figure invites the debtor to oppose the claim alleging accounting errors, and that opposition is exactly what the community wants to avoid.

The prior settlement attempt: a requirement since 2025

There is a compulsory stop before the courthouse that many associations still overlook. Organic Law 1/2025, in force since 3 April 2025, turned the attempt at an appropriate dispute resolution method (a lawyer-led negotiation, a conciliation, a mediation or a binding offer) into a procedural requirement for civil claims. The horizontal property monitorio is not among the exceptions: of the payment procedures, only the European order sits outside.

It adds one document to the file, not a second lawsuit: a serious settlement proposal goes to the debtor and its outcome is recorded, silence included, and that proof accompanies the initial petition.

Without it the court may refuse to admit the claim.

How to start the debt monitorio process in Spain

Armed with the minutes of the meeting and the debt certificate, the community is authorised to take legal action. The initial petition for the community monitorio is filed before the Court of First Instance of the place where the property is located.

For the submission of this initial petition, the intervention of a lawyer and a court procurator is not mandatory, regardless of the debt amount. That said, the LPH allows these professional fees to be passed on to the defaulting owner if the judge fully upholds the lawsuit. This is why having legal assistance from the beginning is usually an option communities stand behind: not a luxury, but insurance against the formal flaws described above.

The development of the procedure in court

Once the petition is admitted, the court will require the defendant to pay the community within twenty business days (which, with an August in between, easily stretch into two calendar months) or appear to argue why they believe they do not owe the amount. Following this, three scenarios open up:

• The neighbour pays: the process is archived, and the community recovers the funds.
• The neighbour neither pays nor appears: the court will issue a decree of termination, allowing the community to directly request the seizure of the debtor's assets to cover the outstanding fees and interest.
• The neighbour opposes: if the owner submits a written opposition claiming, for example, an accounting error or the nullity of the agreement, the monitorio transforms into the corresponding trial based on the amount (verbal if it does not exceed 15,000 euros, or ordinary if it exceeds that figure).

Acting quickly and with documentary rigour against delinquency protects the assets of all owners, including those who have spent months unknowingly covering the non-payer's share. Scrupulously following the deadlines and requirements of the Horizontal Property Law is the best guarantee to resolve the conflict in court without unwanted surprises.

Updated 29 July 2026. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.