Aesthetic changes in homeowners' associations

Hello and thank you for reading this article that answers to how aesthetic changes have to be carried out in the communities of owners when we want to make a reform in our property and why we must keep a certain aesthetic previously fixed.

Advantages of living in a community of owners

Living in a community has a number of advantages for the neighbours. First of all, it makes it much easier and more bearable to carry out any kind of reforms or to bear the maintenance costs necessary for the proper care of the buildings of the community of owners. Thanks to this, each owner only has to bear the proportional part of the necessary expenditure to cover all these common expenses.

In addition to the above, being part of a community of owners allows neighbours to have and enjoy a series of services and amenities, the cost of which would be much higher if we lived in a private property outside a community.
This is the case of those residential communities that have communal swimming pools, tennis or paddle tennis courts and even private gyms, where residents have continuous and unlimited access for their use and enjoyment.

In the latter case, the investment to be made for this set of services would be much higher for individual or single-family dwellings, as not only the cost of contracting the service has to be considered, but also those derived from the maintenance of the infrastructures related to it.

Many advantages and one disadvantage

Having the opportunity to enjoy all these facilities and services within a community allows any family to gain access to services that would otherwise be considered a luxury.
Now that we have seen the main advantages of living in a community of owners, we must also point out that there are a number of associated disadvantages.

One of the most common is the need to respect basic rules to maintain the common aesthetics of the community buildings. This means that, before embarking on a reform that modifies the aesthetics of the community, we must find out whether the law allows us to do so. We will discuss this issue in more depth below.

Standards to be met when modifying the aesthetics of communal buildings

It is usual within a community of owners that the regulations concerning the modification of common aesthetic elements, whose objective is to create a state of visual uniformity for all the neighbouring buildings, already have rules established and approved in their own statutes.

Normally, all these regulations will have been agreed beforehand, taking advantage of the holding of a meeting of the community of owners. Thus, it will have been arranged that the façade and associated elements, such as windows and awnings, comply with a certain style and aesthetic arrangement.

If this is the case, the establishment of such internal rules will make it much easier for owners to carry out such installations, so that they can do so with the peace of mind of knowing that they will be approved by the rest of the neighbours.

What if there are no community aesthetic regulations?

However, we know that this is not always the case. These regulations will not always exist in writing or will not always be sufficiently outlined and detailed. This is when controversy can arise when deciding to carry out such a reform.

In order to meet this demand for modifications not contemplated in the community regulations, the law provides for different steps to be taken before carrying out the modification of the aesthetics of a common element.

What does the law say about this?

In order to avoid this type of situation, which can go from being merely unpleasant to being illegal and costly, and before deciding to carry out any modification or alteration that affects the aesthetics of the building, let us first turn to the Civil Code, which states that Article 396 quotes the following, clearly defining what is meant by common elements of a building:

"...the common elements of the building, which are all those necessary for its proper use and enjoyment, such as the ground, overhang, foundations, roofs; structural elements, including pillars, beams, slabs and load-bearing walls; the façades, with the external cladding of terraces, balconies and windows, including their image or configuration, the closing elements that make them up and their external cladding; the entrance, stairways, porches, corridors, passageways, walls, pits, courtyards, shafts and enclosures intended for lifts, deposits, meters, telephones or other common services or installations, even those which are for private use; lifts and installations, ducts and conduits for drainage and for the supply of water, gas or electricity, including those for the use of solar energy; those for domestic hot water, heating, air conditioning, ventilation or smoke evacuation; those for fire detection and prevention; electronic intercom and other building security systems, as well as collective aerials and other installations for audiovisual or telecommunication services, all up to the entrance to the private space; easements and any other material or legal elements which by their nature or purpose are indivisible...."

Civil Code art. 369

Having clarified this issue and which areas of the community are to be considered as common elements, let's see what we need to obtain the approval of the community to carry out the desired modifications.
According to the Horizontal Property Law, article 10.3 specifies that the approval of at least ⅗ part of the owners is necessary for the proposal of reform and modification of the common element to be considered valid.

In a nutshell

In short, what this article means is that, in order to carry out any alteration to the aesthetics of the building, in any of its elements considered to be communal common elements, it is necessary for the proposal to be made in advance at a meeting of owners, so that it can be approved or rejected depending on whether or not the quorum required by law is reached.

Therefore, once the necessary majority has been achieved, we will have the authorisation to proceed with the proposed reform. Of course, this action must always be within the framework of current legislation, so it is advisable to consult the relevant municipal, regional and state regulations beforehand, in order to avoid legal problems and to confirm that everything is being done in accordance with the law.