Under Spain’s horizontal-property law, the owner of a unit may modify its architectural elements, installations and services as long as the building’s safety, structure and external configuration are not affected and other owners’ rights are respected, informing the community’s representative beforehand. Façades, structure and shared installations are outside that freedom and need the community’s agreement. Tenants need the landlord’s consent as well. Statutes and internal rules can add further conditions.
What is a comunidad de propietarios?
When a building is divided into separately owned units — flats, shops, parking spaces — Spanish law treats it as horizontal property. Each owner has their own unit plus a share in the common elements: structure, façade, roof, entrances, shared pipes and risers. The owners together form the comunidad de propietarios, which takes decisions at meetings and is represented by a president, often with a professional administrator.
A shop on the ground floor of a residential building is part of that community. Its owner votes and pays fees like any other. If you rent the shop, you are not a member, but the community’s rules still affect what you can do, and your landlord is the one who deals with the community.
What can you change inside your unit?
Article 7.1 of the horizontal-property law (Ley 49/1960) allows the owner of each flat or unit to modify its architectural elements, installations or services, provided this does not impair or alter the building’s safety, its general structure, or its external configuration or condition, and does not harm the rights of another owner. The owner must inform the community’s representative of the works beforehand. In the rest of the building, the owner may not make any alteration.
For most interior fit-outs — new partitions, ceilings, floors, toilets, finishes — that means informing the community and getting on with it, while respecting its rules on hours and shared spaces. Works that touch load-bearing elements are a different matter and need a technician from the start.
Which works usually need the community’s agreement?
The points where shop fit-outs most often meet resistance are:
- Façade and frontage: new openings, changes to glazing, colours or materials, awnings.
- Signage: size, position and lighting, especially when it affects the flats above.
- Extraction and air-conditioning outlets: ducts running up the building or units on the façade or roof.
- Structure: openings in load-bearing walls or slabs.
- Shared installations: connections to drainage stacks, risers or supplies that serve the building.
The community’s statutes may also restrict certain uses or require authorisation for specific works. A lawyer or the administrator can tell you what yours say. Your technician should factor this in before the project is fixed.
How should the works be organised in a residential building?
Respect is practical as well as polite. Neighbours who are informed and see a tidy site are far less likely to complain. On a commercial job in a residential building we:
- make sure the community’s representative has been informed before starting, through you or your landlord;
- keep to the hours agreed with the community and any local rules;
- protect shared areas used for access, and clean them as we go;
- plan debris removal and deliveries to minimise disruption at the entrance;
- keep noisy tasks grouped rather than scattered across the day.
Where the unit has its own street access, much of this becomes easier, which is one reason ground-floor shops are often simpler to work on than offices on upper floors.
What about the landlord?
If you rent, the lease governs what you can do inside the unit and what you must leave at the end. Most commercial leases require the landlord’s written consent for works, especially anything structural or affecting the frontage. The landlord’s consent does not replace the community’s or the town hall’s, and vice versa — you may need all three.
It is worth agreeing in writing, before signing, what works you intend to do, so the lease reflects them. The article on questions before renting a shop lists this among the essentials.
What happens if the community objects after the works start?
The best answer is to avoid the situation: inform early, get agreements in writing where they are needed, and keep the works within the declared scope. If an objection does arise, it is usually about noise, dust, hours or something visible from outside. Many objections can be resolved by adjusting working hours or protection. If the objection concerns something that needed the community’s agreement and did not have it, the matter becomes legal and should go to your lawyer.
As contractor, we stop any work that is disputed until you confirm how to proceed. We do not take sides in community disputes.
Which obligations does the owner of a unit have towards the building?
Freedom inside the unit comes with duties. The same law requires each owner to respect the building’s general installations and other common elements, use them properly and avoid damaging them, and to keep their own unit and its private installations in good condition so as not to harm the community or other owners. Damage caused by negligence — the owner’s or that of people for whom they are responsible — has to be put right.
For a fit-out, that translates into practical habits: protecting the entrance and lift if they are used, not overloading shared drainage with debris or building waste, sealing off dust, and reporting immediately anything found during the works that affects shared elements, such as a damaged stack or a crack in a structural element. If the works reveal the need for an urgent repair in a common element, the administrator must be told without delay.
Where does this fit with the town hall?
The community and the town hall are separate. A community vote does not grant planning permission, and a town hall licence does not oblige the community to accept changes to shared elements. Your technician coordinates both sides. For the town hall framework, read our licences guide; for the building work, see shop refurbishment and restaurant and bar fit-out, where extraction outlets make the community question especially important.
Official sources
Bauman Raymond Attila · Reforma Locales Málaga · Avenida Antonio Belón 3, Marbella. Last reviewed: 05/11/2026.
