Libro Segundo · Título II · Capítulo III Párrafo III. De la propiedad horizontal

The different floors, apartments and rooms of the same building of more than one story, susceptible of independent use, may belong to different owners, separately or in co-ownership, provided that they have an exit to the public thoroughfare or to a specific common space leading to said thoroughfare.

The horizontally divided property regime may originate:

a)When the owner or the co-owners of a building decide to submit it to this regime to effect any juridical transaction with all or part of its different floors, once they have been registered in the Property Register as independent estates;

b)When one or more persons build a building for the same purpose; and

c)When in a disposition of last will the heirs or some of them are instituted as legatees of floors of the same building susceptible of horizontal property.

Every immovable property, in order to be organized under the horizontal property regime, must be free of encumbrances, limitations, annotations or claims of any nature. Otherwise, the persons in whose favor such encumbrances, limitations or claims appear registered must give their express consent.

The horizontal property regime must be constituted by public deed, which must be registered in the Immovable Property Register.

The constitutive deed must contain the following requirements:

1°.Declaration by the owner or owners submitting the immovable property owned by them to this regime;

2°.Location, measurements and boundaries of the land, as well as a complete description of the building and mention of its water, electricity and any other services it enjoys;

3°.Description of each floor with the data necessary for its identification;

4°.The value of the immovable property and that of each floor;

5°.Description of the common elements and parts of the building and of the common elements and parts limited to the independent units; and

6°.Any other information the grantors deem advisable.

By floor is meant the set of apartments and rooms built on the same horizontal plane, in a building of several stories; by apartment the construction occupying part of a floor, and by room the space constituted by a single room.

Each titleholder is the exclusive owner of his unit and co-owner of the common elements and parts of the entire building.

The common elements are, in addition to the land, those things necessary for the safety, maintenance and general services for the use and enjoyment of the whole immovable property and of each floor.

The common elements and parts shall be maintained in forced indivision while the horizontal property regime lasts, any agreement to the contrary being void.

Each floor, apartment or room may be transferred or encumbered independently of the entire building of which it forms part. The owner has the right to use, enjoy and dispose of it with the limitations established by the laws, constitutive deed of the regime and co-ownership and administration regulations.

Each owner of a floor, apartment, or room must refrain from devoting their property to uses contrary to morals and good customs, using it for purposes other than those agreed in the constitutive deed, performing acts that disturb the tranquility of the other owners or occupants, or carrying out acts that compromise the safety, soundness, and salubrity of the building, as well as engaging in omissions that produce the same results.

If the owner of a floor, apartment or room seriously fails to comply with the obligations determined in the preceding article, the owners may resort to the judge so that, the facts having been proven, he declares the exclusion of the defendant from personal enjoyment of the unit and holds him liable for the damage and losses caused to the owners or occupants of the other apartments.

The violations referred to in the preceding articles committed by tenants or occupants are grounds for eviction; and the action may be exercised by the administrator as legal representative of the owners.

The owner of the last floor, apartment or room situated on the highest story may not raise the level of said story without the unanimous consent of the other owners and the respective municipal authorization. Without complying with these same requirements, the owner of the ground floor or of the subsoil, or of an apartment or room situated therein, may not make basements or excavations of any kind.

Alterations to the entire building, intended for the improvement thereof or for the more convenient use of the common elements, as well as modifications that alter its structure, must be agreed upon by all the owners, and when they particularly affect any floor, the consent of its owner is indispensable.

When the building or its common elements require urgent or necessary repair works for its safety or preservation, any floor owner, in the absence of the administrator, may carry them out at his expense and is entitled to claim against the others for the proportional payment of the expenses incurred, upon presentation of the respective receipts.

The assessment of the urgency or necessity of the works and their cost corresponds to the majority of the owners or, in default thereof, to the competent judge, when requested by any of them, if there is no agreement.

Each owner may carry out all kinds of works and repairs in his floor, provided that he does not damage the structure or essential parts of the building, impairing its safety, soundness or salubrity.

In the event that any interested party considers that the works or repairs prejudice the building or limit the free use and enjoyment of other units thereof, he may resort to the judge by exercising the appropriate actions.

Each owner must contribute to the common expenses of administration, maintenance, repair, payment of general services and insurance premiums on the entire building; as well as to the payment of the taxes corresponding thereto, without prejudice to covering at his own expense the taxes on his individual property.

The obligation of the owners to pay common expenses is transmitted to the successor in interest, the latter being liable jointly and severally with the transferor for outstanding debts incurred before the alienation.

Buildings subject to the horizontal property regime shall be administered by the person designated by the majority of owners.

The administrator shall exercise his office subject to the provisions that the co-ownership and administration regulation must contain.

The administrator is the legal representative of the owners in all common judicial or extrajudicial matters related to the building, whether brought in their name or against them.

The administrator shall have the general powers that the law grants to every mandatary, and those requiring a special clause that are conferred upon him by the co-ownership and administration regulations, or in a provision adopted by the owners with the favorable vote of the majority.

Matters of common interest that are not comprised within the powers conferred upon the administrator, as well as those corresponding to the administrator but which the owners deem advisable to consider personally, shall be resolved by the majority of the owners themselves.

The assembly of owners must annually consider the administrator's report and the account that the administrator must render. It shall approve the budget of expenses for the following year and shall determine the manner in which the funds necessary to cover it must be raised.

The provisions legally adopted by the assembly bind all owners.

The entire building must be insured against the risks it may suffer, as determined in the constitutive deed, without prejudice to the individual insurance to which the holders are likewise obligated or which the majority of owners may agree upon.

In case of a disaster that destroys the building, the insurance compensation shall be delivered to the administrator, upon prior bonding of his liability, so that he shall first pay the encumbrances if any exist and, thereafter, the repair or reconstruction of the building.

If the compensation is insufficient to cover the reconstruction expenses, the additional cost must be paid by the titleholders harmed by the casualty, in proportion to the value of their property, except as the affected owners may provide in each case.

The horizontal property regime may be extinguished by express decision of the owners of the individual units of the building, adopted with the vote of two-thirds of all owners. However, the minority disagreeing with this determination may acquire the individual units of those who have voted for the extinction of the regime, for the purpose of maintaining it.

Extinction may not be granted except where all the individual units of the immovable are free of encumbrance and annotation or, otherwise, the interested parties give their consent.

The owners of the individual units of the building, upon extinguishment of the regime, shall remain as owners in common of the land, of the construction, or of the usable materials, as applicable.

The owners must record the cancellation of the horizontal property regime of an immovable in a public deed that must be registered in the Property Register. The subsidiary estates shall be merged into the parent estate, in which the respective registrations shall be made in favor of the co-owners and the encumbrances and annotations burdening the cancelled estates, where applicable.

For the regulation of the reciprocal relations of neighborhood and condominium, as well as matters concerning the administration and attention of the common services, the grantors of the regime shall approve and include in the constitutive deed the Regulation of Co-ownership and Administration and determine therein the forms of majority for cases of approval of the acts and transactions requiring the vote of the owners.

The Regulation may be modified in the same form and new acquirers, tenants and occupants shall be subject to its provisions.