Gastos de comunidad
Building service charges
The building's shared running costs — whose bill they are is a contract term, not a rule.
Comunidad charges cover the shared parts of a building: stairwell cleaning, the lift, the porter, buildings insurance, sometimes heating or water. They are levied on the flat, and they are real money — often a meaningful fraction of the rent.
Who pays them in a tenancy is a matter of agreement, and a listing quoting a rent that excludes them is quoting a smaller number than the one you will pay. The same goes for the IBI property tax.
This is the most common reason a budget that worked on the portal does not work in the flat.
What to check in the contract
Find the clause allocating comunidad, IBI and utilities, and get the current monthly figure rather than an estimate. 'Around fifty euros' has a way of being eighty.
Read next
Don't sign what you can't read. Flat Spain decodes the contract type on every listing it shortlists, and the Full concierge includes a human contract review.
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