THE PARTICIPATION SHARE IN HORIZONTAL PROPERTY: ESTABLISHING AND ALTERING IT

Abstract

The participation share expresses the proportional value that each flat or the premises have in relation to the value of the entire property, and the aim is for it to serve to correctly and fairly determine the exercising of the rights and fulfilment of the obligations and encumbrances that arise from the horizontal property regime. The share must be expressed in hundredths and set taking into account the governing criteria that are established in article 5 of the Horizontal Property Act, which are not fixed or exclusive, so others can be taken into account, especially those that adhere to the principle of equality-proportionality, which enables one to consider the function that the share fulfils as an element to be weighed up constitution of the so-called majority of interests or shares needed for the approval of the homeowners association agreements. The principle of the invariability of the participation shares means that once they have been set they cannot be altered, unless certain circumstances come together that authorise their modification. However, modification of the shares requires the separate consent of all the owners, because it constitutes an act of disposal of assets that affects the essential content of every owner's property rights. However, when the shares have been set without complying with the criteria stipulated in article 5 of the Horizontal Property Act, and have been established erroneously, arbitrarily or in a manifestly unfair way, they may be rectified either by a legal ruling or by an arbitration award.