Water, Community Fees, and Other Utilities for Non-Resident Owners

Water Supply in Mallorca

Water supply in Mallorca is a municipal service — each municipality has its own supplier or contract with a management company. The main operators across Mallorca include EMAYA (Palma), SOREA (Calvià, among others), and direct municipal services in smaller towns.

Setting up a water contract:

1. Contact the local water company for your property's municipality — your gestoría or property manager can identify the correct one
2. Provide: NIE, passport, Spanish bank IBAN, and property details (catastral reference and address)
3. The contract is established in the owner's name; if the property has had no supply or been disconnected, a physical connection or meter reconnection may be required (arrange through the local water authority)

How billing works:

Water bills are typically issued quarterly. They consist of:

• A fixed standing charge (cuota de servicio or parte fija): payable even if you use no water. This covers maintenance and availability of the service. For a standard residential property, typically €15–€40 per quarter depending on the municipality
• A consumption charge (parte variable): tiered by volume, with higher rates for greater consumption. Mallorca has tiered pricing designed to reflect water scarcity — the island has limited freshwater resources and desalination supplements aquifer supplies
• Tax and other levies: some municipalities add a sewage service charge (canon de saneamiento) and VAT

For a second home that is empty for much of the year, the standing charge means you will pay for water even in months of zero consumption. There is generally no mechanism to "pause" the water contract for absence — unlike some electricity contracts.

Community of Owners (Comunidad de Propietarios)

If your property is in an apartment building, urbanisation, or any development with shared areas — gardens, pool, lifts, communal hallways, rooftop terraces — it is almost certainly part of a comunidad de propietarios (community of owners). This is a mandatory legal structure under the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal (LPH) (Horizontal Property Act, Law 49/1960 and its amendments).

Every property within the community automatically belongs to it. Membership is not optional.

What community fees cover:

• Maintenance of shared spaces (gardens, pool, lifts, common areas)
• Building insurance for the structure
• Administrator fees (administrador de fincas) — the professional who manages the community's accounts and legal obligations
• Utilities for common areas (electricity for hallways, pool pump, exterior lights)
• Reserves for future major repairs (fondo de reserva — legally required to be at least 10% of the last year's budget)
• Any voted special assessments for major works (facade renovation, lift replacement, roof repairs)

How fees are set:

The community's annual budget is approved at the Annual General Meeting (Junta General Ordinaria) by a majority vote of owners. Each owner's share is proportional to their coeficiente de participación — a percentage set in the building's title deed (escritura de división horizontal) based on the size and value of their property relative to the whole.

What Happens If You Don't Pay Community Fees

Non-payment of community fees in Spain is treated seriously under the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal. The community has strong legal tools:

• Formal debt demand: the administrator sends a certified letter demanding payment
• Exclusion from voting: owners in arrears typically lose their voting rights at community meetings (they may still attend)
• Legal proceedings: the community can initiate a fast-track judicial debt collection procedure (procedimiento monitorio). Courts routinely issue payment orders within weeks
• Charge over the property: unpaid community fees can become a registered charge on the property — visible on the nota simple. This debt passes to any new owner on sale
• Embargo: in extreme cases, the property can be subject to attachment proceedings

Community debts are therefore not something to ignore or let accumulate.

Attending and Voting at Community Meetings Remotely

Non-resident owners who cannot attend community meetings in person have two practical options:

Proxy vote: Spanish law (LPH Article 15) allows any owner to grant proxy to another person — including another owner, a lawyer, or a property manager — to vote on their behalf. A simple letter designating the proxy is sufficient; it does not need to be notarised.

Participating remotely: some communities now hold meetings partly by video conference or allow pre-meeting electronic votes on specific resolutions. This is not universally implemented and depends on the community's rules and the administrator's systems.

If major decisions are upcoming — significant special assessments, changes to community rules, key appointments — ensure you have given a proxy or have your property manager attend on your behalf. Abstention by absent owners often allows decisions to pass that you might have opposed.

Other Utilities: Rubbish, Telephone, and Internet

Basura (rubbish / waste collection): in most Mallorcan municipalities this is charged as a separate annual or semi-annual municipal levy (tasa de residuos), billed with or separately from IBI. It is not negotiable and is typically €60–€200 per year for a residential property.

Telephone and internet: the main providers in Mallorca are Movistar (Telefónica), Vodafone, Orange, and Finetwork/Lowi. Fibre broadband is widely available in urban and tourist areas; rural properties may have only ADSL or fixed wireless options. For a second home, a contract with low or no minimum-use penalty is preferable to a two-year commitment.