ES🧉 Neighborly guide
Glossary: the strange words on your expensas statement, translated
Your statement looks like it’s written in another language. Here are the words that show up most, explained the way you’d explain them to a neighbor.
STRAIGHT ANSWER
If a term on your statement isn’t here, the building manager is required to explain it to you: accountability means reporting in a way owners can actually audit.
- Building management (administración)
- The person or company that runs the building: collects the expensas, pays salaries and utilities, hires maintenance, and renders accounts. It is appointed — and can be removed — by the owners’ assembly.
- Owners’ assembly (asamblea)
- The meeting of owners where the building’s decisions are made: approving special assessments, removing the manager, amending the bylaws. It is the building’s highest governing body.
- The employer contributions the building pays on staff salaries (pensions, health insurance, workers’ comp, etc.). They usually make up a large share of the payroll line.
- Assessment rate (coeficiente / porcentual)
- Each unit’s percentage share in splitting expenses, set in the co-ownership bylaws (usually by floor area). It determines how much each unit pays.
- Owners’ consortium (consorcio)
- All the owners of a building under the horizontal property regime. It collects the expensas and pays the common expenses.
- Owners’ council (consejo de propietarios)
- A group of neighbors elected at the assembly who oversee the manager and can make minor decisions between assemblies, as the bylaws allow.
- Special assessment installment (cuota extraordinaria)
- Each monthly payment in which the assembly splits a special assessment when the project is too big to pay all at once.
- Building superintendent (encargado)
- The building’s staff worker (doorman): cleaning common areas, front desk, minor maintenance. Their salary plus payroll taxes is usually the biggest line on the statement.
- Special expensas (expensas extraordinarias)
- One-off expenses for major works or improvements (renovating the elevator, waterproofing the roof). They are approved at the assembly and paid by the owner.
- Ordinary expensas (expensas ordinarias)
- The regular monthly costs of keeping the building running: salaries, utilities, cleaning, maintenance, management fees. They are paid by whoever lives in the unit.
- Reserve fund (fondo de reserva)
- A portion of what’s collected that’s set aside for surprises or big repairs. It’s not money down the drain: it’s the building’s cushion.
- Operating fund (fondo operativo)
- The cash available for the month’s current expenses. If the operating fund drops, the building is eating into its reserves.
- Management fees (honorarios)
- What the manager charges for running the building. It appears as one more line on the statement.
- Late-payment interest (intereses punitorios)
- The interest charged to whoever pays expensas after the due date. The bylaws set the rate.
- Statement (liquidación)
- The monthly document the manager presents with the building’s income, expenses, and balance, plus what each unit owes.
- Apportionment (prorrateo)
- Splitting an expense among units according to their assessment rates. It’s the math that determines what each one pays.
- Horizontal property (propiedad horizontal)
- The legal regime of buildings divided into units (apartments, parking spaces) plus common areas (lobby, hallways, roof). It is governed by the Código Civil y Comercial (Civil and Commercial Code).
- Co-ownership bylaws (reglamento de copropiedad)
- The document setting the building’s rules: each unit’s rates, voting majorities, the manager’s duties. It’s the building’s ‘constitution’.
- Second due date (segundo vencimiento)
- The second payment date shown on the statement: if you miss the first due date, you can pay on the second, usually with a surcharge.
- Unit (unidad funcional)
- Each individually owned space in the building: an apartment, a parking space, a storage unit. Each has its own rate.