FAQ's about the garage and your personal parking space
We explain you the essentials about garage and parking space. Here you can contact us so that our Property Administrators and Lawyers listen to you and, look for a personalized solution.
1. What kind of spaces are garage and parking space?
The garage is a common space, that is to say, the owners and neighbors can pass through it. While a parking space is a private element, that is thought for the exclusive use of the owner. In both spaces you must consent to the appropriate repairs.
2. What is the purpose of the garage and parking space?
They are used to: park owners' vehicles of the community. Your parking space is to place your vehicles within the limits of the community exclusively inside your private element.
They are not used for: being dirty, get drunk, harassing someone, incurring in discriminatory behavior (such as prohibiting another owner from entering the garage because of their skin colour), practicing vandalism or for not paying debts to the community.
3. I'm overloaded: boxes from my move that I want to keep, suitcases or skis. Can I use my space as a storage room?
Not at all, as we explained last March, the storage room is totally independent and the owners' association board must authorise you to build it.
4. My parking space is big enough to park a car and a motorbike, is there any inconvenience in that?
It depends on whether it is explicitly forbidden in the statutes or not. If it is, the community will stop you. Don't forget to check that the insurance covers two vehicles (too often insurances are only for one vehicle per parking space).
Do I have to have the permission of the president of the community to put a clamp on my bicycle? and Do I have to park a bicycle in my garage?
Only the person presiding the owners' community can authorise this in the event that the bike lock is placed outside the limits of your parking space, thus hindering or preventing traffic. Even if the lock and the bicycle are very different objects, the answer is the same.
6. My car has been damaged while parked or in transit inside the community garage. What can I do about it to be compensated?
To avoid unpleasant surprises, the owners' association must have an insurance policy taken out for the communal garage that will cover any damage that occurs inside the garage. At Feliu we always recommend that, even if this is the case, the contract is studied in a meeting to ensure that there are no misunderstandings of any kind.
7. I have decided to invest in a parking space located in an owner's community where I do not reside. Do I have any obligations towards the other owners?
There are two different scenarios:
7.1. That the garage and the properties are part of the same owners' association: then you must pay the expenses derived from, for example, the access lift.
7.2. That the garage forms part of an independent owners' association: then you do not have to pay any fees for the entire property, but only for the garage.
8. Can I place a camera recording my parking space at my own risk?
No, you need to have a board agreement approved. The Spanish Data Protection Agency warns: "recording images of identified or identifiable persons for video surveillance purposes using cameras is considered a processing of personal data".
The Agency determines how to regularize such "data processing": "(...) to register a file in the General Data Protection Register indicating that its purpose is video surveillance".
By the way, for the data processing general Feliu has everything according to the law since 2018.
9. Can the community force me to put fire extinguishers inside my parkingspace?
No, fire extinguishers are always in a transit area to be easily accessible. However, on your own initiative, you can put a fire extinguisher in your parking space. In fact in Feliu we recommend it since garages and kitchens are the areas with more fires.
What does the Technical Building Code say about it? "In car parks with a capacity greater than 5 vehicles, there shall be a fire extinguisher at least every 15 metres (...) or, fire extinguishers of the same effectiveness distributed at a rate of one for every 20 parking spaces."
Feliu works for your peace of mind.