Cuota de Administración in Colombia: Budget and Imprevistos Fund

Every year, owners of a Colombian propiedad horizontal ask the same thing: how much will the cuota de administración go up, and who decided it? The short answer is that the asamblea decides, from a budget the administrador prepares. This guide follows Ley 675 de 2001. It is general information, not legal advice: your reglamento de propiedad horizontal may add rules, and the law was checked on 2 October 2026.

No percentage in the law

Ley 675 does not fix a yearly increase of the cuota or tie it to an index. What the law says is that the asamblea general has the function of approving the annual budget of income and expenses and "las cuotas para atender las expensas ordinarias o extraordinarias" (art. 38, numerals 2 and 4). So the figure you will see in a budget for the coming year is a decision of your own asamblea, not a national number. Be wary of any article that gives "the increase for 2026" as if it applied to every building.

Who does what

• Administrador: prepares and submits to the asamblea a detailed budget of expenses and income for the new year, including insurance premiums, together with the balance of the previous year (art. 51, numeral 1). Keeps the contabilidad of the building under their responsibility (art. 51, numeral 5).
• Consejo de administración (where one exists, art. 53): receives the annual accounts, the budget and its execution from the administrador for consideration before the asamblea (art. 51, numeral 4).
• Asamblea general: approves or rejects the financial statements and the budget, and approves the cuotas (art. 38).
• Revisor fiscal: mandatory in commercial or mixed conjuntos (art. 56); in residential ones, if the asamblea elects one. Check your reglamento for the exact duties.

The budget is normally on the agenda of the ordinary asamblea, which the administrador convenes with at least 15 calendar days' notice. See Asamblea de propiedad horizontal: convocatoria, plazos and quorum.

How each owner's cuota is worked out

The budget gives the total. Each owner pays their share by the coeficiente de copropiedad of their unit, "salvo cuando estas se determinen de acuerdo con los módulos de contribución" set in the reglamento (art. 25, numeral 3). The reglamento sets the coeficientes, calculated from the private built area of each unit over the total private area unless the law provides otherwise for specific cases (arts. 25 and 26). The obligation to pay applies even if the owner does not live in the unit or does not use a common service (art. 29, parágrafo 2).

Fondo de imprevistos

Art. 35 requires the persona jurídica to set up a fund for unforeseen obligations or expensas. In plain terms:

• It is formed with a surcharge of not less than 1% over the annual budget of common expenses, plus other income the asamblea decides.
• The asamblea may suspend collection when the available amount reaches 50% of the ordinary expenses budget of that year.
• The administrador can use the fund with the asamblea's approval where required and as the reglamento provides; the asamblea authorises any spending from it (art. 38, numeral 11).
• Extraordinary cuotas beyond that surcharge can be approved only when the fund is insufficient.
• The fund is optional in buildings of social-interest housing (VIS or VIP) with five units or fewer.

If you are preparing the budget, put the surcharge (not less than 1%) in as its own line and record the fund balance against the 50% limit.

Extraordinary cuotas

An extraordinary cuota whose total, in the budget year, goes above four times the monthly necessary expensas needs the qualified majority of 70% of the coeficientes (art. 46, numeral 2). Under the parágrafo of art. 46, that decision cannot be taken in a remote (non-presential) meeting, nor in a second-call meeting, "salvo que en este último caso se obtenga la mayoría exigida por esta ley" (unless, in the second-call case only, the majority the law requires is obtained). In residential buildings and conjuntos, the Constitutional Court (sentencias C-522 and C-738 of 2002) held that the coeficiente vote applies to decisions of economic content, like this one.

Late payment

Late payment of expensas accrues interest of one and a half times the interés bancario corriente certified by the financial superintendency, unless the asamblea, with the quorum the reglamento sets, decides a lower rate (art. 30). While the default lasts it may be published in the building, but only where there is no constant traffic of visitors, and the acta of the asamblea lists the owners in arrears. The convocatoria to the asamblea also lists them (art. 39, parágrafo 2). We do not give a percentage here because the certified rate changes.

Budget checklist

PRESUPUESTO ANUAL [año] — [NOMBRE DEL CONJUNTO]
1. Ingresos previstos: cuotas ordinarias (total por coeficientes), otros
2. Gastos de administración: nómina, vigilancia, aseo, servicios comunes
3. Mantenimiento y reparaciones previstos
4. Seguros (primas)
5. Honorarios: administrador, revisor fiscal
6. Fondo de imprevistos: recargo no inferior al 1 % sobre el presupuesto
   anual de gastos comunes; saldo disponible vs. 50 % del presupuesto ordinario
7. Cartera: valor en mora a la fecha y plan de recaudo
8. Cuota ordinaria por unidad (coeficiente o módulo de contribución)
9. Comparativo con el año anterior y ejecución presupuestal
Aprobación: asamblea [fecha], acta No. [__]

What Unitify does

• Billing of cuotas de administración by unit, with the cartera visible in one place; owners keep paying as they do today, for example through PSE as the Colombia page explains.
• Input for the budget: the free report tool turns a spreadsheet or accounting export you upload into a report of income, expenses and arrears. Unitify is not an accounting ledger: the contabilidad and the budget approved by the asamblea remain the administrador's work.
• Announcements and surveys to explain the proposal to owners before the asamblea. A survey in the app does not replace the asamblea's approval.

See Unitify in Colombia, billing of cuotas and software for propiedad horizontal: the cartera up to date.

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