Expensas Ordinarias vs Extraordinarias: Who Pays

Short answer. Ordinary expensas pay for running and maintaining the building month to month; extraordinary expensas are the ones the asamblea resolves separately. Toward the consorcio the owner owes them, and each unidad funcional pays the share fixed in the reglamento de propiedad horizontal. This guide summarises Argentina's Código Civil y Comercial (arts. 2037 to 2072), which applies nationwide. It is not legal advice, and your building's reglamento governs the details.

What expensas comunes are

The consorcio is the legal person formed by all the owners of the unidades funcionales (art. 2044). To pay for what the building needs, the Code speaks of expensas comunes and splits them into two kinds (art. 2048).

Expensas ordinarias

These are the costs of administration and of repairing or replacing the common parts and the consorcio's property, needed to keep the building safe, comfortable and decent. They also include whatever follows from the duties that the law, the reglamento or the asamblea impose on the administrador. The Code expressly adds the installations needed for access and movement of people with disabilities and the alternative evacuation routes.

In practice these are the lines that appear every month on the liquidación: the cost of maintaining and administering what is shared. The Code gives no list of items.

Expensas extraordinarias

These are the ones ordered by a resolution of the asamblea (art. 2048). Ordinary expensas, by contrast, are the costs of administration and of maintaining, repairing or replacing the common parts, and those that follow from the duties the law, the reglamento or the asamblea impose on the administrador. The Code gives no list of examples or amount that separates one from the other. The minutes should say clearly what was approved, for what and how it is shared.

Who pays: owner and tenant

• Toward the consorcio, the owner. The owner must pay the ordinary and extraordinary common expensas (arts. 2046 and 2048) and contribute to the fondo de reserva if there is one.
• The owner cannot get out of it by giving up the common services, or by selling or abandoning the unit: art. 2049 says no expensa can be avoided, not even those accrued before the owner acquired the unit.
• Anyone who is a possessor (poseedor) of the unit under any title also answers (art. 2050). The Code makes possessors liable too, in addition to the owner and without releasing the owner; it speaks of possessors, not tenants.
• Between owner and tenant, the split depends on the lease contract and the lease rules in force. Read your contract, and do not assume that ordinary goes one way and extraordinary the other.

How each unit's share is calculated

The reglamento de propiedad horizontal must fix each unit's proportion in paying the common expensas (art. 2056, item g), and each unit's undivided share (item f). With that proportion the administrador splits the period's cost:

Common cost for the period × unidad funcional's proportion = the unit's expensa

The reglamento can partly exempt units that have no access to certain services or areas that generate the cost (art. 2049); what applies in your building is in your reglamento. The administrador must draw up the expensas account (practicar la cuenta de expensas) and collect the funds (art. 2067, item d).

What to check on your liquidación

1. Ordinary and extraordinary expensas are on separate lines (in the City of Buenos Aires Ley 941 art. 10(j) requires it), and each extraordinary one points to the asamblea decision behind it.
2. The proportion applied is your unidad funcional's, per the reglamento.
3. The fondo de reserva, if any, appears separately. To use it for unforeseen costs larger than ordinary ones, the administrador needs the consejo de propietarios' prior authorisation (art. 2067, item d).
4. The detail answers "what changed this month". What a liquidación must include (the City of Buenos Aires has a statutory list) is covered in this guide.

If there is a debt, the certificado de deuda issued by the administrador and approved by the consejo de propietarios, if there is one, is an executive title for collecting expensas (art. 2048). Any interested party can also ask the administrador for the consorcio's certificate of debts and credits, which must be issued within three business days (art. 2067, item l).

How Unitify handles it

Unitify does not replace the reglamento, the asamblea or the books the administrador must keep. It organizes the billing:

• Billing per unidad funcional. Each unit has its own charges, with ordinary and extraordinary lines kept separate, so every owner sees where the amount comes from.
• Excel export. The period's charges and receipts are exported to Excel for the accountant. It is not a ledger. In the City of Buenos Aires, the art. 10 items of Ley 941 (staff, insurance, contractors, lawsuits, bank statement summary) are still prepared by the administrador.
• Resident app. Notices for each liquidación and each unit's payment status are visible to the resident and to the administration.

See the Argentina page, how automatic liquidación de expensas works, the resident app and pricing. To see how this would work across your consorcios, book a demo.

If you administer in Ecuador, where expensas are split by alícuota, see the Ecuador page.