The water reaches the flat below. Does the community pay, or do you?
It is the question we are asked most often in a complex, and it is almost never answered before the claim. Allianz Comunidades insures the building and the common areas; each owner's own policy deals with everything from the front door inwards. We draw that line in writing, and if it helps we come to the junta and explain it there.
- Escape of water and the public liability that follows from it
- Liability of the committee, the cover almost nobody looks at
- Legal advice, clearing blocked communal pipes and pest control in the common areas
Who this is for
Four situations. If one of them sounds like you, ten minutes of conversation are worth it.
- You are president this year and the building insurance has landed on your desk
- You manage complexes in the south and want an insurer who answers the phone here
- Your complex has owners from four countries and the junta is held in Spanish
- The policy is fifteen years old, nobody knows what is in it, and renewal is close
The ordinary community here is not a block of twelve flats. It is a complex of sixty or two hundred apartments in Costa Adeje, Fañabé or Torviscas, with half the owners living off the island, a president who changes every year, and a policy inherited from whoever was president in 2009. On the day something happens, the person who ought to be standing there is not on the island. That is exactly the work we do from the office in Adeje.
What it covers
The product is called Allianz Comunidades and comes in two levels: Estándar and Personalizada. These are the cover items Allianz publishes on its own website:
- Material damage to the building and the common areas
- Escape of water and the public liability that follows from it
- Broken glass in the common areas
- Machinery breakdown and failure of electronic equipment — pumps, motors, entry phones, cameras
- Recovery of unpaid community fees
- Liability of the committee (junta directiva)
- Damp penetrating through walls
And these services, which a complex uses more often than you would expect:
- Legal advice by telephone and defence of the community's rights
- Clearing blocked communal pipes, included
- Pest control in the internal common areas, up to twice a year
- Inspection services for the building, for energy efficiency and for accessibility
What is already in the Estándar and what has to be added in the Personalizada depends on the building and on the sums insured. Ask us for the proposal in writing before the junta: then the owners vote on a piece of paper instead of on an explanation from memory.
Extraordinary risks — a volcanic eruption, an extraordinary flood — are covered by the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros, included in every policy. Which is exactly why the next point matters: the sum insured on the building.
Where the community ends and your flat begins
In a complex there are always two policies in play, and most of the arguments come from not knowing which one applies.
- The community's policy answers for the structure, the facade, the roof, the stairwells, the lift, the garage, the pool, the gardens and the general pipework.
- Yours deals with your own flat: from the front door inwards, the contents and your own liability. That is the home policy, and every owner needs one separately.
The case we see most often is a leak that reaches the flat below. If it comes from a flat, that flat's liability cover is involved. If it comes from a general downpipe or from the roof, the community's is. Very often nobody knows until somebody actually looks.
And there is a case in which both policies touch the same damage. The law calls it concurrencia de seguros — double insurance — and sets it out in article 32 of the Ley 50/1980, the Insurance Contract Act: each insurer has to be told that the other exists, and between them they share the settlement in proportion, never beyond the actual loss. In practice that means two things. You are not paid twice, and you do not have to decide who to call first.
Call us and we will sort out the order. It is the work nobody sees, and it decides whether a claim between neighbours is settled in three weeks or in three months.
The sum insured on the building, and why it has to be checked
A building is not insured for what it would sell for, nor for what the catastro says, but for what it would cost to rebuild it. Those are three different figures and they get mixed up often.
If the building is insured for less than it costs to rebuild, the settlement is reduced in the same proportion. It is called underinsurance and it is in the same law, article 30. It is not one company's small print: it is the general rule of any damage policy.
In the south of Tenerife this weighs more heavily than elsewhere. A good part of the complexes date from the seventies and eighties, and there are policies where the sum has not been touched in twenty years. Building today does not cost what it cost then. It is the cheapest review a community can carry out: an afternoon's work and one figure that is right.
You do not have to guess at it. Bring us the built area, the number of dwellings and the current policy, and we will go through it with you.
What this is not
We would rather say it here than after something has happened.
- It is not each owner's home policy. The community policy does not replace anybody's own policy, and the other way round it does not either.
- It does not pay for derramas or improvement works. Insurance repairs damage; it does not renew a building that has grown old.
- The unpaid-fees cover is a recovery process, not an advance of the community's money. Exactly what it covers and up to what limit is in the policy; we show you before you sign.
- It is not insurance for the community's staff. The caretaker, the gardener or the cleaning firm go down a different route. Tell us whether you employ anybody and we will look at that separately.
- It does not replace the lift maintenance contract, nor the inspections the authorities ask of you. That stays with you.
- It is not advice on the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal. The statutes and the minutes are read by your administrador or your lawyer. We do insurance.
Is it compulsory?
We are asked this at every junta, so here is the honest answer: no, except in two regions.
- Allianz puts it this way on its own website: community insurance is not compulsory nationally. The Ley de Propiedad Horizontal does not require it.
- It is compulsory in the Region of Madrid (article 24 of Law 2/1999 on building quality measures) and in the Comunidad Valenciana (article 30 of Law 8/2004), where buildings must be insured against fire and damage to third parties.
- For the Canary Islands we know of no regional rule that imposes it. If there is one and you show it to us, we will name it here.
What does happen often is something else: the community's own statutes, or a resolution of the junta, require it. Then it is compulsory for you even though the law does not demand it. That reading belongs to your administrador, not to us.
And one reason that depends on no law at all: without a policy, damage to the common areas is paid by derrama — by everybody, at the worst possible moment. That is the only argument we have ever seen actually convince a junta.
How it works
- Call us, write on WhatsApp or come into the office. Bring the current policy, the built area, the number of dwellings and, if the junta has already discussed it, the minutes.
- We work out the price and give you the proposal in writing, dated. That way it can be taken to the junta and voted on from a piece of paper. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
- If the junta says yes, it is signed with the president and passed to the administrador. And you are left with a local phone number for the day you need one.
If you want, we will come to the junta and explain it there — in Spanish, German or English. We do not charge for coming, and an owner who has understood what they are voting on does not ask again in October.
Why with us
- Office in San Eugenio Alto, Adeje, a few minutes from most of the complexes in Costa Adeje. Monday to Thursday, 10:00–17:00.
- We work in Spanish, German and English. In a complex in the south that is not a detail: half the community does not live here, votes by proxy, and only half understands the minutes.
- We are an exclusive Allianz agency. You handle the claim with us, not with a distant phone number and not with an inbox.
- 4.8 out of 5 on Google, from 52 customer reviews (September 2026). See the reviews (opens in a new window)
Frequently asked questions
Who signs the policy, the president or the administrador?
The policyholder is the community itself. Normally the president signs, with the resolution of the junta behind it, and the administrador handles the paperwork. If the administrador would rather run it, that suits us too — tell us at the start so we do not send the documents twice.
The neighbour upstairs has flooded my bathroom. Who do I call?
Us. If the water comes from their flat, their liability cover is involved; if it comes from a general downpipe or from the roof, the community's is. Often nobody knows until somebody has looked. What helps most on the day: photographs of everything, and do not throw anything away before the loss adjuster has seen it.
Are the pool, the lift and the garage included?
They are common areas, so they are insured through the community policy. Which cover applies to them and up to what limit is in the policy. Tell us what you have — pool, lift, solar panels, garage, sports areas, storerooms — so that it is stated from day one. The lift maintenance contract runs separately: no insurance replaces it.
Some apartments in the complex are let to holidaymakers. Does that change anything?
For the community policy what changes is the traffic: more people coming and going who do not know the building. Tell us, so that it is stated. And every owner who lets needs their own policy to allow for that use as well — the community policy does not cover it.
We already have insurance with another company.
Bring us the policy you have. We will read it and tell you in writing what is covered, what is not and with what limits. We are an exclusive Allianz agency: what we can offer you is an Allianz policy, not a market comparison. If you are better off with what you already have, we will tell you that too.
When can we change?
Community policies usually run for a year, and there are notice periods before renewal which are set out in your own policy. Bring it to us in good time: a month before renewal it is done calmly, the week before it is a race.
We are a small community, six flats. Does this still apply?
It does. Size changes the price, not the logic: there is still a roof, a facade, general pipework and a committee that answers for things. In a small community a derrama for a large loss hurts more, not less.
Guidance only. The cover, the limits and the exclusions are those of the Allianz policy and the nota informativa. We name the rules so that you can check them yourself; this is not legal advice and not an interpretation of the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal.