Over the years we have acted for thousands of clients who own, or have owned, property in Spain. Timeshare contracts are our specialism, but the conversations we have with clients rarely stop there. A question that comes up again and again, usually once a case is settled, is a practical one: what should I actually have in place for the property itself?
We are lawyers, not insurance brokers, so this is not advice on which policy to buy. But there are a handful of recurring issues we see among foreign owners in Spain that are worth knowing about, because they tend to surface at the worst possible moment.
Properties that sit empty for most of the year
This is the most common gap we come across. A great many policies contain an unoccupancy clause, limiting or excluding cover once a property has been left empty beyond a stated period. Thirty or sixty consecutive days is typical, although it varies considerably between insurers.
For an owner who visits twice a year, that threshold is crossed for most of the calendar. Water damage from a burst pipe discovered three months later is precisely the kind of claim that gets contested on those grounds. If your property is used seasonally, it is worth confirming in writing how your insurer treats long periods of vacancy.
Assuming the community policy covers your apartment
Owners in a comunidad de propietarios often assume the community insurance covers them. It generally covers the building’s structure and communal areas: the roof, the stairwells, the lifts, the pool. It does not usually extend to the interior of your own unit, your contents, or your liability as an individual owner.
There is also the question of what happens when damage originates in one apartment and affects another, which is a frequent source of disputes between neighbours and between insurers. Knowing where the community policy stops and yours begins is worth establishing before you need to rely on it.
Policies written in Spanish that were never fully read
A policy bought through an agent at the point of purchase, in Spanish, is often filed away and never examined. The exclusions, the excess, the notification deadlines and the obligations following a loss are all in there. Spanish insurance contracts commonly impose short windows for reporting a claim, and missing one can be enough to have it rejected.
If you cannot read your own policy, you cannot know what you have bought. For owners who would rather deal with cover in their own language, there are English-speaking brokers operating across Spain who can compare policies and explain the terms before you commit. Insurance Spain is one such broker, working in English across home, contents, vehicle and health cover.
What changes after a timeshare claim
Clients who succeed in having a timeshare contract declared void sometimes assume their obligations end there. If you also own a separate property in Spain, nothing about that changes. Equally, if a resort has been maintaining cover on your behalf as part of a contract that no longer exists, it is worth checking what, if anything, remains in place.
This is one of the few situations where a legal outcome and an insurance position genuinely interact, and it is easy to overlook while attention is on the claim itself.
A note on renewals
Automatic renewal is standard practice in Spain, and premiums are often adjusted at renewal without much fanfare. Owners who set up a policy a decade ago and have not looked at it since are frequently paying for cover that no longer matches the property, its use, or its value. A review every few years is rarely wasted effort.
If in doubt
None of the above is complicated, but almost all of it is easier to deal with before something goes wrong rather than afterwards. If you are unsure where you stand on a Spanish property, read the policy you already have, establish what the community covers, and get the answers in a language you are comfortable with.
For questions relating to a timeshare contract, a Spanish court claim, or a resort dispute, our team remains available in English, German, Norwegian and Spanish. Those are the matters we handle, and we are always happy to hear from owners who are not sure whether they have a case.