Common expenses for a penthouse in Crespo: where the charge comes from

Common expenses are not negotiated with the seller: a registered document sets them and an ownership share already written down divides them. What the buyer decides is whether to read that before signing or to discover it with the first bill.

For a penthouse the base of the monthly charge can come from different places, and that is where the differences start. Where the property is under propiedad horizontal —the Colombian condominium regime— the reglamento, recorded in a public deed and registered, assigns each unit its coeficiente de copropiedad, the ownership share, and that share divides the expensas comunes and the weight of the vote at the asamblea. Where there is no propiedad horizontal there may be a neighbours' association or a subdivision covenant charging on another base, and it is worth knowing which document it charges under. On top of the ordinary charge come the levies the asamblea approves and, separately, the impuesto predial and betterment levies collected by the District, which are not common expenses at all. And one debt matters more than the charge itself: the seller's, because unpaid expensas are pursued against the property rather than against whoever left.

A penthouse is bought differently because what you acquire is attached to the building's edge. The top unit enjoys, for itself alone, elements it does not own: the roof slab that closes it, the façade that wraps it and, very often, the space holding the tower's water tanks, pressure equipment and antennas. That asymmetry is the whole point. What you enjoy alone you do not control alone: enclosing the terrace, adding a pool or changing the window frames is not interior remodelling but work on bien común, common property, and the body that authorizes it is the asamblea under whatever majority the reglamento demands, not the owner. At the same time the coeficiente de copropiedad —the unit's ownership share— is usually the highest in the tower, so the unit carries the largest fraction of every building expense, including the ones that originate directly above it. Conservation differs as well: sun, salt air and water damage concentrate on the roof slab and the upper façade. So the useful question before signing is not how the apartment looks inside, but how the copropiedad has been handling waterproofing and what it has resolved about it.

Here the file is complicated by a neighbor nobody negotiates with: the air terminal. The neighborhood sits under the approach path, so a building project is not reviewed only by the curaduría urbana, the private office that grants permits, but also by the civil aviation authority, which sets the obstacle limitation surfaces, and by the operator running the airport under concession. That reorders the procedure: before buying with any plan to add height, request the land-use opinion from the District and ask about the aviation ruling, because that is where a seller's assumptions collapse. On top of height there is noise exposure, which never appears on the certificado de tradición y libertad, the registry history and encumbrance certificate, and does appear in the airfield regime, so the exposure sits in the rules over the land rather than in the title itself. The counterparty differs too: a formal neighborhood of long-standing owners, with unsettled sucesiones, estate proceedings, and houses carved into several apartments without registering the split, so compare the original permit against what stands before accepting a per-unit valuation.

What is specific to Crespo

What to verify, step by step

1. Request the reglamento de propiedad horizontal exactly as registered and look for the table of coeficientes, not a summary forwarded by chat.
2. Confirm on the certificado de tradición y libertad that the reglamento and its amendments are registered against the property's folio.
3. Ask the administrador for the unit's account statement, the approved budget, recent asamblea minutes and a clearance certificate in the seller's name.
4. Review what sets the charging base for penthouses: which part of the terrace is área privada (privately owned area) and which is bien común de uso exclusivo, because that line decides who pays to waterproof the roof slab when it leaks; the coeficiente de copropiedad assigned to the unit, which on the top floor is usually the building's highest and fixes the dues permanently and whether the roof slab carries the building's tanks, machinery and antennas, and what access rights the administración holds over the terrace.
5. Add what is worth confirming in Crespo: what building height the lot allows under the airport approach path, because the aviation restriction stacks on top of District zoning and is the first fact left out when a lot is offered; whether what stands matches the permit and the registry folio, a common gap in family houses split into apartments without registering the split and how shoreline protection in front of the property was resolved and which body answers for that work, because it is not the seller.
6. Ask the District about the standing of the impuesto predial and any betterment levy on the property, and search the Rama Judicial for collection proceedings against the seller or over the property.

Mistakes that cost money

• Asking how much the dues are and settling for the spoken answer. The share and the budget set them, and both are documents.
• Confusing the dues with the impuesto predial. They are paid to different bodies and claimed through different routes.
• Treating the debt as settled because the seller says he is current. The clearance certificate is issued by the administrador, not by the seller.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get the account statement for a penthouse from abroad?

Yes. The administrador issues it by email on a written request from you or your attorney-in-fact, and the seller usually has to authorise it.

Can my unit's ownership share be changed?

That is an amendment to the reglamento, decided by the asamblea under the majorities the reglamento itself requires. It is not something a buyer arranges with the administrador.

What if the property is not under propiedad horizontal?

Then ask whether a neighbours' association exists and under which document it charges, because the obligation comes from that document and not from custom.

Where to check it

• Superintendencia de Notariado y Registro — the certificate of title and encumbrances, which is the property's full history
• Alcaldía Mayor de Cartagena de Indias — property tax, betterment levies and District procedures
• Rama Judicial — whether there is pending litigation over the property or its owners
• Cartagena de Indias — the rules of the municipality Crespo belongs to

Official bodies. Specific figures are requested there, not copied from a listing.

Updated 2026-11-06