Condominium Regime and HOA Fees in Playa del Carmen: What Every Buyer Should Know

Buying a condo in Playa del Carmen almost always means buying a fraction of something larger: a mid-rise in Centro a few blocks from Quinta Avenida, a tower with a rooftop pool in Zazil-Ha or Coco Beach, or a house inside a gated community such as Playacar. In every one of those cases the property sits under the condominium property regime — the régimen de propiedad en condominio — and that regime, not just your individual title, decides how much you pay every month in maintenance fees, who handles that money, what you are allowed to do with your unit, and what happens when a neighbour stops paying.

This guide is written for American, Canadian and British buyers and investors evaluating Playa del Carmen real estate (Quintana Roo; the municipality, created in 1993 under the name Solidaridad, has officially been called Municipio de Playa del Carmen since the decree published in the state’s Official Gazette on 19 March 2025, which is why both names still appear side by side on deeds, receipts and government paperwork) who want to read the condominium with the same rigour they apply to the title itself. What makes this different from most writing on the subject is that we work directly from the Ley de Propiedad en Condominio de Inmuebles del Estado de Quintana Roo — the state’s condominium property act, published in the Official Gazette in November 2010 and amended in 2011, 2018 and 2021 — translate it into concrete decisions, and connect it to how buildings on the Riviera Maya actually run: professional managers, reserve funds, short-term rentals, salt air, hurricanes and delinquency.

You will not find unsourced “average” fee figures here. You will find a method for reading a condominium budget, the exact questions worth asking the manager and the seller, the statutory articles behind each right, and a checklist to use before you sign a promissory purchase agreement or an escritura (the public deed executed before a Mexican notary) at closing.

Executive summary: ten points worth remembering

1. In Quintana Roo, condo owners’ rights and duties are governed by the state act, the State Civil Code, the founding deed, the transfer-of-title contract, the assembly’s resolutions, and the condominium bylaws (art. 3 of the act).
2. Your fee is calculated in proportion to your indiviso — the percentage the founding deed assigns to your unit out of the property’s total nominal value (arts. 9 § VI and 42 § II). Always ask what yours is.
3. Maintenance fees are not subject to set-off or to personal defences, and they do not lapse with time (art. 42 § I). Not using the pool, or living abroad, does not excuse you from paying.
4. There are two distinct funds: the maintenance and administration fund for ordinary running costs, and the reserve fund for extraordinary, emergency and unforeseen expenses (art. 2 § XIV).
5. The general assembly is the supreme body; ordinary meetings are mandatory at least once every six months and may be held in person or remotely through digital platforms (art. 28).
6. The administrador (the condominium manager) must keep a minute book, collect fees, issue receipts, deliver periodic account statements and record their appointment at the Public Registry of Property and Commerce within 30 days of being designated (art. 36).
7. Fee receivables are secured preferentially by the unit itself, even if it is transferred to a third party (art. 49). That is why the notario público must demand a no-debt certificate from the seller plus the tax receipts for the last three payments (art. 46).
8. With three ordinary fees or one extraordinary fee unpaid, an account statement signed by the administrador and the president of the oversight committee is directly enforceable in the civil executive procedure (art. 43). The delinquent owner also loses the right to vote while the arrears persist (art. 32).
9. The bylaws may regulate pets, use of common areas and maximum occupancy; leasing your unit is a right (art. 15), but its permitted use is fixed by the founding deed (art. 17) and changing that use requires the agreement of 100% of the owners (art. 21 § X).
10. In pre-construction, whoever grants the founding deed — normally the developer — appoints the first-year administrador (art. 31 § II) and must evidence completion of works or post bonds for completion and construction quality (art. 9 § X). Ask for the draft bylaws and the projected fee schedule before you sign.

What the condominium regime is, and why it governs your condo

The legal definition, in plain English

Quintana Roo law defines a condominium as the group of lots, apartments, dwellings, houses, commercial premises or industrial bays within a property built horizontally, vertically or in mixed form, capable of independent use, belonging to different owners; each owner holds a singular and exclusive right over their exclusive-property unit and, in addition, a co-ownership right over the common elements and parts (art. 2 § VII). Three concepts flow from that definition, and it pays to use them precisely from your very first showing.

• Exclusive-property unit: your condo, house or lot, together with the annexes the deed assigns to it — parking space, storage locker, service room, laundry cage — provided they are not common elements (art. 14). If the parking spot “they showed you” does not appear in the deed as an annex of your unit, it is not yours.
• Common areas and property: the land, foundations, structure, load-bearing walls, façades, general-use rooftops, stairs, elevators, cisterns, pumps, gardens, pools, lobbies, general installations, and anything else the deed and bylaws declare common (art. 23). These cannot be sold, mortgaged or attached separately.
• Proindiviso or indiviso: the percentage your unit represents within the condominium as a whole, according to the founding deed (art. 2 § XVIII). It is the master key to the whole regime: it defines your vote at the assembly, your share of common expenses, and your maintenance fee.

By structure, the law distinguishes vertical condominiums (a building on several floors over shared land), horizontal ones (independent dwellings sharing land and services), urban-land condominiums (lots) and mixed ones; and by use, residential, commercial or service, industrial and mixed (art. 5). It also contemplates the master condominium: two or more condominiums on the same parcel that keep their own exclusive areas while sharing roads, access points or general installations (art. 2 § IX). That structure is common in the larger Riviera Maya developments: you pay one fee to your sub-condominium (your tower or cluster) and another to the master condominium that maintains streets, gatehouses and general landscaping. When comparing fees across projects, add both together — a mistake North American buyers make constantly, because a single HOA line item is the norm back home.

Where it is regulated in Quintana Roo

Until 2010, condominium ownership in Quintana Roo was regulated inside the State Civil Code. Decree 361, published in the Official Gazette on 30 November 2010, enacted a dedicated statute — the Ley de Propiedad en Condominio de Inmuebles del Estado de Quintana Roo — and repealed the corresponding Civil Code articles, which today apply only on a supplementary basis. The act was amended on 22 March 2011, 16 August 2018 and 12 November 2021 (this last reform, the most relevant to today’s buyer, introduced remote assemblies, the no-debt certificate backed by tax receipts, mixed-use condominiums and data-protection rules, among others).

The hierarchy of sources that governs your condo is as follows (art. 3): the state act, the Civil Code, the founding deed of the regime, the contract under which you acquired, the assembly’s resolutions, and the condominium bylaws. That has a practical consequence. A bylaw clause that contradicts the statute is unenforceable — but everything the statute leaves open (quiet hours, pets, occupancy, amenity use, late-payment interest rates) is decided in the bylaws and at the assembly. Resolutions lawfully adopted bind every owner, including those absent and those who voted against (art. 30).

If you buy through a fideicomiso

Here is a detail that reassures foreign buyers: the law treats as an owner any individual or legal entity that holds title or the beneficial rights under a trust over a unit, and even anyone who has entered into a contract that, once performed, will make them the owner or trust beneficiary (art. 2 § VIII). In other words, a buyer who acquires in Playa del Carmen through a fideicomiso — the bank trust foreigners use to hold residential property inside the restricted coastal zone — has exactly the same condominium rights and duties as a direct owner: they vote, may be elected to office, pay fees and are liable for them. If you are buying that way, our guide to the fideicomiso bank trust for foreign buyers explains how the instrument is set up.

The 2021 reform also expressly acknowledged the reality of non-resident owners: assemblies may be held remotely over digital platforms, voting may be electronic for foreign owners or Mexican owners who are not physically at the condominium, and owners may attend accompanied by lawyers, accountants or interpreters (art. 28 §§ V, XIV and XVI). Meetings are conducted in Spanish, with the right to a translator on request (art. 28 § IV). For a buyer in Toronto, Denver or London, that is the difference between having a governance voice and being a passive fee payer.

The documents to read before you sign: founding deed, bylaws and minutes

The founding deed of the regime

Establishing the regime is a formal act that the owner or owners of the property execute before a notario público — a Mexican notary, a state-appointed lawyer with public faith whose role is far broader than a US or UK notary’s (art. 4) — and it must be recorded at the Public Registry of Property and Commerce, as must the transfer-of-title contract for each unit (art. 10). Before establishing it, in Playa del Carmen the developer obtains from the municipality the building permit, the land-use certificate, the municipal authorization of the regime and the completion-of-works certificate, and from the state urban development authority the territorial compatibility certificate (art. 4). This is therefore a formal and verifiable municipal process: the permits, certificates and authorizations must be identified in the deed, and the buyer may request a copy of every one of them.

The founding deed must contain, among other elements (art. 9):

• the building permit or, failing that, the regularization permit;
• the location, dimensions, boundaries and adjoining properties, and, in condominium complexes, the limits of each building or section;
• a general description of the constructions and of the quality of the materials;
• a description of each exclusive-property unit, with its number, location, dimensions and the parking spaces that form part of it;
• the nominal value assigned to each unit and its indiviso percentage of the total value (§ VI);
• the condominium’s characteristics under article 5 and the permitted use of each unit (§ VII);
• a description of the common property;
• the cases and conditions under which the deed and the bylaws may be amended;
• the completion-of-works certificate or, alternatively, a bond equal to 15% of the condominium’s total value to guarantee completion, plus another of 10% to answer for construction quality and defects, valid for two years from full delivery, both in favour of the municipal treasury (§ X);
• the appointment of the administrador, their compensation and powers (§ XI);
• the owners’ obligation to secure payment of the fees for the maintenance and administration fund and for the reserve fund (§ XII).

Certified copies of the general plan, the technical memorandum, the plans of each unit and of the installations, and the internal bylaws certified by a public officer are attached to the deed’s appendix. When you review the deed, focus on three data points: your exact indiviso, the permitted use of your unit (residential, residential-tourist, commercial) and the list of annexes that belong to it. All three translate directly into money: your fee, your ability to rent, and the actual asset you own.

The condominium bylaws

The bylaws form part of the founding deed, are recorded at the Public Registry, and must be delivered in certified copy to every purchaser (arts. 2 § XIX and 41). The law fixes their minimum content (art. 41): rights and duties over common property and services and their limits; the basis for determining the fees that make up the maintenance and administration fund and the reserve fund; administration, civil-protection and security measures; how assemblies are convened; the appointment, requirements, compensation, bonding and grounds for removal of the administrador and the committees; the basis for amending the deed and the bylaws; criteria for the use of common areas, including those designed for people with disabilities; measures and limits on keeping animals; matters requiring a special majority; the basis of the internal civil-protection programme; and provisions for leasing common areas to third parties.

The bylaws may also require each owner to take out insurance, with an authorized carrier of their choice, against hydro-meteorological events, earthquake, flood, explosion or fire, with third-party liability cover (art. 41). In a city exposed to the Caribbean hurricane season, that clause is a sign of good governance, not an annoyance — and a US or Canadian buyer used to a master policy plus an HO-6 style unit policy will recognise the logic immediately.

There is also an obligation that protects the buyer directly: each contract for the acquisition of a unit must state that the unit is current on ordinary fees, extraordinary fees and reserve fund contributions, and that the purchaser received a plain copy of the founding deed and the bylaws; the obligation repeats with every new owner (art. 12). If the seller or the developer cannot hand you those documents, you already have your first due-diligence finding.

Minutes, budgets and account statements

A condominium’s living documents matter as much as its founding ones. The administrador must keep a minute book authorized by the oversight committee and preserve all documentation, which owners or their representatives may inspect at any time (art. 36 §§ I and III). The assembly approves each year the following financial year’s expense budget, including the administrador’s fees (art. 31 § VIII), and reviews the account statements and the oversight committee’s annual report (art. 31 § VII). Owners have 30 calendar days after each assembly to submit written observations on the information they received (art. 36 § X (f)).

For a buyer, this means there is — or should be — a documentary trail covering the last several years: minutes of the semi-annual ordinary assemblies, the current budget, account statements showing the balances of both funds, and a schedule of arrears. Asking for them is not rude; it is precisely what the law expects you to be able to consult. How to verify that the deed and the bylaws are actually recorded at the state Public Registry is covered in our guide to title due diligence and the Public Registry in Quintana Roo.

The condominium’s governing bodies: assembly, administrador and oversight committee

The general assembly: the supreme body

The general assembly of owners is the regime’s supreme administrative body (art. 2 § IV) and appoints an administrador to carry out its decisions (art. 28). Its operating rules are among the most detailed in the statute, and it is worth knowing them, because they determine how easy or hard it will be to change anything in your building.

Aspect	Statutory rule (Quintana Roo Condominium Property Act)
Frequency	Ordinary meetings mandatory at least once every six months; extraordinary meetings as often as convened (art. 28 § III)
Notice	Must state type, format, place (never outside the municipality), date, time, agenda and who is convening; at least 15 calendar days must elapse between first notice and the meeting unless the bylaws set a longer period; verifiable notice at the unit or to a designated email address, plus posting in five or more visible locations (art. 30)
Quorum	75% of the proindiviso on first notice; 51% on second; on a third or later notice, whoever attends (art. 29)
Weight of the vote	Equal to each owner’s indiviso percentage; but to elect, re-elect or remove the administrador or the oversight committee, one vote per residential unit (art. 28 § VI)
Proxies	Power of attorney before two witnesses if the bylaws allow it; notarial power for legal entities; no one may represent more than 20% of the owners; the administrador and the oversight committee may not represent anyone (art. 28 § VII)
Majorities	Simple majority of those present, except where special majorities apply; if a single owner holds 20% or more of the indiviso, the majority of the remaining percentage is also required (art. 28 §§ VIII and XI)
Amending deed or bylaws	Extraordinary assembly with at least 75% of the proindiviso in attendance; the minutes are formalised before a notario and recorded at the Public Registry (arts. 11 and 28 § XIII)
New works in common areas	Extraordinary assembly with votes representing at least 51% of total value; 75% where one owner holds up to 25% of the value (art. 26 § III)
Format	In person and/or remote via digital platforms, with real-time video and a recording kept as evidence (art. 28 § V)
Notary	The administrador, the oversight committee, or at least 25% of the owners may request the presence of a notario público (art. 28 § XV)

Two rules deserve particular attention in Playa del Carmen. The first is the protection against a majority owner: where a single person — typically the developer still holding unsold inventory, or an investor who bought several units — represents 20% or more of the indiviso, resolutions additionally require a majority of the votes of the remaining indiviso, except when electing the administrador and the committees (art. 28 § XI). The second is the minority’s right to force a meeting: if owners holding at least 25% of the indiviso request one in writing and the administrador fails to convene within ten business days, they may petition the competent civil court or the State Judiciary’s Alternative Justice Centre to have the notice published (art. 30).

The assembly’s powers (art. 31) include amending the deed and the bylaws; freely appointing and removing the administrador — except the first-year one, designated by whoever grants the founding deed; setting their duties and compensation; establishing and modifying late-payment interest rates; appointing the oversight committee; deciding on the administrador’s bond or waiving it by simple majority; approving the account statements and the budget; and setting the fees for the maintenance and administration fund and for the reserve fund.

The administrador: who handles your money

The administrador is the individual or company designated by the assembly (art. 33). The law requires evidence of experience in condominium management or of training courses in the field, a requirement the assembly may waive with the vote of 75% of the indiviso (art. 33). If the owners opt for self-management, the administrador is one of them, without creating an employment relationship, and must be current on all their fees throughout their tenure (art. 34). If a professional is engaged, they must issue tax receipts for their fees (art. 35). External professional management is common in Playa del Carmen, especially in buildings with a high proportion of non-resident owners; the law exempts external management from the re-election limit (art. 28 § IX), so a long-term contract is lawful — but the assembly should keep the power to remove the manager.

The administrador’s duties (art. 36) are, in effect, the checklist of what to ask for when you are evaluating a building:

• keep the minute book and preserve all documentation, available to the owners;
• care for, supervise and maintain the common property and services, and contract supplies for common areas, prorating the cost among owners according to indiviso;
• carry out necessary conservation works with the oversight committee’s agreement (art. 26 § I);
• collect the contributions to both funds and the extraordinary fees, with the ability to engage banking, legal, investment and accounting services authorized by the assembly;
• issue a receipt in the condominium’s name for every payment, stating any outstanding balance;
• deliver monthly, bimonthly or at whatever interval the assembly sets an account statement showing collections and expenses, outstanding contributions and fees, the maintenance and administration fund balance and its intended use, the balance of bank accounts and investments with their interest, and the assembly’s resolutions and how they were executed;
• convene assemblies, enforce the act and the bylaws, and record the founding deed and its amendments at the Public Registry;
• represent the condominium with litigation and collection powers; open chequing accounts jointly with the president of the oversight committee;
• comply with civil-protection legislation;
• record their appointment at the Public Registry of Property and Commerce within no more than 30 days of the assembly, attaching identification, a résumé, a criminal-record certificate and the minutes formalised before a notario.

When management changes hands, the outgoing manager must deliver to the incoming one, within no more than seven calendar days, all documentation, account statements, chequebooks, ledgers, securities and assets, recording the handover in detailed minutes; the assembly may order audits of both the sitting and the outgoing management (art. 37). A building whose last change of manager ended in litigation, with no handover minutes, is a building to be wary of.

The oversight committee: the counterweight

The oversight committee — comité de vigilancia — is made up of five owners, or their representatives holding notarial powers, elected by the assembly for terms of up to one year, re-electable, serving without pay (art. 40). Anyone providing services to the condominium, anyone holding 30% of the proindiviso, and anyone with a conflict of interest is barred; and all members must be current on their fees throughout their tenure. It is led by a president — whose signature the law requires, alongside the administrador’s, both for handling the bank accounts and for a delinquent owner’s account statement to carry enforcement power — and the remaining offices are organized as the bylaws provide; a minority holding at least 25% of the units has the right to appoint one member.

Its collegiate functions (art. 40) are the reason this body matters so much to a buyer: supervising the administrador and compliance with the assembly’s resolutions; overseeing the engagement of professional services; consenting to conservation works; verifying and issuing an opinion on the account statements; confirming and supervising the investment of the reserve fund; reporting irregularities to the assembly; convening an assembly when the administrador fails to do so within ten days of an owners’ request; and co-signing with the administrador for the handling of the bank accounts. If the building you are evaluating has no constituted oversight committee, the administrador is operating without the counterweight the law designed.

Maintenance fees: how they are calculated, what they include and what they do not

The statutory basis of the calculation

The law defines the ordinary fee as the amount agreed by the assembly to cover administration, maintenance, operating and non-individualized common-use service costs, which may be fixed or variable (art. 2 § XI), and the extraordinary fee as the amount agreed for unforeseen or extraordinary expenses (art. 2 § X). Contributions to both funds may be split into monthly instalments, payable in advance or as the assembly decides, and their amount is set in proportion to each owner’s co-ownership right — that is, to the indiviso fixed in the deed (art. 42 § II). The initial contributions that constitute both funds are determined by the bylaws. In the same vein, the costs of operating, repairing, conserving and maintaining common installations and areas are borne “in the proportion that their ownership percentage represents over the condominium’s indiviso” (art. 26 § V), and common-area electricity and water consumption is prorated by the same rule (arts. 26 § VI and 36 § IV).

That has practical consequences:

• The fee is not “per unit” but per indiviso. Two units of different size pay the same only if the deed assigned them equal indivisos. If a building charges a flat fee to very different units, ask how that squares with the deed; there may be an assembly resolution behind it, or there may be a problem.
• The fee is born out of the budget, not the other way round. The correct sequence is: annual budget approved by the assembly (art. 31 § VIII), divided among the indivisos. If the administrador cannot show you the budget the fee comes from, the fee is a number without foundation.
• You pay even if you use nothing: the fee is not subject to set-off or personal defences, and it does not lapse (art. 42 § I). An owner living in Calgary who visits their condo two weeks a year pays exactly what their resident neighbour with the same indiviso pays.
• In mixed-use condominiums (residential and commercial in the same building, very common near Quinta Avenida and along Playa del Carmen’s commercial avenues), management must prepare a separate operating budget for the residential areas and another for the commercial ones, and the commercial units’ fees are calculated on their own budget and their own indiviso (art. 50). Their customers and staff are not to use the residential private and recreational areas.

What the fee typically covers in a Playa del Carmen building

The law does not list the line items; each condominium’s budget does. In Riviera Maya practice, a well-built ordinary budget usually covers the following. Use it as a template against which to read whatever they hand you.

Line item	What it usually covers	What to check
Administration and accounting	Administrador’s fees, accountant, collections software, tax receipts	That a contract and CFDI tax receipts exist; that the assembly set the compensation
Security and access control	24-hour or shift guarding, gatehouse, cameras, access cards	Whether the provider is formally contracted and insured
Common-area cleaning	Staff, supplies, internal waste collection	Frequency and scope (lobby, corridors, rooftop, parking)
Pool and amenities	Chemicals, pumps, filters, heaters, gym, coworking, grills and palapas upkeep	Age of the equipment; existence of service contracts
Landscaping and green areas	Irrigation, pruning, pest control, palm treatment	In master condominiums, whether this item is duplicated
Elevators	Preventive maintenance, service policies, certifications	Brand, age and current contract
Common-area electricity	CFE supply for lighting, pumps, elevators, common-area air conditioning	That it is prorated by indiviso and not mixed with private consumption
Common-area water	Service from Playa del Carmen’s water utility, tanker deliveries where needed, cistern treatment	Pool use and irrigation; treatment plant if there is one
Preventive building maintenance	Painting, waterproofing, façade sealing, anti-corrosion protection, ironwork, lighting	Major-maintenance calendar and how it is funded
Building insurance	Master policy against hurricane, fire and public liability	Validity, sum insured, deductibles and coinsurance
Communal gas, internet or TV	Only where the condominium contracts them centrally	Whether they are charged by consumption or by indiviso
Civil protection	Extinguishers, signage, internal programme, drills, emergency generator	Compliance with art. 36 § XVI
Reserve fund contribution	Percentage or fixed amount earmarked for the reserve fund	That it is separately identified within the fee

What the ordinary fee does not include, unless the bylaws say otherwise: the predial — the annual municipal property tax on your unit, which you pay directly to Playa del Carmen’s municipal treasury (art. 47 of the condominium act; the municipal revenue act, at art. 13, sets the predial assessment base for condominium properties unit by unit); your individual electricity, water, gas and internet consumption; contents and unit insurance; repairs inside your condo; extraordinary fees; and any services you contract for short-term rental (unit cleaning, laundry, guest management). It is worth having this full picture before you compare the fee against the purchase price; our guide to closing costs, ISAI, notary fees and predial breaks down the taxes and duties that surround the transaction, including the ISAI (the state property acquisition tax paid by the buyer at closing).

Why coastal fees are structurally higher

Buyers who compare a Playa del Carmen fee against one in an inland Mexican city — or against a suburban HOA in Florida or Ontario — are usually surprised. There are physical reasons. Salt air corrodes ironwork, air-conditioning equipment, pump motors and elevators; humidity demands more frequent waterproofing and painting; the Atlantic hurricane season, running June through November, forces the building to be insured, glazing protected and emergency generators maintained; pools — present in the vast majority of new buildings — consume chemicals, water and electricity every single day; and the tourist vocation multiplies wear on amenities when units are rented by the night. A beachfront building adds sargassum and beach cleaning to the equation, a subject we treat in our guide to beachfront property, ZOFEMAT and its risks — ZOFEMAT being the federal maritime-terrestrial zone, the strip of sand the nation owns and concessions.

A cheap fee, in this context, is not automatically a virtue. It usually corresponds to one of three scenarios: a building with no amenities and no elevator (legitimate and coherent); a budget that provides for neither preventive maintenance nor a reserve fund (deferred debt you will pay through extraordinary assessments); or a “promotional” fee set by the developer during the sales phase that will be corrected once the assembly approves the first real budget. Telling these three apart is the heart of the evaluation.

An illustrative method for reading the fee

The following exercise is an illustrative example of the methodology, not a market data point; the figures are hypothetical and serve only to show the reasoning. Suppose a 24-unit building with a pool, elevator and security, whose approved annual budget breaks down as follows: administration 12%, security 25%, cleaning and landscaping 12%, pool and amenities 8%, elevator 5%, common electricity and water 15%, preventive maintenance 8%, insurance 7%, civil protection and miscellaneous 3%, reserve fund 5%. If your unit’s indiviso is 4.2%, your annual fee is 4.2% of the total budget, and your monthly fee is one twelfth of that figure. With that number in hand you run three checks: (1) divide the annual fee by the purchase price to obtain condominium carrying cost as a percentage of value; (2) add predial and individual insurance to obtain total carrying cost; and (3) in an investment analysis, subtract it from expected net rental income. In this example, if the reserve fund line and the preventive maintenance line were both zero, the fee would be lower — but the building would be consuming its own future.

Reserve fund and extraordinary fees: the cushion that prevents surprises

What it is and what it is for

The law defines the reserve fund as the condominium’s economic or financial reserves derived from fees contributed by owners to cover extraordinary, emergency and unforeseen expenses (art. 2 § XIV). It is distinct from the maintenance and administration fund, which finances day-to-day spending. The founding deed must record the owners’ obligation to secure payment of the fees for both funds (art. 9 § XII), the bylaws set the initial contributions (art. 42 § II), and the assembly establishes the fees that constitute it, which is also intended to cover the purchase of the condominium’s equipment and machinery (art. 31 § IX).

While unused, both funds may be invested in demand securities offering the highest market yields, preserving the liquidity needed for short-term obligations (art. 42 § III); the assembly decides annually what percentage of the returns is applied to each fund. The oversight committee must confirm and supervise that investment (art. 40 § VI), and the account statement must show the balance of bank accounts and investments with their interest (art. 36 § X (d)). A manager who answers “we don’t have a reserve fund because we’ve never needed one” is describing a breach, not a virtue.

Necessary works, new works, and where the money comes from

The law draws a clear line between two types of work in common areas (art. 26). Necessary works to keep the condominium in a good state of safety, stability and conservation and to keep services running are carried out by the administrador with the oversight committee’s agreement, charged to the maintenance and administration fund, and reported at the next assembly; where that fund is insufficient or unforeseen works are required, the administrador convenes an assembly to resolve the matter under the bylaws. New works that improve appearance or comfort — a new rooftop, a gym, an access-control system — require an extraordinary assembly with 51% of the condominium’s total value, or 75% where one owner holds up to 25% of the value. If there is no administrador in place, any owner may carry out urgent repairs and recover the cost, split equally, with the oversight committee’s authorization (art. 26 § IV).

This is where the link between reserve fund and extraordinary fees lies. When the reserve fund is adequate, an emergency — a failed water pump, an elevator needing major repair, minor damage after a tropical storm — is resolved without reaching into owners’ pockets. When it is not, the assembly approves an extraordinary assessment. A history of frequent extraordinary assessments almost always reveals either an inadequate reserve fund or an ordinary budget that omits preventive maintenance.

The major maintenance every building will eventually face

The big-ticket items in a Playa del Carmen building are predictable in nature, if not in date: roof waterproofing, repainting and sealing of façades, replacement of pumps and pressure systems, elevator modernization, renewal of pool equipment, replacement of corroded ironwork, upgrades to fire-protection systems and, in older buildings in Centro and Colonia Gonzalo Guerrero, structural and plumbing inspections. A mature condominium has a major-maintenance plan — even a simple one — that assigns an estimated date and an estimated cost to each item and explains how it will be funded: accumulated reserve fund, scheduled contributions, or a future extraordinary assessment. Asking for that plan is one of the most revealing questions you can put to a manager.

Building insurance and individual insurance

The law allows the bylaws to require each owner to insure their unit against hydro-meteorological events, earthquake, flood, explosion or fire, with third-party cover (art. 41). Independently of that, best practice on the Riviera Maya is for the condominium to carry a master policy on the structure and common areas, funded from the ordinary fee, with each owner insuring contents, interior finishes and personal liability separately. When evaluating a building, ask for the current policy and check four things: that the sum insured bears a sensible relationship to the building’s replacement value; that cover expressly includes hurricane and hydro-meteorological perils; what deductibles and coinsurance apply to those perils — they are typically different from and higher than fire; and who the beneficiary is. A building without hurricane cover in Quintana Roo is transferring to its owners, through extraordinary assessments, a risk that should sit with an insurer.

Delinquency: what happens when a neighbour — or you — stops paying

Delinquency is the most underestimated risk when buying into a condominium, because it does not sit in your unit but in other people’s. When a meaningful share of neighbours stops paying, the budget is not met, maintenance is deferred, the reserve fund is never built, and sooner or later those who do pay cover the gap. Quintana Roo law, particularly after the 2021 reform, gave condominiums solid tools against non-payment. Knowing them helps you both assess a building’s health and understand your own obligations.

Legal consequences of non-payment

• Default interest: fees not paid on time accrue interest at the rate set by the bylaws or the assembly, and it may not be capitalized (art. 43). The assembly may establish and modify the default rates (art. 31 § IV).
• Order in which payments are applied: whatever the owner pays is applied chronologically first to fines, interest, penalties and legal fees, and only then to ordinary fees, extraordinary fees and the reserve fund (art. 43). Paying “just the fee” when interest has accumulated does not clear the fee.
• Suspension of voting rights: failure to pay fees for either fund, extraordinary fees, interest, legal fees or penalties suspends the right to vote while the arrears persist (art. 32). The delinquent party remains an owner and remains liable, but loses the ability to influence resolutions until they regularize their position; how their indiviso counts towards quorum is a question best resolved in the bylaws.
• Fines: the assembly may impose, by simple majority and after summoning the offender, fines of 10 to 150 days of the general minimum wage in force in the state for failing to pay either fund’s fees on time, in addition to interest and voting restrictions (arts. 67 § IV and 68). The statute expresses these fines in days of minimum wage; since the 2016 constitutional de-indexation reform, such references are computed in Unidades de Medida y Actualización (UMA), the official inflation-linked accounting unit.
• Suspension of services: where services enjoyed inside private areas are paid from common funds, the administrador may suspend them for a delinquent owner, with the oversight committee’s prior authorization, with the express exception of water service (art. 43).
• Temporary redistribution: the bylaws may provide that the administrador distribute the delinquent owner’s debt among the other owners, in proportion to the value of their properties, until it is recovered, later reimbursing the affected owners with the corresponding interest (art. 43). If that mechanism exists in the building you are evaluating, other people’s delinquency reaches you directly.
• Civil executive procedure: an account statement reflecting arrears, default interest and the agreed penalty, signed by the administrador and the president of the oversight committee, accompanied by the outstanding receipts and a notary-certified copy of the assembly minutes or the bylaws that set the fees, is directly enforceable; the action becomes available once three ordinary fees or one extraordinary fee are unpaid (art. 43). That means a fast-track suit, with attachment from the outset, not a years-long ordinary proceeding.
• Forced sale: an owner who repeatedly breaches the act, the deed or the bylaws may be sued to be compelled to sell their rights, including at public auction, if an extraordinary assembly with at least 75% of the indiviso so resolves, the delinquent owner also being summoned to it (art. 44). If the breaching party is a non-owner occupant, the administrador sues both the occupant and the owner (art. 45).
• Security interest over the unit: receivables for fees and other monetary obligations are secured preferentially by the exclusive-property unit, subordinate only to claims for alimony, even if the unit is transferred to third parties (art. 49). The debt, in other words, travels with the condo.

How the buyer is protected at closing

Precisely because the debt follows the unit, the law built two locks into the sale. The first is article 12: every acquisition contract must state that the unit is current on ordinary fees, extraordinary fees and reserve fund contributions. The second, reinforced in 2021, is article 46: the notario público drafting the deed must demand from the selling party a no-debt certificate for maintenance, administration and reserve fees, duly signed by the administrador, together with the digital tax receipts (CFDI) for the last three fee payments. Any interested party may also obtain from the administrador a statement of arrears, which only has legal effect if it is also signed by the president of the oversight committee (art. 49).

In Playa del Carmen closing practice, this translates into asking for the certificate dated close to signing — not three months earlier; verifying that the signatory is the administrador whose appointment is actually recorded; cross-checking the three CFDI against the tax ID of the condominium or the manager; and providing in the promissory purchase agreement for what happens if arrears surface: normally they are withheld from the price or settled from the seller’s funds before signing. How this documentary package fits with the rest of the notarial file is set out in our guide to the notary process and closing a purchase in Quintana Roo.

There is a third front that is not condominium law but gets reviewed at the same moment: the predial. The municipal revenue act (Ley de Hacienda del Municipio de Solidaridad, today Playa del Carmen) regulates property tax on condominium properties by setting the assessment base unit by unit (art. 13) and makes acquirers liable for the property tax charged on the property (art. 9), so the seller’s arrears can become the buyer’s problem. That is why the municipal predial no-debt certificate is every bit as indispensable as the condominium one, and the notario will demand it before signing; it is issued by the municipal treasury of the Playa del Carmen city government. The exact scope of that liability is worth reviewing with your notario against the current text of the act, which the state Congress amends frequently (the most recent published amendment dates from December 2025).

How to measure a building’s delinquency before you buy

Ask the administrador — or require the seller to obtain — the consolidated statement of outstanding contributions and fees that the law obliges them to have available (art. 36 § X (b)). From it, calculate three indicators: the percentage of total indiviso in arrears, the number of units more than three fees behind (those that could already be sued), and the average age of the debts. Then ask what collection actions have been started and how many have concluded. A building with low delinquency and active collection is a governed building; one with high delinquency and no lawsuits is a building where those who comply subsidise those who do not, and where deferred maintenance accumulates behind freshly painted façades.

Where disputes are resolved

The act establishes conciliation and arbitration as the basis for resolving disputes among owners and with their management, without prejudice to judicial competence (art. 1). The State Judiciary’s Alternative Justice Centre has jurisdiction over disputes between owners, or between owners and their administrador, where the amount in dispute does not exceed 750 times the minimum wage in force in the state — a figure that, after the 2016 constitutional de-indexation reform, is computed in UMA — and the agreements reached there have the status of res judicata (arts. 64 and 65). For larger amounts and for the executive procedure, the forum is the civil courts of first instance of the State Judiciary sitting in Playa del Carmen. A prudent buyer asks whether the condominium has open litigation, as claimant or as defendant, and asks to see the minutes in which it was authorized.

Short-term rentals, pets and community life: what the bylaws can (and cannot) restrict

The right to rent and its limits

Each owner enjoys their unit as an owner and may sell it, lease it, mortgage it and enter into any contract over it without the other owners’ authorization, “subject to the limitations established by law” (art. 15). Those limitations are real, and they are found in three articles.

• The unit’s permitted use is fixed by the founding deed. Owners must use their unit in an orderly and quiet manner and may not devote it to uses contrary to its permitted use, nor to purposes other than those expressly stated in the deed (art. 17). Changing the use or destination of a unit or of the development requires the agreement of 100% of the owners (art. 21 § X). The act itself recognises the category of “residential-tourist” units (art. 28 § VI), so the key question for anyone buying with short-term rental in mind is literal: what use does the founding deed assign to my unit?
• The bylaws bind your guests and tenants. Every lease, loan-for-use agreement or other instrument granting a third party the use of the unit must include the obligation to comply with the bylaws, with a copy attached (art. 19). The owner and their user decide between themselves who performs which obligations and who attends assemblies, but the user is always jointly liable with the owner, and both must notify the administrador within five business days of granting that representation (art. 19). A non-compliant occupant may be sued together with the owner (art. 45).
• Maximum occupancy. It is prohibited to give the unit over to a greater number of people than it is designed for (art. 21 § XI). This provision is the legal basis for the guest limits that many Playa del Carmen bylaws impose on units rented by the night.

Beyond that, the bylaws and the assembly may regulate fairly freely what the statute leaves open: advance registration of guests with management, submission of ID documents, check-in hours, guest use of amenities, damage deposits, prohibitions on parties, noise penalties and, in some cases, minimum stays. What the bylaws cannot do is contradict the deed or the law: if your unit has a residential-tourist use in the deed, the assembly cannot ban short-term hosting by simple majority — but it can set community rules and penalise you if your guests break them.

The practical conclusion for Playa del Carmen has two sides. If you buy for short-term rental, choose a building whose deed and bylaws expressly contemplate it and whose operation is designed for it (access control, management used to handling guests, appropriate insurance); in areas such as Centro near Quinta Avenida, or in Coco Beach and Zazil-Ha, buildings conceived with that vocation are plentiful. If you buy to live, look for the opposite: communities whose deed fixes residential use and whose bylaws restrict transient occupancy, which is more common in residential subdivisions and in certain sections of Playacar. We compare both models, with their financial and tax assumptions, in our guide to short-term versus long-term rental in the Riviera Maya.

The host’s tax and municipal obligations

Renting by the night through platforms is not only a condominium matter. At federal level, individuals who are Mexican tax residents and provide lodging services through technology platforms are taxed under the regime for business activities with income through platforms: the platform withholds 4% income tax (ISR) on income actually received, excluding VAT (Income Tax Act, art. 113-A § II), and, where it collects the price, withholds 50% of the VAT charged, or 100% if the host does not supply their RFC tax identification number (VAT Act, art. 18-J § II (a)); without an RFC, the ISR withholding also rises to 20% (Income Tax Act, arts. 113-A and 113-C). A host whose income from these activities does not exceed three hundred thousand pesos a year and who has no income other than salaries and interest may elect to treat the withholdings as a final payment, an election that, once made, cannot be changed for five years (Income Tax Act, art. 113-B). If the owner is a foreign tax resident, the treatment is different and governed by Title V of the same act, so a foreign buyer planning to rent should settle their position with a Mexican accountant (contador) before listing the unit. The SAT — Mexico’s federal tax authority — maintains a dedicated section for individuals earning income through technology platforms; it is worth reviewing it with an accountant, because the rates and obligations have changed several times since 2020.

State and municipal obligations stack on top. Quintana Roo levies a state lodging tax on temporary accommodation, which some platforms collect and remit directly under agreements with the state government; confirm whether the platform you will use does so, or whether you must register and remit it yourself. The Playa del Carmen city government, for its part, charges lodging establishments an environmental sanitation duty per room per occupied night, the amount of which is set by the municipal revenue act and updated periodically, earmarked for beach cleaning, waste management and street lighting; the municipality explains the duty on its official portal. During 2026 the municipal government announced that the duty would also apply to vacation rentals and, working with the platforms, set up mechanisms for hosts to obtain the operating licence (licencia de funcionamiento) and the civil-protection clearance for units operated by the night. The specific rules are evolving and their practical application is ongoing; before buying for this purpose, verify on the municipal portal and with a local tax adviser what obligations are in force at the time of your transaction. None of this replaces the previous section: you can be perfectly current with SAT, the state and the municipality and still be breaching your condominium bylaws.

Pets, noise, works and façades

Article 21 lists prohibitions that apply to owners and occupants regardless of the bylaws: acts affecting the condominium’s tranquillity, safety or sanitary conditions; obstructing common services; opening gaps, doors or windows or damaging load-bearing walls; carrying out works and repairs at night in residential condominiums except in cases of force majeure; altering façades or exterior walls in a way that clashes with the whole; felling trees without 75% of the indiviso; enclosing or roofing common parking spaces; keeping animals whose number, size or nature affects safety, sanitary conditions or comfort, with absolute liability for any damage they cause; and carrying out works that endanger the building’s stability. Fines for these behaviours run from 20 to 40 days of minimum wage for some provisions and from 15 to 100 for others — today computed in UMA — plus repair of any damage (art. 67), imposed by the assembly with the offender’s right to be heard (art. 68).

On pets, the law leaves it to the bylaws to determine measures and limits, both inside private units and in common areas (art. 41 § XIII). On works inside your unit, the rule is simple: within your unit you may remodel whatever does not affect the structure, the façade, general installations or your neighbours’ comfort; anything beyond that requires agreement. Ground-floor owners may not appropriate common gardens or patios, and top-floor owners may not occupy the roof or build on it unless the deed provides otherwise (art. 25). If you are offered a penthouse “with a private rooftop”, verify that the roof appears in the founding deed as an annex of the unit; otherwise it is common area — a point that has produced real disputes in Playa del Carmen towers.

Right of first refusal and notice to tenants on a sale

Two rules in the act surprise sellers. First, on the sale of a unit, co-owners’ right of first refusal must be respected, by notarial notice or through voluntary jurisdiction stating the unit and the exact price, and interested parties have 15 business days to state their intention to acquire (art. 15). Second, the co-owners’ right of first refusal takes priority over the tenant’s right of preference, and the tenant in turn has fifteen calendar days to exercise it after the owner’s notice, any sale that conceals the lease being void (art. 20). How these notices apply in practice where the unit has no co-owners, and how far they reach in a condominium with many owners, is a question to be resolved case by case with the notario handling the transaction; what matters for the buyer is to require the seller to state in writing whether the unit is leased and to have the notario document whatever compliance is required.

Buying pre-construction: the condominium that does not exist yet

A large share of the condo supply in Playa del Carmen is sold pre-construction, when the founding deed has not yet been granted or has only just been granted and the condominium has neither an assembly nor a track record. That calls for a different analysis, centred on what the developer promises and on what the law requires of them.

What the law requires of the developer

• Establish the regime before a notario and record it at the Public Registry, with the plans, the technical memorandum and the bylaws certified in the appendix (arts. 4, 9 and 10).
• Evidence completion of works or post bonds in favour of the municipal treasury: 15% of total value to guarantee completion and 10% to answer for construction quality and defects, the latter valid for two years from full delivery (art. 9 § X).
• Answer, as the original owner of new construction, for hidden defects, with actions extinguishing two years after delivery of the affected area (art. 26 § II).
• Appoint the first-year administrador, whom the assembly may thereafter freely appoint and remove (art. 31 § II).
• State in each acquisition contract that the unit is current on fees and that a copy of the founding deed and the bylaws was delivered (art. 12).

In addition, where the seller is a subdivider, builder or developer selling housing to the public, the transaction falls under the Federal Consumer Protection Act (art. 73 LFPC) and within PROFECO’s jurisdiction, which adds disclosure obligations and the registration of adhesion contracts. Our guide to pre-construction risks and developer due diligence goes deeper into vetting the developer and the project.

The condominium-specific risks of pre-construction

The promotional fee. During the sales phase, developers commonly advertise an estimated fee built on optimistic assumptions, or subsidise it while absorbing empty units. Once the assembly approves the first real budget — with insurance, 24-hour security, pool chemicals and a working elevator — the fee can rise significantly. Ask for the full pro-forma budget and compare it against buildings already operating with similar amenities.

The indiviso table. Review the project’s indiviso schedule and check that your unit’s percentage bears a reasonable relationship to its area and its annexes. A disproportionate indiviso will make you overpay for the entire life of the building, and it can only be changed by amending the deed with 75% of the proindiviso (art. 11).

The developer as majority owner. While it holds unsold units, the developer votes with its indiviso. The law protects you with the 20% and 50% rules (art. 28 §§ VIII, X and XI) and with one-vote-per-unit for electing the administrador (art. 28 § VI), but it is worth knowing how many units remain in the developer’s hands at the time of your delivery.

The management handover. The first year belongs to the developer’s appointee; the first owners’ assembly is usually the moment when it emerges whether the initial funds were actually constituted, whether minutes exist, whether service contracts were formalised, and whether the promised amenities are finished. The law requires a documented handover within seven days and allows an audit of the outgoing management (art. 37). Take part in that assembly even if you live abroad — the law lets you do so remotely.

The master condominium. In multi-tower or multi-cluster projects there may be sub-condominiums and a master condominium, each with its own fee, its own administrador and its own bylaws (arts. 2 §§ IX and XXI, 38 and 39). Ask what the final structure will be, whether the amenities will sit in the master or in your sub-condominium, and how the costs will be split, which the bylaws must set according to indivisos (art. 28).

Physical delivery and the condominium’s start-up. The handover minutes for your unit, the defect inspection and the formal constitution of the funds are simultaneous processes. Our guide to new condo delivery, hidden defects and warranties contains a system-by-system checklist that complements this section.

Condominium evaluation checklist before you buy

This list condenses the above into the order in which a Playa del Carmen purchase usually unfolds: first the offer, then the promissory agreement, then closing. Each item cites the statutory article that supports it where one exists.

Documents to obtain

1. Founding deed of the regime with its recording details at the Public Registry of Property and Commerce (arts. 9 and 10), including the indiviso table and each unit’s permitted use.
2. Current condominium bylaws, with any recorded amendments (art. 41).
3. Minutes of the assemblies of the last two years, at least the semi-annual ordinary ones (art. 28 § III).
4. The approved annual budget currently in force (art. 31 § VIII).
5. Account statements for the last twelve months showing balances of both funds and of the bank accounts and investments (art. 36 § X).
6. The consolidated statement of outstanding contributions and fees, to measure delinquency (art. 36 § X (b)).
7. A schedule of extraordinary fees approved over the last three to five years and what they funded.
8. The building’s current insurance policy with covers, sums insured and deductibles.
9. A major-maintenance plan, if one exists, and recent technical reports on elevators, cisterns and structure.
10. Proof that the administrador’s appointment is recorded at the Public Registry (art. 36 § XVIII) and, if external, their contract and CFDI tax receipts (art. 35).
11. The minutes constituting the oversight committee and its most recent annual report (arts. 31 § VII and 40).
12. A no-debt certificate for the unit signed by the administrador plus CFDI for the last three fee payments (art. 46); a statement of arrears also signed by the president of the oversight committee (art. 49).
13. A current predial receipt issued by the municipal treasury of Playa del Carmen and, where applicable, no-debt certificates for the unit’s water and electricity.
14. A written statement from the seller as to whether the unit is leased and, if so, a copy of the lease (art. 20).

Questions to ask

• What exactly is my indiviso, and how was my fee derived from the budget?
• What share of the fee goes to the reserve fund, and what is its current balance?
• How many units, and what percentage of the indiviso, are in arrears, and what collection actions have been started?
• When was the last extraordinary assessment, how much was it, and what was it for?
• What use does the deed assign to my unit, and what do the bylaws say about short stays, guests, pets and maximum occupancy?
• Does the condominium have open litigation, as claimant or defendant?
• How many units are still held by the developer or by a single owner?
• When were waterproofing, façade repainting and major elevator and pump maintenance last carried out, or when are they scheduled?
• Do the amenities I am being offered belong to my condominium, to the master condominium, or to a third party (for example, a beach club under contract)?
• Do my parking space, storage locker and, where applicable, rooftop appear in the deed as annexes of my unit (art. 14)?

Red flags and how to read them

Signal	What it usually means	What to do
No reserve fund, or a token balance	High risk of extraordinary assessments; possible misuse of the fund	Ask for an explanation in the minutes; discount the risk in the price, or walk away
High delinquency with no lawsuits filed	Passive management; compliant owners subsidise defaulters	Check whether the bylaws redistribute arrears (art. 43); demand a collection plan
Fee far below comparable buildings with the same amenities	Unrealistic budget or promotional fee	Request the itemised budget; project the real fee
Administrador with no recorded appointment and no oversight committee	Informal governance; difficulty collecting and representing the condominium	Make the purchase conditional on regularization, or price the risk
No minutes, or no assembly held in over a year	Breach of art. 28 § III; decisions without support	If you are already under a promissory agreement, request an assembly before closing
Bylaws unrecorded, or different from the ones actually applied	Unenforceable rules; latent conflict	Verify at the Public Registry; demand the recorded text
No hurricane cover, or a very low sum insured	Catastrophic risk transferred to the owners	Estimate the cost of adequate cover and its impact on the fee
Residential use in the deed but the building operating as a hotel	Legal risk and conflict among owners	If buying to rent, look elsewhere; if buying to live, assess what community life is really like
Amenities shown in renderings but not constituted as common areas	They may never be built, or may belong to a third party	Require their description in the founding deed (art. 9 § VIII)

Building the fee into your purchase and investment decision

Total carrying cost

The maintenance fee is the largest recurring cost of owning a condo in Playa del Carmen, but not the only one. Full annual carrying cost adds the ordinary fee, a sensible provision for extraordinary assessments based on the building’s history and the state of its reserve fund, the municipal predial, individual insurance, the annual fideicomiso trust fees if you bought as a foreigner in the restricted zone, and, if you rent, operating costs and taxes. Expressed as a percentage of the property’s value, that number lets you compare buildings with very different amenity sets and decide how much you are willing to pay for a rooftop pool or for 24-hour security. For an investor, it is also the bridge between gross rental income and true net yield.

Building size, amenities and economies of scale

Small buildings — eight to twenty units, common in Centro and Colonia Gonzalo Guerrero — spread fixed costs such as security, administration and elevator service across few indivisos, so each amenity weighs heavily on the fee; in exchange, governance tends to be more direct and decisions faster. Large towers and complexes in the north of town, in Coco Beach and Zazil-Ha, or master condominiums out towards the federal highway and Playacar, dilute fixed costs across many indivisos but introduce two layers of administration and a greater risk of dispersed delinquency. Neither model is inherently better; one is better suited to your use. Full-time residents value stability and community; nightly-rental owners value operations and amenities; buyers planning to retire here value predictability and a healthy reserve fund. If you are torn between product types, our buyer’s guide to condos for sale in Playa del Carmen walks through neighbourhoods, product types and what to inspect on each viewing, and our guide to houses and villas in gated communities of the Riviera Maya applies this same logic to subdivisions and horizontal condominiums.

High fee, low fee, and resale value

In the Playa del Carmen market, informed buyers reward well-run buildings: a healthy reserve fund, low delinquency, up-to-date minutes, current insurance and well-kept façades translate into liquidity when it comes time to sell, because the next buyer — and their notario — will ask for exactly the same documents you are asking for now. A reasonable fee that funds real maintenance protects your capital; an artificially low one erodes it. That is the golden rule with which to read any offer, including those in our catalogue of condos for sale in Playa del Carmen, where we publish the current fee and the indiviso whenever the condominium provides them.

Your obligations once you are an owner

Buying is the beginning. As an owner you will need to pay the fees for both funds and any approved extraordinary assessments on time, respect the deed and the bylaws, ensure your tenants and guests receive and comply with them, notify the administrador whom you have granted representation to, take part in assemblies — in person or remotely, review the account statements and object in writing within 30 days if something does not add up (art. 36 § X (f)), and pay your municipal, state and federal contributions both on your unit and on your pro-rata share of the common areas (art. 47). You also have rights: to inspect the documentation at any time, to demand receipts for every payment, to request the presence of a notario at significant assemblies together with 25% of the owners, to call an assembly with 25% of the indiviso, to stand for the oversight committee and, if management fails, to move for its removal and audit. The condominium regime works when the owners make it work; Quintana Roo law, after its successive reforms, gives you enough tools to do so.

If you are evaluating a specific condo in Playa del Carmen and want a second reading of its founding deed, its bylaws and its account statements before you sign, you can get in touch with us; we handle the condominium review as part of our buyer advisory, always in coordination with the notario público and, where the case calls for it, with a specialised lawyer or accountant. This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice for your particular situation.

Frequently asked questions

How are maintenance fees calculated for a condo in Playa del Carmen?

Quintana Roo law requires contributions to the maintenance and administration fund and to the reserve fund to be set in proportion to each unit’s indiviso — the percentage the founding deed assigns to your condo out of the condominium’s total nominal value (arts. 9 § VI and 42 § II). The assembly approves the expense budget each year (art. 31 § VIII), and each indiviso’s fee is derived from it. If someone quotes you a fee without a budget and without an indiviso, ask for both before comparing it with other buildings.

Which condominium documents should I request before buying?

At minimum: the founding deed recorded at the Public Registry of Property and Commerce, the current bylaws, the minutes of the most recent assemblies, the approved budget, recent account statements including the reserve fund balance, the delinquency report, the building’s insurance policy, proof that the administrador’s appointment is recorded, and a no-debt certificate for the unit signed by the administrador, accompanied by CFDI tax receipts for the last three fee payments. The law entitles you to inspect the condominium’s documentation at any time (art. 36 § III).

What happens if the seller owes maintenance fees?

Fee receivables are secured preferentially by the unit itself and follow it even when ownership changes (art. 49). That is why the law obliges the notario público to demand from the seller a no-debt certificate signed by the administrador and the tax receipts for the last three payments before drawing up the purchase deed (art. 46), and requires the acquisition contract to state that the unit is current (art. 12). In practice, any arrears found are settled from the seller’s funds or withheld from the price before signing.

Can the condominium stop me from listing my unit on vacation rental platforms?

Leasing your unit is a right that does not require the other owners’ authorization (art. 15), but it is subject to the law, the founding deed and the bylaws. If the deed assigns a strictly residential use, you may not devote the unit to another use (art. 17), and changing that use requires the agreement of 100% of the owners (art. 21 § X). If the deed contemplates residential-tourist use, the bylaws may still regulate maximum occupancy (art. 21 § XI), guest registration, amenity use and penalties, and your guests must receive and comply with the bylaws (art. 19). Read both documents before buying for short-term rental.

When can the condominium sue a delinquent owner?

An account statement reflecting the arrears, default interest and the agreed penalty, signed by the administrador and the president of the oversight committee and accompanied by the outstanding receipts and a notary-certified copy of the assembly minutes or bylaws that set the fees, is directly enforceable in the civil executive procedure; the action becomes available once three ordinary fees or one extraordinary fee are unpaid (art. 43). In addition, the delinquent owner loses the right to vote while the arrears persist (art. 32) and may be fined by the assembly (art. 67 § IV).

What is the reserve fund and who controls it?

It is the condominium’s financial reserve, built from owner contributions in proportion to their indiviso and earmarked for extraordinary, emergency and unforeseen expenses (art. 2 § XIV). The administrador collects it (art. 36 § VII), it may be invested in demand securities while unused (art. 42 § III), its investment is supervised by the oversight committee (art. 40 § VI), and its balance must appear in the periodic account statements (art. 36 § X). A non-existent or token reserve fund is one of the most important red flags when evaluating a building in Playa del Carmen.