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The urbanisation conservation entity (EUC): who looks after the green areas

Who looks after each green area in an urbanisation: the community, the town hall or, if there is one, the conservation entity. What Andalusian law says, and an example from Málaga.

By Sergio Domínguez6 min readUpdated 30 October 2026

In some urbanisations two bills arrive: the community’s and the conservation entity’s. And the same question comes up at every meeting: the bank by the entrance, the green area on the corner, the trees on the pavement, who is supposed to look after them?

The short answer: it depends on whose land it is. What’s inside the plot is looked after by the community. The street and the public green areas, by the town hall, once it has taken over the works. And if there’s a conservation entity, the public areas are still municipal, but the owners pay for them, with a separate fee that can be collected through enforced collection.

First, whose land it is

The line is drawn by the fence, or better, by the urbanisation’s plan. What’s inside the plot is private: in a community, the garden, the hedges and the trees belong to the owners, and they’re paid for out of the community fees.

Palm trees and shrubs behind a metal railing on a low wall, next to a tarmac street; weeds grow at the foot of the wall, on the outside.

A garden with palm trees behind a fence, and the street in front. It isn’t from here. The weeds growing at the foot of the wall, on the outside, are the question this article is about: who clears them?

Outside is a different matter. Andalusia’s land law, the LISTA (Law 7/2021), says so in article 98: once the town hall formally takes over the urbanisation works, they become municipal property, and looking after them is its job, including “the maintenance of urban public space”. In other words, the street, the pavement with its trees and the public green areas.

Until that handover, the duty lies with whoever developed the urbanisation, and the cost counts as a development cost.

Who looks after each green area, from above

Inside the plot, the community. The garden, hedges and trees inside the fence belong to the community of owners, and are paid for out of its fees.

Outside, the town hall. The street, the trees on the pavement and the public green area become municipal once the town hall takes over the urbanisation works, and from then on it looks after them.

Unless there’s a conservation entity. Then the public areas are still municipal, but the owners look after them, grouped in the entity and with a separate fee. The community still looks after its own garden.

When there’s a conservation entity

The same article makes an exception: the upkeep can fall to the owners, grouped in an urban conservation entity (entidad urbanística de conservación, often called the EUC), for the term set when it’s created. The law calls this exceptional and limits it to three cases:

When three quarters of the owners take it on, voluntarily and with stated reasons.
When the plots are in an area marked out, with justification, for that purpose alone.
When the town plan provides for it on grounds of economic sustainability.

What it is, and why its fee isn’t like the community’s

A community of owners is private. The entity isn’t: the law defines it as a public-law body, with its own legal personality, which is also a collaborating urban entity and under the supervision of the town hall.

The difference people notice most is collection. The entity can ask the town hall to collect overdue fees through the vía de apremio, the authorities’ enforced collection procedure. And the land doesn’t change hands: the green areas it looks after are still municipal. What changes is who pays for their upkeep.

An example from Málaga

It’s easier to follow with a set of statutes in front of you. Those of the Miraflores del Palo conservation entity, in Málaga, published by the town planning office in 2025, say this:

What it looks after. The urbanisation works and the public facilities in its area, including the roads and the public green areas, which belong to Málaga town hall while their upkeep falls to the owners.
What it doesn’t. The private plots, with their unbuilt open space, still belong to their owners.
Who the members are. All the owners in the area. Where there’s a community of owners, the member is the community, and each neighbour pays according to their share in it.
How much each pays. In proportion to the square metres of plot. And no one can refuse to pay on the grounds that they don’t use the works or the services.
If it isn’t paid. A 10% surcharge once the deadline has passed, a demand with a month to pay and, after that, enforced collection through the town hall.
For how long. No end date. Whatever the town hall eventually takes over, the entity stops looking after.

These are one entity’s statutes, not everyone’s: each has its own. In Mijas, for example, Sitio de Calahonda has its conservation entity, with statutes approved by the town hall, a General Assembly and a board elected by the assembly every year.

Why it matters for the garden

Because knowing whose each green area is stops it being paid for twice, or by no one.

The tree lifting the pavement. If it’s on the public pavement, looking after it isn’t the community’s job: it’s the town hall’s or, if there is one, the entity’s. What can be done about those roots, in tree roots lifting the paving.
The gardening contract. It should say which areas are included. If the community pays one gardener for the bank outside and the entity pays another for the same, it’s being paid for twice. What else to look at, in your community’s gardening contract.
The firebreak strip. Andalusia’s forest-fire law names collaborating urban entities among those who must draw up the self-protection plan for an urbanisation in a Danger Zone. What it requires, in the 15-metre firebreak strip.
Water. In its note of June 2024, in the middle of the drought, Málaga town hall said that much of the green space these entities manage is watered with groundwater, not drinking water, like the public parks. Mains water and groundwater didn’t have the same rules during the drought.

What to check in your urbanisation

Whether there’s an entity. The law requires every town hall to keep a Register of Collaborating Entities: it will be there. And in the deeds: the Miraflores statutes require the deed of sale to include the commitment to pay for upkeep.
What’s public and what’s private. The urbanisation’s plan says so, and the town hall has it.
Whether the town hall has taken over the works. If not, and there’s no entity, the upkeep still lies with whoever developed it.
What each contract covers. The community’s and the entity’s, area by area, so nothing is paid for twice or left untended.
How long the entity lasts. The law talks about the term set when it was created. In the Miraflores statutes, there’s no end date.

This isn’t legal advice. What counts in each case is what the entity’s statutes and the town hall say.

In short

Inside the fence, the community. Outside, the town hall, once it has taken over the works. And if there’s a conservation entity, what’s outside is still municipal, but the owners pay for it, with a fee that can be collected through enforced collection.

It’s worth knowing where each line falls before signing a gardening contract. If you look after the green areas of an urbanisation, what we do there is in communal garden maintenance.