The maintenance of community pools has become a new source of pressure for neighborhood bills: this summer it costs, on average, 9% more than a year ago. The increase affects practically all components of the service, from chemical products to specialized labor, including energy, transportation or technical equipment, according to Raúl Viyuela, president of the Association of Business Owners of Professional Maintenance of Aquatic Facilities (EMPIA). Added to this is that community pools are subject to strict health and safety requirements that require periodic controls of water quality, purification systems and preventive actions to avoid breakdowns or risks. “These are factors that also have a direct impact on maintenance costs,” says Viyuela. Furthermore, some autonomous communities, such as Madrid, have recently tightened their regulatory requirements. The extra cost comes at a particularly delicate time for many neighborhood communities, which in recent years have seen essential items such as energy, insurance, cleaning, janitorial services or repairs skyrocket, progressively raising community fees. Swimming pools, one of the most valued facilities in urbanizations, have thus become one of the fastest growing expense items within budgets. The added problem is that the owners approved their annual accounts at the end of 2025 without foreseeing the increase in costs registered in recent months in the maintenance of these facilities, which, in itself, is not cheap. An average community pool with between 80 and 120 homes usually requires between 12,500 and 15,000 euros per year for comprehensive conservation, depending on the size of the pool, the hours of use, the equipment, the age of the facilities and the staff needs. This summer “they are finding that maintenance costs have increased significantly compared to forecasts,” says Viyuela. Property administrators warn that this unforeseen event is forcing them to make do with bobbin lace. “They are having to carry out real balancing exercises to adapt the budgets to an economic reality very different from what was expected,” says Manuela Julia Martínez Torres, president of the Professional College of Property Administrators of Madrid (CAFMadrid). When a community has limited resources, «different alternatives are studied, such as reorganization of budget items, use of existing remainders, planning progressive adjustments in fees or approval of spills,» adds Isabel Ocaña, vice president of the school. Ocaña says she has no record of communities that have been forced to close the facility due to the extra cost, although some «have reduced the opening hours of the pool.» And others consider awarding contracts prioritizing price over other technical criteria or even dispensing with some items. “No essential element related to safety, water quality or regulatory compliance should be eliminated,” warns Viyuela. The maintenance work of a community pool must be carried out by trained professional companies with qualified personnel, so an economic offer that is too low probably means an insufficient or lower quality service. “In the short term it may seem like an economic decision, but in the medium and long term it can translate into regulatory non-compliance, breakdowns, health problems or higher repair costs,” says Ocaña. The maintenance industry advises planning the budgetary needs of the season in advance and maintaining maintenance programs also in winter to avoid deterioration and higher costs later.
Accidents and deficiencies
In any case, neighbors should know that the ultimate responsibility for the installation falls on them and, in fact, there are numerous rulings related to accidents and maintenance deficiencies in community pools. One of the Provincial Court of Asturias in 2020 held a community of owners responsible for the injuries suffered by a minor in a children’s pool by allowing its use despite knowing the existence of defects in the installation’s coating. Maintaining a pool does not only consist of adding chemicals or performing periodic cleanings. The basic tasks are the daily or periodic control of water parameters (chlorine, pH and other indicators), cleaning of vessels, skimmers and bottoms, supervision of filtration systems, inspection of pumps and dosing equipment, documentary control and compliance with health regulations, prevention and resolution of technical incidents and season opening and closing tasks. Specialized personnel is the item that has the most weight in the bill, around 85%, according to EMPIA, which also warns that pressure on costs reduces the margins of specialized companies. Chemical products (chlorine, pH regulators, algaecides, flocculants and analytical reagents) represent around 5%, while technical equipment and spare parts (filters, pumps, valves, measuring probes or automatic dispensers) absorb another 5%. The rest corresponds to transportation, travel, technical documentation and administrative management. During heat waves, in addition, the work is intensified due to the increase in bathers and high temperatures, which further alter the water parameters.
No inflatables on the terraces
In urbanizations where there is no community pool, neighbors face the heat as best they can. The worst solution is to place the typical inflatable pool on the terrace. The latest example occurred this past June on the first floor of a block in Girona, on whose terrace there was one of these pools with 1,500 liters of water. The terrace collapsed onto a store on an empty ground floor. The main risk is structural overload. “A terrace is not designed to receive any weight, but is designed with certain maximum loads: the own weight of the construction and an expected overload of use for people, furniture, maintenance, snow where appropriate…” explains the Official College of Surveyors and Technical Architects of Madrid. And he adds: “The normal thing is that a common terrace in a home is not calculated to support the weight of a swimming pool.” One cubic meter of water is equivalent to approximately 1,000 kilos. “This means that a pool with only 10 centimeters of water already contributes about 100 kilos per square meter and with 30 it is around 300 kilos, without counting the weight of the pool itself or the people,” he details. To get an idea of the risk, according to the Technical Building Code (CTE), for newly constructed buildings, the usual criterion for the overload of use on terraces and balconies of a home is 200 kilos per square meter, that is, «with 20 centimeters of water we would already be exhausting the overload for which it has been calculated,» say the technical architects. If you still want to install it, it is necessary to hire a competent technician to carry out a technical project with a structural calculation, manage the permits and hire specialized execution.
