First Study of Horizontal Property Receivables in Colombia

Pre-registration

This document was published before the first response was collected. The questionnaire below is the one being administered, unchanged. Should any question be modified, the change will be recorded on this page with its date and reason, and will remain visible alongside the results.

Questionnaire frozen on

30 August 2026

Fieldwork

30 August to 13 September 2026, with the main collection at the congress (3 and 4 September)

Expected publication

September 2026, at this same address

Revision

Revision of 30 August 2026, before the first response was collected: arrears bands were extended to 60% or more, «oldest debt» was replaced by the average age of the overdue balance, free-text fields were added for «Other», and the article 51 question was reframed as a knowledge test rather than stating the answer before asking.

Questionnaire administered

Administered at the Certeza stand beside the registration area. Approximate duration: 90 seconds. Fielded in Spanish; translated here for reference.

The questionnaire below is generated from the same code that runs the form, so the published version cannot diverge from the administered one. On non-ordinal questions the option order is rotated between respondents to spread primacy bias; they are shown here in reference order.

1. 1. What is your role?

   Horizontal property administrator · Management company · Member of the administration council · Accountant or statutory auditor · Owner or resident · Other

2. 2. How many communities do you manage?

   1 · 2 to 5 · 6 to 15 · 16 to 30 · More than 30

3. 3. How many units does the community have?

   If you manage several, answer for just one: the most representative of your operation. The remaining questions refer to that same community.

   Fewer than 50 · 50 to 99 · 100 to 199 · 200 to 349 · 350 to 500 · More than 500

4. 4. Type of community

   Residential · Commercial or offices · Mixed

5. 5. What percentage of association fees is currently in arrears?

   Under 5% · 5% to 9% · 10% to 19% · 20% to 29% · 30% to 39% · 40% to 59% · 60% or more · I don't know precisely

6. 6. On average, how long has the overdue balance been outstanding?

   Under 3 months · 3 to 5 months · 6 to 11 months · 1 to 2 years · More than 2 years · I don't know

7. 7. When a unit falls behind, how long until the first collection contact?

   Under 1 week · 1 to 2 weeks · 3 to 4 weeks · More than a month · There is no defined moment

8. 8. Do you charge default interest on overdue fees?

   Yes, at the maximum permitted rate · Yes, at a lower rate · Yes, but I don't know the rate · We do not charge default interest

9. 9. Which of these measures have you used in the last 12 months?

   Charging late-payment interest · Payment arrangement · Publishing the list of debtors · Restricting common areas · Pre-legal collection · Judicial collection · None

10. 10. What does it take in your community to move a case to judicial collection?

    The administrator decides · The administration council approves it · The assembly approves it · Not defined; decided case by case · We have never reached that stage

11. 11. How many hours a week does your team spend managing collections?

    Under 2 · 2 to 4 · 5 to 9 · 10 or more

12. 12. In which city or department is the community located?

Method and publication commitments

• The response count, dates, location and full questionnaire are published alongside every figure.
• Every figure is published with its denominator stated explicitly. No percentage is presented without saying how many responses it is calculated on.
• No cross-tabulation with fewer than 30 responses in its cell is published in disaggregated form.
• Aggregate data is published in an open, reusable format under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 licence.
• The dataset will receive a persistent identifier (DOI) in a public repository, so that it remains citable even if this page changes.
• No individual response is published. Neither the community's name, nor the administrator's, nor any individual figure is published.
• Any contact details a participant chooses to share are used only to send them the results and form no part of the published dataset.

Limitations acknowledged in advance

• The sample consists of administrators attending an industry congress. They are predictably more formalised than the national average, so the arrears rate may be understated relative to the real universe.
• Responses are self-reported and are not verified against each community's financial statements.
• The arrears percentage is collected in ranges rather than exact figures, so it can be answered without consulting records.
• If the response count falls below 40, results will be published as an indicative pulse and not as a study.

Independence

The study is Certeza's own and is conducted with administrators attending the Congreso Nacional Inmobiliario de Fedelonjas 2026, of which Certeza is an official sponsor. It is not a Fedelonjas study, was not commissioned by Fedelonjas, and carries no endorsement from Fedelonjas.

See the record of Certeza's participation in the congress