HISTORY
The Official Chambers of Urban Property were created by a Royal Decree of 16th June 1907 with the aim of defending and encouraging the interests of urban property and its constitution was recognised by the Ministry of Development. The Royal Decree of 25th November 1919 of the Ministry of the Interior created in each provincial capital or town of over 20,000 inhabitants a mixed commission of conciliation and arbitration for the owners and tenants of town properties and established the compulsory licensing of the owners of town properties by the Official Chambers of Property. At the proposal of the Ministry of Development, Royal Degree of 28th May 1920 approved a provisional Regulation for the reorganisation and operation of the Chambers of Urban Property (composition, electoral procedure of the executive boards, organisation, operation, resources and administration, and relations with the government, the authorities, and corporations).
The Law of 30th May 1941 established a new procedure for the appointment of the governing bodies of the Chambers: the Ministry of Labour appointed the presidents from among those proposed in a short list by the Civil Governor of the province, and the committee members were appointed by the Civil Governor at the proposal of the President of the Chamber from among the licensed urban proprietors.
A decree of 10th February 1950 approved a new Organic Regulation of the Chambers of Urban Property, which was modified by another decree of 2nd February 1956: they were defined as official corporations subject to Public Law that provided compulsory services and other voluntary services and were maintained by an obligatory charge paid by their members proportional to the amount of council tax, although other additional charges or special taxes could also be established. Since 1960 (Decree of 25th February) these charges were unified and validated in a single fixed permanent quasi-fiscal levy that the Chambers received from their members under the denomination “charge of the Chambers of Urban Property”. This ruling of 1950 was current until the year 1977 (Royal Decree 1649/1977 of 2nd June); in its turn this decree was modified by Decree 2619/1986 of 24th December. As from this date the executive boards of the Chambers choose their respective presidents.
The process of the disappearance of the Chambers of Urban Property began with Law 33/1987 of 23rd December on General State Budgets for 1988, Article 109.3 of which eliminated the levying of the “charge of the Official Chamber of Urban Property”, rate 24-04. A year later the equivalent law on General Budgets for 1989 (Law 37/1988 of 28th December) eliminated the obligation of affiliation to the Chambers. The final tenth Precept of Law 4/1190 of 29th June on General State Budgets for 1990 eliminated the Official Chambers of Urban Property. However, a sentence of the Constitutional Court of 20th June 1994 declared said precept to be unconstitutional and abolished it, but Royal Decree Law 8/1944 of 5th August adopted the content of the aforementioned final Precept; it abolished the Chambers and regulated the system and fate of their net assets.
Nowadays the Chambers of Urban Property of Castilla y León take the legal form of Associations of social interest and are regulated by Law 5/2006 of 16th June of the Autonomous Region of Castilla y León.