La comunidad puso una queja porque el ascensor sigue averiado.

In Spain, la comunidad often means the homeowners’ association / the building residents’ association, short for la comunidad de vecinos or la comunidad de propietarios.

So in this sentence, it usually does not mean the community in a broad social sense. It refers to the group responsible for the building or apartment block.

Poner una queja is a common Spanish expression meaning to make / file a complaint.

For an English speaker, it may sound odd because Spanish uses poner (to put) where English uses make or file. That is just how the collocation works.

Other possible verbs are:

• presentar una queja
• interponer una queja (more formal)
• poner una reclamación (also common, depending on context)

In everyday Spanish in Spain, poner una queja sounds very natural.

Puso is the pretérito indefinido (simple past) of poner. It is used because the complaint was made as a completed action.

So the idea is:

• La comunidad puso una queja = the community filed a complaint at a particular point

That contrasts with:

• ponía = was filing / used to file / kept filing, depending on context

Here, the sentence presents the complaint as one finished event, so puso fits best.

Yes.

• porque = because
• por qué = why

In this sentence, porque introduces the reason:

• puso una queja porque... = filed a complaint because...

A quick comparison:

• ¿Por qué puso una queja? = Why did she/he/it file a complaint?
• Puso una queja porque el ascensor sigue averiado. = She/he/it filed a complaint because the lift is still broken.

Both are possible, but they mean slightly different things.

• está averiado = it is broken
• sigue averiado = it is still broken / it remains broken

Seguir + adjective is very common in Spanish to show that a condition continues.

So:

• El ascensor está averiado. = The lift is broken.
• El ascensor sigue averiado. = The lift is still broken.

In your sentence, sigue emphasizes that the problem has not been fixed yet.

Because seguir can work like a linking verb here, similar to estar.

Structure:

• seguir + adjective
• seguir + past participle used adjectivally

So:

• sigue averiado means
• is still broken

You do not say sigue está averiado. That would be incorrect.

Averiado means broken, out of order, or not working properly.

It comes from the verb averiar(se):

• El ascensor se averió. = The lift broke down.
• El ascensor está averiado. = The lift is broken.

In this sentence, averiado functions as an adjective describing el ascensor.

Yes. In Spain, ascensor is the standard word for lift / elevator.

A learner may also know elevador, but in Spain ascensor is much more natural in everyday use.

So for Spanish from Spain:

• ascensor = the usual word

Spanish usually uses the definite article more often than English does, especially when the thing is specific and already understood in context.

Here, el ascensor means the lift of the building — the one everyone knows about.

Since the sentence is about a complaint from the building association, the lift is a specific, identifiable one, so el is natural.

Yes, absolutely.

These are all possible:

• La comunidad puso una queja.
• La comunidad presentó una queja.
• La comunidad interpuso una queja. (more formal)

The differences are mainly about register:

• poner una queja = common, everyday
• presentar una queja = neutral, standard
• interponer una queja = formal/legal/administrative

Because it refers to one complaint as a single action or filing.

If there were several complaints, Spanish would use the plural:

• La comunidad puso varias quejas... = The community filed several complaints...

The singular here simply presents it as one complaint made for this reason.

Yes. La comunidad is a singular collective noun. Even though it refers to a group of people, Spanish treats it as grammatically singular.

That is why the verb is singular:

• La comunidad puso... not
• La comunidad pusieron...

This is similar to English using singular collective nouns in some contexts, like the team decided.

Yes, it sounds very natural in Spain for two reasons:

1. La comunidad often means the building’s residents’ or owners’ association.
2. Ascensor is the normal word in Spain.

Also, poner una queja is very natural in Peninsular Spanish. So overall, the sentence feels very Spanish-from-Spain in tone and usage.