[Anonymous]

All,

I am buying a property in Murcia and flying over to sign the paperwork in 4 weeks time, and to collect the keys.

My lawyers have emailed me asking for ‘Power of Attorney’. I said to them that since we will be coming to Spain to sign the Notary, mortgage etc etc, I prefer not to give a Power of Attorney. They rang back, saying that they still need it as they will need to get my NIE number and to pay our taxes in Spain.

Can someone please enlighten me on this?
Do we REALLY need to give a PofA to the lawyers just to get a NIE number?
What is the normal procedure?

Thanks and regards.

[Anonymous]

I applied for an N.I.E. number in Puerto del Rosario on Fuerteventura on 13th December 2005 just before I had to leave. I left it with a local lawyer who did have a PoA from me and he collected the N.I.E. on the 14th December (although they said it could take a week!). However, even though I have used this law office for several years, if I hadn’t been leaving for Christmas I would have collected the document myself. I went to the relevant Police office, “Direccion General de la Policia” of the “Ministerio del Interior” so you would need to locate this office and your lawyer could give you directions. You have to fill in a form, get it copied and also hand over a copy of your passport. I waited for about 5 minutes to get the form, filled it in, went to a local shop which did photocopying and went back and handed everything over. You can do it all yourself and you just need to keep a copy of the form for when you go back to collect the N.I.E. Since the form was not a problem for me I didn’t need help but I’m sure someone at the police station would help if you needed assistance.

For the Notary costs relating to the Escritura you can pay these yourself, just ask the Notary for an invoice and give him a cheque or pay in cash. Similarly, the Land Registry normally has a tax office linked to it and you can pay any taxes relating to the sale direct to this tax office “Oficina de Liquidora”. You can pay the Land Registry to get your Escritura once it is registered (they will not release it until the applicable invoice is paid). You will need to check how much time they need but 15 working days should be enough. You just have to make sure the escritura gets from the Notary to the Land Registry as soon as possible and again there is nothing to stop you doing this yourself, thereby ensuring you know what’s going on.

For your annual land taxes to the town hall, water and other utility bills therre is nothing to stop you setting up direct debits with a local bank as anywhere else in Europe.

If you are happy to do so I would try to do any mundane matters yourself if you can but would always recommend you use a good lawyer for anything on the legal side or where you have doubts. Also a good lawyer would not misuse a PoA.

Good Luck

Terry English

[Anonymous]

…or you could always apply for your NIE number in the UK – search for previous threads on this. No point in paying a solicitor to do something which is simple enought to do yourself. And free!

[Anonymous]

Or your estate agent may be able to get you a NIF – a fiscal number that all Spanish have that means you can pay your taxes, not only on your house purchase, but in general. You’d still need a NIE if you want a residencia but (I think) as Spain is part of the EU, and you are a EU citizen you may not legally need one…but banks etc ask for them all the time.

Here in Asturias, I had to make an appointment to get our NIEs, its in May, having finally got through to the office in Jan…

Heather

[Anonymous]

We went up to the Spanish Consulate in London ourselves to start the ball rolling for our NIE numbers. We asked our Spanish solicitor to send us the relavent forms we needed which they filled in parts for us . Put x’s where we needed to sign(idiot proof for us) we then took our passports and and extra photo each along with the paperwork to the consulate . They validated our passports gave us copies which we had to pay for can’t remember think it may have been about £20.

We then sent all the forms etc back to soliciitors to deal with in readiness for when we need to go over and complete on house.

You can down load all the forms off the internet as well and everything is explained how to obtain your NIE.

So lots of options open to you.

axwhale

[Anonymous]

Thanks axwhale for your excellent post.

A couple of questions…. firstly, which web-site can I get the NIE forms downloaded from? I tried google, but didn’t have much luck.
Secondly, if I apply to the spanish consulate in Londona, do you think this gives enough time to get the NIE before 30th March?

Thanks and regards

P

[Anonymous]

You can download a NIE form from this website,
http://www.spanishpropertyinsight.com/spanish_property_nie.htm

No idea about timescale, sorry!

Heather

[Anonymous]

Hi Punjabi,

I have sent you a PM re NIE’s

[Author]

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