Military authorisation - Page 2

As far as I’m aware it’s anything within two miles of the coast and only necessary for non eu citizens 

more than two miles on the coast, a line from north of Torrevieja to south of Mazarrón via the outskirts of Murcia city

A very big area

Yes that’s what we had, it was a bit less than three months in the end but it really added to the expense. 

Hi, yes long winded indeed. We put a deposit down on a house in Los Dolses, tentative completion date of 10th September due to these checks, told date might even have to be put back due to possible backlog!! Hopefully not! 🤞🏻🤞🏻

Just seen this post.  We are buying a new build property not far from Cartegena and although we signed the contract pre BREXIT and the property was well on its way being built we were forced to get a military authorisation as there is a naval base about 25 miles from where we are buying - it was news to us but were alerted by the developer and not our lawyer who should have been all over it! 

Unfortunately we had to fly back to the UK before Christmas because of a family bereavement and have been stuck here since.  We had to try and do everything remotely which was not easy as it was not obvious what was required exactly.  Anyway after a lot of frustration we found out out what we had to get.  A police criminal record check, an apostille and all documents translated into Spanish.  You pay for everything.   You pay and get criminal record check from the UK Police (ACRO) and although it was sent back to us pretty quickly with a nice hologram to show authenticity we had to get a apostille from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Legalisation Office) at more cost.  Having got that we thought we were sailing but no we also had to have the police certificate (a few lines only - name, address and nothing found was all that needed to be translated) and our passports translated into Spanish by an official translator who have set rates and it cost us more.  The papers were finally submitted by our lawyer in January and we are still waiting for the clearance - what we will do if they don't approve we don't know as we have sunk all our money into the property that we are buying and the Notary will not sign the transfer deed until there is a military clearance certificate!  You also need to build in time for all the processes as you can't do everything at the same time - you can't get the apostille without first getting the police certificate and if you are in the UK paying someone like DHL for guaranteed delivery to your lawyer in Spain or whoever you use.  

All told not a pleasant experience (easy as the ACRO stuff is done online as is getting the right paperwork printed for the apostille from the UK Gov website but not not pleasant) and it cost us

for the ACRO certificate £55 each (total £110 + registered post £5 - we went for the standard service which is up to 12 working days though they came back a lot quicker.  Premium service is £95 each certificate and turnaround 4 working days),   

for the apostille  £35 each (total £70 - the apostille is £30 each but you have to pay £5 courier costs).  You can use their Premium service but have to use a company to do this as it is not available to individuals and costs £75 each and the certs are taken and collected by the company in London so bank on other costs to get it back to you if using a company as they will charge their management fee.

For the translation services €217 total (around £190 in total for the few lines in the passport and the ACRO police certificate - it has to have an official translator seal and all translators charge by the sheet not number of characters or lines!

Total GBP cost £375 excluding the lawyer fees! 

If you are in Spain and have Residencia you might be able to do it all in Spain but we have no experience of this.Hope this helps.

Good luck with your purchase. Ours went through absolutely fine but in total the military authorisation cost us well over a thousand pounds. 

This link shows the area approximately

https://murciatoday.com/brexit_collides_with_1975_military_law_in_spain_british_housebuyers_must_now_obtain_military_permit_1552969-a.html

The area is not as you will read precise according to the write up.

What a cost,  luckily I have an Irish Passport (Irish Parent but I was born in England) so can avoid, it makes the cost of of getting Irish citizenship for my son look cheap @ €278, plus the cost of the passport application.

I fear this is really going to impact on the saleability and value of our properties.  A large percentage of homeowners in this area are British but I would expect  a lot of would be British buyers will be put off by this additional delay and cost. 

Thanks we are sure it will be fine but it is the stress on top of all the other stress of BREXIT, COVID, Residencia,  driving licences and getting our stuff from the UK to over there when we can!  

You’ll get there in the end. Good luck x