Padron

Strictly speaking, it doesn't need to be renewed at all, as the computer systems should recognise if you move. In practice, town halls may ask you to prove you still reside in a municipality, and where I live Orihuela do this every five years.

Many people get confused by others saying that a padron needs to be renewed every three months. That's actually a load of rubbish. There may be circumstances where you're asked to produce a padron that's less than three months old to carry out some procedure, but all you do then is go to the town hall and get a copy of the padron. This isn't a renewal; it's just getting a currently dated copy.

In the early days when we were having to jump through various bureaucratic hoops, I very soon got fed up of going to Orihuela. It's amazing what you can do if you've got Adobe Photoshop on your computer!

Our town hall told me I must renew my padron in September this year, at the end of a 5-year period.

They told me that padron must be renewed every five years for residents, and every two years for non-residents.

Geoff.

Not quite right. You get a currently dated copy of the original. Renewal, as I said, is when the town hall request you to do this.

The Padron HAS TO BEEN RENEWED if you not are a Spanish citizen!!!!

Check out this site for details. 

https://thecostablancaguide.com/municipal-information/padron/

I totally disagree. The link you give, which is undated, doesn't mention anything about renewal.

The most recent Spanish law that I've read states that the IT systems should take care of changes, and renewal therefore should not be necessary. However, many town halls, understandably, call upon padrón holders to renew their subscription to the padrón every few years. I'm fully in agreement with this; in my case it just means a trip to Orihuela every five years with passport and residencia.

We joined MUNA and we’re told to go on the Padron. We went to enroll last week at the Town Hall at the the top of the urb. As we don’t live here and are not here for more than 6 months a year, we were not allowed to go on. As the girl stated “if I owned a holiday home in the UK and visited for holidays I wouldn’t be allowed to vote in UK Elections”. I suppose she has a point 🙂 Susan

You were correctly informed, Susan. It's actually illegal to register on the padrón if you're not resident.

Incidentally, we're only allowed to vote in the local elections, not the national ones.

We registered on the Padron yesterday.  For a non-resident you need to renew every 2 years.  For a resident it is every 5 years.  The confusion may be related to the document you receive when you register.  This document is only valid for 3 months, so in the unlikely event that you have to produce physical proof that you are on the Padron after this 3 month period you must go to the Ayuntamiento and ask them for an updated copy of your Padron certificate.

At the end of the 3 month period the document expires but you are still registered on the Padron, you just do not have the document to prove that if you need one.  Hope this makes sense.

I must admit that I get fed up saying this - it's illegal to register on the padrón if you're not habitually resident.