British expats in Oliva - Page 4

Jack58 wrote on Fri Jul 22, 2022 9:47am:

I don',t think do I think you've got it all covered, but remember about the 90 t0 280 day rule about living here

Jack58 wrote on Fri Jul 22, 2022 9:47am:

I don',t think do I think you've got it all covered, but remember about the 90 t0 280 day rule about living here

Eurobazz wrote on Fri Jul 22, 2022 9:53am:

It's 90 days out of every 180 days, not 280 days, Jack58.

Jack58 wrote on Mon Jul 25, 2022 10:23am:

it doesnt apply to Irish as we are still in Europe

Eurobazz wrote on Mon Jul 25, 2022 10:56am:

That has nothing to do with it.  The request was being made by a third country UK national. 

For your information, if an EU citizen is in Spain on a non-resident basis, then the maximum amount of days which can be spent in Spain is 183 days out of every 365.  This is for taxation purposes.  The Spanish authorities have been clamping down on this and can check on when the person...

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... was in Spain by researching ATM cash withdrawal and debit card use details.

andrew c wrote on Thu Jul 21, 2022 10:45am:

Stephanie86

The renting option is a great idea and one we have just started to look at this very moment. As you say we can then check out a number of different areas at different time of the year and decide what is best for us. We intend to come out in october this year for a week. This will be a preliminary...

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... visit to scout out a couple of areas before coming for a month. 

Been looking for short term rentals (a month at the moment) but they all seem to be long term. Will keep looking.

Thanks you for the advice much appreciated. 

Stephanie86 wrote on Fri Jul 15, 2022 1:39pm:

I live inland approx 30 mins drive from Oliva. There are British expat populations in every village and town in the Costa Blanca, although not quite so many in the Northern part, which obviously includes Oliva. There are expat organisations for every area, mostly with a presence on FB, a little o...

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...bvious research will help you.

Without wishing to interfere, I would presume that you are aware just how cold it can be in the Spanish winter in one’s house, the buildings are not constructed to cope with this. You will most definitely need some kind of heating, and remember to bring sweaters and coats! Whilst it can be lovely during some hours of the day, cold is an issue, we only switched off our heating at the end of April. We are admittedly out in the campo, but we have underfloor heating supplemented with a pellet burner which we most definitely need.

I am not familiar with any property professionals there, but would suggest that in the first instance you do some research on Kyero, an enormous Spanish property portal, which can be parsed down fairly precisely to your requirements. You will find the same property listed with multiple agents, as exclusivity isn’t common here. We simply found an area we liked and chose a Spanish agent at random, who could not have been more helpful. But the usual advice is not to use any lawyer or other type of agent associated with your chosen estate agent, as you need someone totally independent from them. Also be aware that what we know as ‘searches’ are not necessarily undertaken by lawyers here, it is frequently expected that you will do this yourself via enquiries at the relevant Ajuntamiento. So ensure that you make a list of everything that you require your lawyer to undertake, Including checking the legality of the building, provision of utilities and the legal Habitación Certificate. There are still, unfortunately, many illegal buildings in the Valencia region. Our own was originally illegal but because of an immense amount of local and political pressure, ours and associated buildings were legalized some years ago, although technically outside the local Planning Controls, so are subject to several restrictions.

Yes, there are annual charges, which vary town to town and whether the land is designated as urban or rustic. These also include charges for refuse collections, and are levied normally twice a year,  but are nowhere near as costly as UK. The easiest method of dealing with it is to set up direct debits with SUMA, the quasi independent collection organisation who are contracted by most local govt authorities to handle this, your abogado/a can help. 

There will also be standing charges for electricity and water, whether or not you use them. Many people do complain about the level of these, but it’s not advisable to ask for the supplies to be disconnected for say ten months of the year as the sheer hassle of reconnection is infinitely greater than picking up the phone! The main electrical supplier, Iberdrola, have a very comprehensive website available in several languages, as is their phone service.

There will be several perfectly reputable abogados/ lawyers in Oliva and would presume that many of them may speak English as quite a few do now.The only lawyer with whom I am familiar and whom I could recommend is Raoul Bover who has offices in Javea/Xabia, is well known locally and who has a very good reputation, also perfect English.

Hope this helps, pm if you want further info.