It is more than just registering for a licence. - Page 2

You would need to check with the site as to whether they allow letting of the caravans.  A static caravan is not a residential property so cannot meet the necessary standards that a house or apartment is required to meet for the usual Tourist License, so it would be best to talk to a solicitor for proper advice.  IF you can let it out then you would still be required to fulfill all the obligations regarding tax and registering of guests, meet all the safety requirements and standards.  The Town Hall would need to issue the Compatibility Certificate before you can apply for a license so it may be best to first ask at the site office about holiday letting and then at the Town Hall as both would be free information.  Sorry I cannot help more.

How do you arrange paying utility bills and similar if you have a holiday home, (and no friends in Spain that will look after this for you while you’re away) when you only spend part of the year in Spain?

Set up direct debits - your lawyer should have done this for you when you bought the property.

Kind regards, 

Kim

All your utilities and other regular payments can be paid via direct debit.  Like Kimmy, I am surprised it wasn't setup as part of your purchase process.  Do you have a fiscal rep who does your non-resident's tax return?  If so they may be able to set these up for you in your absence as covid is making it difficult for you to visit and do this yourself.  It is also a good idea to have someone checking the property for you you either weekly or fortnightly when it is empty, but this should be done by a legal business which has insurance.  Keyholding services are not expensive and can often be tailored to your preferences on regularity of visits.

I haven’t bought a property yet. But of course it’s obvious. I guess you must pay them from a Spanish bank? Otherwise there’d be exchange fees to pay...

When/if you do buy a property, make sure your lawyer does this - it should be part of their service.  You can have a Spanish bank account, but if you're not planning to become a resident, it will be more cost effective to set up one of the online banks that have a European IBAN, such as Starling, Revolut, Monzo or N26.  Spanish banks aren't free and most of them charge high fees, especially for non-residents, e.g. Sabadell currently charges €36 per quarter just to have a current account.  I believe Cajamar's Wefferente account is still free, but best to double-check that.

Kind regards, 

Kim

HI Davebev1,

How much are the current costs to apply for a tourist license in Orihuala Costa region?

Thanks a lot

Sava

The Town hall can charge an admin fee for the certificate but I am unsure how much OC town hall are charging (€35 euros was the fee recently for another town hall).  The License application itself is free but you will need to obtain an energy certificate if you do not have one (they last for ten years) so that will cost, price dependent on who you use.  If you have purchased the property recently then you should be able to use the energy certificate that was issued before the property was sold.

If you are not in Spain to sort the paperwork then ask your current legal rep or gestor if they handle the applications - they should charge separately for each stage because of the many months involved in waiting for your compatibility certificate and also because they cannot apply for the License if that is refused, so insist on paying only for the Town Hall certificate application first.  While waiting for that you can collect together the additional documents you need for the License application which can be done on line or by posting the application form to the office in Alicante (address on the form).  If you are not confident about filing the application then you can pay for that to be done on your behalf - certainly easier if you are not in Spain.

If you would like the name of a local and reasonably priced firm that handles both applications and will set up your Guardia Civil appointment, get your plaque and  complaints forms as well once you have the license, I can private message you a contact.  As a rough guide, the total cost of all stages combined should not come to much over €250 if you pay someone to do it all for you - I have heard of people being charged twice that by 'agents' or agents offering to obtain the license for free in return for you being tied into them handling all the advertising and rentals afterwards - not an option I would recommend because it is YOUR property so you need to stay in control of who stays there and when, and the License belongs to the property not the agent.

Hi Davebev1 really helpful post. Just wondering if you have a link to the Spanish complaints form which needs to be downloaded and displayed at the property. Also I asked at the Guardia civil and the officer suggested that an A4 folder could be used for the complaints book but I’m not sure fully what he said so just wondering about where to obtain this official book near villajoyossa. Thanks.

Hi.  

If you private message me your email address I can attached the notice in a pdf for you to print off.  I can also send you the official Valencian guide for holiday lets too with the various links in it.

The Complaints book is an official block of forms - it's one of those complicated systems that they like to use for admin in Spain where you have to pay for it separately to ordering and collecting it.  Due to a time constraint on the visit when I got mine I asked in advance for my fiscal and legal rep (gestor) to get me one and I paid them for it instead.  They had a couple in stock as they get them for various businesses as well, same form.  The Complaints forms themselves are best kept locked away where your keyholder can access them, but the notice needs to be displayed.  The notice to say you have them is in Spanish and Valenciano only so very few people are going to know what it says anyway!  In 5 years I have never been asked for one.  In fact in 15 years we have never had any complaints filed at all, just a couple of moans from some difficult guests about the wind (in March), rain (it happens even in Spain) and the bed being "too bouncy" (no, I didn't dare ask what they were doing!!!!).