Suma

Hi Mags,

SUMA is the agency in the Alicante province that collects municipal taxes (those levied by your Town Hall), such as IBI (Council Tax) and car tax.  All property owners, irrespective of whether you are resident or non resident in Spain, have to pay IBI on your property.  When you bought your property, the Cadastre (land registry) would have been updated to show that you are the new owner.  However, whoever owns a property on the 1st January each year is responsible for paying the IBI, so it is possible, for example, that if you completed on the purchase of your property after 1st January, the previous owners would be responsible for paying that year's IBI.  In that instance, it would be usual, as part of the completion statement, for your lawyer to make a retention from your purchase funds to pay the IBI, should the previous owners fail to do so.  When we bought our property, our lawyer arranged transfer of all utility bills from the previous owners to our name and set up direct debits with our bank to ensure continuity of payment - it may be worth asking your lawyer whether they did this?

All that said, if you've owned your property a couple of years, you should have paid at least one annual IBI bill, so it would be prudent for you to contact your local SUMA office to find out the status of your billing.  Your Town Hall can go back up to 4 years to recoup unpaid IBI and also impose a fine for late payment, so it's worth resolving this sooner rather than later. 

https://www.suma.es/en/oficina-torrevieja

Kind regards,

Kim

Thanks very much, all the utility bills were fixed out but nothing about Suma was mentioned that's why I've just heard about it, I'll sort it out straight away.

Hi Mags,

It would be unusual for a lawyer to set up direct debits for your utility bills, but not your council tax.  It may be worth double-checking your bank statements for any transactions that mention SUMA and/or IBI ('Impuesto sobre Bienes Inmuebles'), or even ask you your lawyer.

Kind regards, 

Kim

Thanks very much, will look into it.

In most areas, which I think includes Torrevieja SUMA also collect the Basura payments.

Check who you are paying for your Basura, If a DD has been set up to pay this to SUMA, then the payment for your IBI will also be taken albeit at different times of the year. 

Lynn

What is the Basura, I pay non resident tax, water and electric didn't get told about anything else. Thanks 

Hi Mags,

"Basura" is your refuse collection.  It used to be charged as part of our water bills, but I think most Town Halls have now separated it out and collect it direct through SUMA.

Kind regards, 

Kim