Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

seven-day-weekend

If we snuff it in Spain, we will just have a funeral in Spain. Although we intend to return to the UK at some point anyway, so this may not arise.

We have had Spanish and English wills (with translation) drawn up by a professional will writer.

If my husband died here in Spain I would not want to be here without him and would return to the UK.

seven-day-weekend

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

We have just exercised our democratic duty and voted in the Spanish council elections. In Spain we can vote in Council and European elections - in the UK we are still registered as non-resident voters and can vote in Parliamentary and European elections (obviously we can only do the European in one country!). Our son has a proxy vote for us in the UK.

In our village there were two main candidates -the doctor from one party and the bank manager from another. The Bank manager is the existing mayor.

We were sent a list of candidates from both parties and an envelope. How you vote is you decide which party you want, put the whole list in the envelope and take it to the polling station.

My heart told me to vote for the Dr because I like him better than the bank manager, but in the end I voted for the bank manager because he has done a good job as mayor and also one of the British expats from our village is a prospective councillor for his party, which will be useful.

There were nine candidates on the list, but the number of councillors they will actually get depends on how many votes they have.

Very interesting!

Well, the Bank Manager won the election in our village.

However, the administrative district also includes another larger village and two small hamlets, and we don't know what's happened there.

So watch this space!

Inactive

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

So if the Guardia don't know the law, what chance have we poor expats got?

Exactly, there seems to be so much conflicting information on this issue.

It is about time all Driving / Motoring legalities were standardised across the EU.

Why are MOT's / Driving Tests not standard across the EU for instance?

So confusing and so inconvenient.

seven-day-weekend

Inactive wrote: »

Exactly, there seems to be so much conflicting information on this issue.

It is about time all Driving / Motoring legalities were standardised across the EU.

Why are MOT's / Driving Tests not standard across the EU for instance?

So confusing and so inconvenient.

Agree absolutely.

(although the MOT test would have to be slightly different for UK cars as our cars' headlights dip the other way).

That's because we do things differently to the rest of Europe. In it, but not of it.

Inactive

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Agree absolutely.

(although the MOT test would have to be slightly different for UK cars as our cars' headlights dip the other way).

That's because we do things differently to the rest of Europe. In it, but not of it.

Agreed, but it is time car makers realised that their vehicles sold in Europe may well be driven on either side of the road and incorporated a simple switch mechanism to alter the beam to suit, not too difficult I would have thought.

Yes, I also agree, we are " in it, but not of it "...hence the currency nightmares.;)

missile

Inactive wrote: »

Exactly, there seems to be so much conflicting information on this issue.

It is about time all Driving / Motoring legalities were standardised across the EU.

Why are MOT's / Driving Tests not standard across the EU for instance?

So confusing and so inconvenient.

It is the fact things ARE different that attracts me. PS: My Audi already has a switch on the headlights for conversion to UK.

seven-day-weekend

I love the things that are different, but I hate the sloppiness of no-one knowing what the law is. Sometimes here in the bigger towns, the Guardia apparently fine you if they THINK you have broken the law! It doesn't bother other expats, they look upon it as part of the quirkiness of Spain (which it is), but it winds me up SO much!

AND we had to buy completely new headlights for our SEAT (made in Barcelona!).

Inactive

missile wrote: »

It is the fact things ARE different that attracts me. PS: My Audi already has a switch on the headlights for conversion to UK.

That is good news, so no excuse for other makers not to follow the example of Audi.;)

missile

Hi SDW, How are you enjoying the sunshine today? Just back after a visit to our local wattering hole for breakfast.

I guess I have been fortunate, because I have always found the Police Local, Municipal and Guardia to be more efficient and helpful than their jobs worth equivalents in the UK. I would suggest if one is in doubt it is better to check the rules. If one's spanish is not up to a visit to the appropriate authority then an email / letter to http://www.costablanca-news.com/ will generally yield a more accurate response than rellying on ex-pat gossip.

I think we agreed it is far better to buy a car in Spain? I found similar issues some years back when I imported my car from the Netherlands into the UK. I got a visit from Customs & Excise who wanted to arrest me and impound my car, because I breached some obscure law which requires import duty to be paid before the car is advertised for sale. Obviously I knew I had to pay if I sold it, but did not wish to pay until I got a satisfactory offer.

PS: If Guardia issue a spot fine, which you think is incorrect, you have the right to refuse and will be taken to the nearest Guardia office where you can argue the issue. Alternatively you can take the receipt to the GC office and argue for a refund.

In the "new property hot spots" like Turkey, Morroco, Bulgaria it is a different story. Not to mention Nigeria, Baku and the Far East.

seven-day-weekend

missile wrote: »

Hi SDW, How are you enjoying the sunshine today? Just back after a visit to our local wattering hole for breakfast.

I guess I have been fortunate, because I have always found the Police Local, Municipal and Guardia to be more efficient and helpful than their jobs worth equivalents in the UK. I would suggest if one is in doubt it is better to check the rules. If one's spanish is not up to a visit to the appropriate authority then an email / letter to http://www.costablanca-news.com/ will generally yield a more accurate response than rellying on ex-pat gossip.

I think we agreed it is far better to buy a car in Spain? I found similar issues some years back when I imported my car from the Netherlands into the UK. I got a visit from Customs & Excise who wanted to arrest me and impound my car, because I breached some obscure law which requires import duty to be paid before the car is advertised for sale. Obviously I knew I had to pay if I sold it, but did not wish to pay until I got a satisfactory offer.

PS: If Guardia issue a spot fine, which you think is incorrect, you have the right to refuse and will be taken to the nearest Guardia office where you can argue the issue. Alternatively you can take the receipt to the GC office and argue for a refund.

In the "new property hot spots" like Turkey, Morroco, Bulgaria it is a different story. Not to mention Nigeria, Baku and the Far East.

So have we!

No-one here seems to know the law, even people who are supposed to, like the police, lawyers and gestors. I think it's because until relatively recently this part of Andalucia has gone its own way because of its relative remoteness and traditional lifestyle and people have taken the attitude that if a law passed in Madrid does not affect them or affects them adversley. they will just ignore it/break it. There is rarely anything done about it anyway. (Here, a British expat with an illegal car has just stood as a Councillor for the Mayor's party!) Underdeclaring of property sales is totally accepted, even by the lawyers,and you probably won't get a house unless you do it. They don't actually care that much about the law, so no-one really knows what it is, especially for something like a car. I don't think many of the locals here have even taken a driving test!

It's quirky, it's anarchic, it's different, but it can be horribly annoying too!