Good morning guys.

We have owned a duplex apartment on a complex in Costa Teguise since 2001, for which no ayuntiamento local taxes have been paid. Complex community service charge is up to date. We have largely never lived there, and have rented out the property for most of the duration of our ownership to try and cover costs, prior a proposed retirement there. No mail has ever been forwarded to our uk address, tenants have never informed us of any demands received. Can only assume there have been none. Before I approach the council for on line registration and enquiries of our debt. Is there any advice anyone could give please? We have no idea of the annual charges for a two bed duplex? nor the likely debt that we will encounter ? Thanks in advance.

The IBI - Impuesto Sobre Bienes Inmuebles - annual Municipal tax is calculated based on the Catastral value of the property which you should be able to get from your local Ayuntamiento, assuming you do not have that information,. So start there.
Each area has a different %age charge but typically may be about 0,5 % - 1,0% . The tax is normally charged in 2 six monthly installments along with a separate tax charge for Basura - rubbish collection.

So why has this come up now? You have suddenly realised? I would say it does need sorting out and any other issues which are outstanding. Are you doing the Modelo 210?

thank you. Very helpful.

Hi there, thanks for the reply, excuse my ignorance, what exactly is a Modelo 210?

Oh dear, either I am misunderstanding your situation (which I doubt) or you have a lot to sort out - google it!

Yes. Thank you I did google.
We realised before our initial post that we had much to address, however didn’t expect a mountain to climb. The obligatory tax returns for non residents has come as a total shock. If I’m not mistaken, introduced in 2011, (some 10-11 years into our ownership)) of which we were never aware nor informed.
We realised we would have to “come clean” with the local council and our post was to reach out to the local Uk expat community to gauge the type of reception we would likely receive from them. The council to my knowledge have never taken any legal steps to enforce payment, is this normal? Has anyone had experience of this situation? Are penalties enforced or are they inclined to forgiveness of any description providing the core debt is addressed?
Our rentals have never provided income of any description or significance, merely contributed to costs. Funds have always been one way traffic from Uk to Lanzarote. We have suffered that pain expecting our financial commitment to provide an uncomplicated retirement and some form of return on our investment. Unlikely now if the authorities are about to take a large chunk.
Frankly, the obligations & declarations that I now understand exist for any Spanish property owner has, sad to say, soured our appetite for the country. To have to spend one’s retirement filling in tax forms, after a lifetime of doing so in Uk, I personally find distasteful.

Thanks again for your assistance.

I'm afraid you ARE mistaken about when the non-resident property tax was introduce, 2011 has nothing to do with it. I bought my first property in Spain in 2003 and I certainly paid it then. Didn't you do any research about taxes and other obligation like the IBI bills before you bought, and didn't the lawyer you used for the purchase (at least I hope you did) explain these things to you?

Claiming unawareness of these matters is not going to cut any ice with either the Ayuntamiento or the Agencia Tributaria, they will have heard it all before a million times. Thinking of yourself as the victim of unfair treatment by the authorities won't help either, the vast majority of people who have bought properties in Spain will have done their homework and been paying the appropriate taxes all along so they will face no such problems. Complaining about "one way traffic" of costs between the UK and Lanzarote, and the "pain" of the cost of Spanish property ownership? Puhleeese. Do you own property in the UK and does it come with costs attached - Council Tax, extra Council Tax if it's a second home, rental income earned having to be declared (whether you make a profit or not), utility bills, maintenance and repair costs? Of couse it does. So why expect ownership of a property in Spain to come magically free of any such obligations?

We bought in 2004, nobody bothered to tell us about the non residents tax or other expenses but we had done thorough research so dealt with everything on our list. We were to!d that it was a good job that we did this as ignorance of the rules was not an accepted excuse and that there were very heavy fines for those who did not adhere to fhem.

Rosemary
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Have to agree with Lynn and Rosemary. Owning property comes with responsibilities and liabilities!

I suggest contacting a reliable professional locally to resolve the issues.

It is usual for the solicitor when you purchase your property to set up standing orders for the ayuntamiento taxes and IBI. The non residents tax is not done by direct debit you submit it annually. Standard non residents tax is fairly simple to do oneself for a standard property . However as you have been non resident and renting out your property that may complicate the issue as i guess you would be taxed as non resident on the income rather than simply the valor catastaral ? You say you haven't had much profit just covering expenses etc, the expenses side of tax on property rental used to allow for certain expenses but for uk citizens not since brexit. My advice would be seek proper legal advice as it would seem by failing to carry out research or ask questions when you bought you have got yourself into a real mess that needs sorting out. Even in UK if you buy a holiday home one knows that council tax must be paid, why would Spain not have similar. I would seek professional advice sooner rather than later.

Another issue you may have is with renting what type of rentals, did you have a licence to rent out your property as it may well be the case that you needed one. You mention no mail re taxes was forwarded to the uk ? Spanish authorities wouldn,t do that they would send mail to your Spanish address. Did you have someone managing your rentals if so it would be for them to forward mail on to you. Or did you let somehow yourself. The local ayuntamiento generally send out their tax demands quarterly and the IBI is annually.

Good point. But in the UK it's impossible not to know about this because you will receive a bill in the mail. When I rented a flat during my uni years I think I got a council tax bill delivered through the letterbox within a week of moving in.

Of course this goes without saying that unawareness doesn't unfortunately change anything from a legal perspective. Heck, even a mistake by one's accountant is no excuse and is treated by authorities across the world as YOUR mistake.

In the OP's case are we talking about local council taxes or national ones? I only rent here so no idea what the landlord has to pay. Anyway, best to address the issue sooner rather than later. Do you guys think it's best to hire a local professional to handle the matter or do it on one's own if it's a council/local tax issue by speaking to them, getting the correct amount owed and paying up in the hope that this will minimise any penalty since someone dealt with this proactively?

I'm not convinced that this isn't a wind-up, as it would be very unusual to say the least for an Ayuntamiento not to have put an embargo on the property if IBI hasn't been paid since 2001.

Yes thats true Lynn