missile

To be legal:
To buy and register a car in Spain, you need to be on the Padron.
To buy a car in UK to leave in Spain you would need to re-register.

del.Almendro

We recently matriculated our UK plated LHD Fiat 500. We are UK residents and leave the car at our holiday home in Huelva province.

We had to make an appointment at Agencia Tributeria in Huelva to show our Copia Simple (property deeds), passport, NIE. We are non-residents and not on any padron. We paid no taxes as the vehicle emissions are zero rated. No IBI/VAT was payable because we had the original paid invoice from supplying dealer in UK. ITV test was straightforward because we had a Certificate of Conformity. DGT processed matriculation over the counter. This was December 2020. VAT is probably payable since January, based on tabulated car value.

We insured with Liberty Segruros via a broker. Policy documents supplied in English (Liberty are an American company). Had to supply copy of UK licence and passport. We don't have a Spanish bank account and paid with Halifax Clarity credit card (no fees). Incidentally we pay all our ES utility bills by same method.

All parties and agencies were well aware we are UK residents with a Spanish holiday home. No queries were raised by anyone.

Good luck!

Barrie C
Taunton, Somerset

Notdunroamin

Not so.

You need a verifiable address but that need not necessarily be by a padron, property deeds or a proper rental contract will suffice.

I think the confusion about needing a padron arises with dealers who commonly will register a car on your behalf but (wrongly) insist on a padron to do so. Some will not even sell to you without one but that's their loss when you walk away and buy elsewhere!

missile

Perhaps I should have said you need to prove your home address in Spain and being on Padron is the most common and easiest way of doing that.

bobd22

That's true Missile. A few years ago when I was non resident I wanted to buy a little scooter to get around on for longish visits to our house. The dealer said I needed padron I said I am not going on the padron as non resident and pointed out that I had read a copy of escrutira or rental agreement would suffice. He said he would check which he did and said yes that's correct escrutira or rental agreement are allowed. I suppose as always it will depend on where one lives, in my case it was Malaga region.

el collado kid

We had to have a Padron certificate less than three months old to buy a new car. This was six years ago and anything we have been through since you have to have a Padron certificate less than three months old i.e. nhs healthcare (zip card)

Rosemary

The padron is only for residents not non-residents therefore the two types of buyers come under different rules.

Rosemary

SanNico

I'd be tempted to get 3 monthly rentals. A quick search on rentalcars.com showed 335 per month. I would advise an excess policy with a 3rd party to keep costs low.

Notdunroamin

No you didn't but you allowed yourselves to be convinced that you did.

It's perfectly OK for non residents to buy cars, how do you think they do that without a pardon?

Clearly for the state health system (not NHS) and SIP cards (not zip) a padron will be required.

Age of a padron can be a moving target, when we went for our TIE's we'd been unable to get updated padrons in time so went with what we had which was around 2.5 years old, nobody batted an eyelid!

bfg69bug

I´ve been with Liberty Seguros for 20 years, I´ve never had to claim, but I´ve used the tow truck a couple of times. Its €320-€340 a year - for my old car - I got a quote for a new (km0) car, and it was 1/3rd the price.

DLC

If you're interested the full requirements are here. Being a resident is one of them and if you are an EU citizen (as British citizens were), a padrón is the easiest way of showing it.

Requirements for British citizens have changed now (or rather, they're the same old rules which now apply to British citizens).