I was mixing the renta with the imputed income tax.

The IBI, Basuras, standing charges for agua, luz etc might not be huge, but they are paid year-round and often for many months when the property is empty and not consuming.

Of course second home owners might be using bars and restaurants for a few months a year compared to holiday makers using them only for a week or two.

As predicted, the French constitution council have thrown out the supposed special visa waiver for British homeowners in France.

There is no appeal procedure so it's the end of the road.

A rather simplistic take (and I don't actually remember its being predicted that the Constitutional Council would reject it , although I'm open to reminders)

The reason given for the rejection is, apparently, that the method of introduction of the amendment to the original Bill was unconstitutional, but no judgement was made as to the constitutionality the content of the amendment itself. That would leave plenty of road for a re-introduction of the proposal into the legislative procedure.

Good luck with that. I suppose you can hope.

Im not suggesting it will ever go through but your post doesnt really reflect the true reason for rejection and its certainly not the end of the road (albeit a pretty long road)

Not sure I need luck or hope on this matter - I don't own a 2nd property anywhere.

I am a bit of a stickler for facts, though

Apart from the constitutional issues the reason for rejection was that it was discriminatory in that it applied only to British 2nd. home owners and not other non EU citizens.

One rule for all.

Good morning Forum Folks , the following is a couple of my personal observations , with reference to above discussed 90/180 rule . Number 1 ; On our last visit , ( to Portugal ) , my wife and i were stopped at Border Control by a gentleman who informed us that , according to his computer , we had been visiting the EU rather frequently and were we aware of the 90/180 rule ? I replied that " Yes " we did and offered to show him my collection of boarding passes , passport stamps , calendars and calculations spanning the last two and a half years , which he refused on the grounds that his computer had all the information he needed . When asked where I could validate my calculations his reply was " You must be careful sir " .... he didn't know . Number 2 ; I have made a point of asking people we meet about how they manage with matters such as residency , 90/180 , long stay visas , health plans , etc , and guess what ? A large proportion of the people I have this conversation with answer with what amounts to " Aw we don't worry about stuff like that " . They don't know or don't care . It is my personal view that when EES and ETIAS are launched transport hubs will be jammed solid with travellers who don't know or don't care , lines of passengers so long that the infrastructure implodes , people becoming so upset that chaos threatens . Maybe it won't be like that and everything will run smoothly .

That was not the reason for the Constitutional Council throwing it out it and thus far, it had passed the other stages, despite objections from some quarters during those stages on those grounds.

There are still people near where we live that have still not gained residency, drive with UK licences but with Spanish cars.
Mainly they do it because they reckon they wont get caught, just because they havent doesn't bother them at all.

That may be the case but yesterday we bumped into some friends who have lived here for something like 20 years, they are resident but have been driving a 2009 white transit van around and still have Uk licences.
They were stopped last week and the van was impounded, their licences were taken from them and they are waiting for the fine or a court case to appear.
They were complaining about having to take taxis and buses because they cant get the licences back until the fines etc have been paid.
For the past five years they have been doing the local rastro but now they cant do that either.

I have very little sympathy for them, even though we know them quite well and consider them friends..

When the ETIAS thing finally kicks in, maybe yes it will stop lots of people, but there will still be many who will quite happily survive as they can and will find dodges to trick the system.

I would guess that such people and I'm sure there will be plenty although less than there used to be will get away with avoiding residency and Schengen rules so long as they don't leave Spain. That way the border officials remain unaware of them. Or they come to the attention of authorities / Police for some reason. The people you know you mention are resident but breached licence and vehicle rules. I'm sure the police will now have them on their database and radar even after they pay penalties. Personally not a way I would wish to live looking over your shoulder even though they may appear to not care, life is easier to just fully comply .

People will finally have to face reality and the fact that they need to obey and respect the rules of the country they are travelling to.

And they WILL learn very quickly, I have absolutely no doubts as to that. Especially if the penalty for overstaying could mean being barred from entering the entire Schengen area (so not just Spain!) for years.

People don't learn (and often don't care) even in countries with far stricter immigration laws. The casual overstayer will probably think twice because of a fine risk but many won't care.

I think it's a case of knowing what the odds of getting caught are. Today there doesn't seem to be a care in the world. But if the new system means that 100% will be caught out and then banned from entering the Schengen zone for years, there won't be any risk-takers except for those who are truly surprised because they were unaware of the changes...

I’m not so sure people will be banned for years unless it’s something serious or repeat offending, fines would be the first step, or at least that is typical in other countries.