council tax
 

we are newcomers to owning a property in spain .can anyone advise how you pay your council tax ,and community charges .we have had the property since april .do you pay in person at the town hall (aymuento)or do they bill you as in the uk.are property is in daya nueva .

Re: council tax
 

usually they bill you (as long as they have your details) ours comes around August time to be paid by end September - but if differs from area to area

might be an idea to go to the office that deals with your particular area and check they have your details - they do fine you (not a massive amount) if payment isnt made on time

Re: council tax
 

Our local town hall hand delivered all our "council tax" bills up here, and we had a month to pay them after receipt - €400

Re: council tax
 

You have to attend you Town Hall with your title deeds Escritura together with you NIE and bank details. You should then be billed in June but as Spain stated above it varies village to village. They will soon tell you also if the previous occupier paid his bills because now they are down to you if your legal representative has not done his home work.If the house isn't legal they will not accept monies from you. ;)

Re: council tax
 

You have to pay the first bill manually, subsequently most Town Halls have a facility for them to be paid by direct debit but it is still your responsibilty to actually make sure it is paid.

Don't forget about water (if provided by the Town Hall) and basura. These come out on different bills.

If you purchased your property in April this year the IBI for 2008 should be paid by the seller as, according to law, it must be paid by the person who was the owner of the property on the 1st January of any given year even if he then sells it the next day. You, or your representative, should have made a retention from the purchase price to cover this.

The IBI receipt for 2007 should have been incorporated in the escritura so if it had not been available it would have been an indication that the property was not registered for its payment and could be illegal.

Re: council tax
 

if its a new property then you may not be able to pay for a while.when we went to pay they said you cant yet as its not in the sytem.it took about 3 years before we could pay.

Re: council tax
 

Yes, true. I bought an apartment in Arroyo de la Miel in 1999 which was completed in 2001 and the IBI has only just come through. The good thing is that they can only charge you for the last four years!

In this case, when purchasing, a certificate should be obtained from the Town Hall by the seller to say that the property is in order and that the IBI is in the pipeline. A retention from the purchase price should also be made in order to pay for the backlog when it is issued.

Re: council tax
 

... if you're in the campo there will also be the rural (land) tax. This is separate to the property (IBI).

For the first year, as you won't have owned the property in january, the previous owners details will be against your property. Even if you or your lawyer have notified them of change of ownership, their records will still show the other persons name, address (postal maybe) and bank account. It is up to you then, to manually go and insist on a bill for this first year.

We had to argue strongly about this as they claimed they had already sent the bill out (but to the previous owner). I was told that I had to contact them to be able to pay it. Some weeks later, I went in to the town hall again and argued the point only to be told that as the account was in default, I would now have to pay the 5% surcharge:curse:. Anyway, we got our lawyer involved again and had this surcharge dropped.

Since then, it has been paid annually by direct debit.

Re: council tax
 

Your solicito should have passed the relevant bank details along to the Community, and to the local tax office so that the amouns can be taken out of your acount, usually community charges are due in January, and council tax varies from area to area. When we owned property ours was always done by direct debit, council tax being only one annual bill, and usually only about 10% of the UK level.

Re: council tax
 

Is this true? If the house isn't legal they won't accept monies from you?

Re: council tax
 

I know of people living in illegal houses who still pay tax

Re: council tax
 

Well that's what I thought. If anyone knows any different I would be happy to hear about it.

Re: council tax
 

Course they do, look at all the illegal places in Marbella, they still take the taxes off them.

Re: council tax
 

I suppose one could therefore argue as the bulldozer approaches you have accepted taxes from me therefore you accept the building is legal. I am sure there are stated cases within the Spanish legal system that have clarified that point because by accepting your money they are effectively aiding and abetting an illegally built house. :blink::blink:

Re: council tax
 

I would say that taking fees and taxes in respect of a property they subsequently claim to be illegal is tantamount to fraud.