Emma-Louise

Hi guys,

I've just had a call from my Mum who rents a friends apartment, the friend lives in the UK and is really bad with paperwork.....

Mum has already very nearly had the electricity cut off, even though she pays the money for the rent and bills into the owners a/c.... so we have suspicions that there are constant embargos on the account and never enough money in there....

Mum has permission to open all post in the owners name, and now the owner has received a couple of green/white official looking papers, with details of around 10 grand worth of debts...

Mum doesn't live near me, so I cannot see the paperwork for myself yet, but it has the words 'embargo de bienes' on it, I looked up bienes and it means goods.....

Could they be like UK debt collectors that you hear about, where they come and take your TV etc?.....

Help!

Veleta

It sounds like it, yes. 'Bienes' are your assets. So it sounds like they are talking about seizing assets.

Emma-Louise

Hi Veleta,

Getting an embargo on a bank account is quite normal here, do you think that they try that first then this would be the next step?

Mum doesn't have a rental contract, so they might take her stuff!

Rotor

Maybe an idea to look for another apartment before its to late , there`s plenty around , not nice but sounds neccesary

Emma-Louise

Hi Rotor,

No its nothing like that..... the annoying thing is that the owners have more money than sense, literally!

It is quite a plush apartment in Marbella and when bills come in they just pay them, so if they haven't received facturas for any reason (mainly the crap postal system) they don't chase them up, they probably don't even know what they're paying for half the time!

I think that they are IBI payments, but don't know for sure.....

Around 4 months ago, they offered the apartment as a favor to my Mum, but Mum insisted on paying rent......needless to say we didn't know about these problems before...

We are obviously worried that they may come and try and take Mum's stuff away!

Loco

Based on what you say Rotors advice is spot on.

Forget her "friends" seem to own a plush apartment in Marbella and seem to have more money than sense.

The bottom line is her "friends" appear to be in serious financial trouble and as the taxman seems to have acted it is quite possible your Mum will get a visit very shortly and will have to convince the "bailiffs" she owns every single item she does own and it is NOT the property of the debtor" NIGHTMARE!

Legally the key word is Embargo

I will PM you a decent explanation in English from a Spanish law firm.


Best

Loco

Emma-Louise

Thanks Loco,

I've sent that explanation onto Mum, so that she can send it on...

The problem is that they do have the money to pay the debt, but the worry is that will it get paid in time!

Fingers crossed!

jdr

They would take the cash owing and the bailiffs fees even on the day of the visit, much easier than trying to flog second hand stuff.

jackytoo

Do they have Baliffs in Spain?

jdr

Court bailiffs, but no private ones as far as I know.

whitelinen

I had an embargo on biens delivered in person by police and it was my car they wanted, the police came with some kind of immobiliser. The amount on the demand was less than a thousand euros and my car was worth 30,000 Euros

As a cautionary tale, I had never received any notification whatsoever of any money owing to seg soc (paperwork gave dates of 3 non payments of autonoma) and even though I had proof that all payments had been made the police were not interested and still wanted my car.

AFAIK Hacienda, Seg soc etc dont go to Court to do this. Hence no bailiffs just police.

Fortunately we had more than 1 vehicle so just left the one they wanted in our garage for a few days whilst the gestor sorted it out. It was a traumatic experience at the time and we never ever received an apology.

big wheels

I'm sure that I remember watching a Spanish documentary about private companies who turn up mob handed in liveried vans containing a number of big blokes wearing fancy dress costumes. They blow whistles and carry placards re the debt, in order to cause as much humiliation as possible for the debtor.

Nothing like the couple of "discreet" shaven headed bruisers that you associate private company bailiffs with in the UK

whitelinen

They are cobradores del Frac, employed by companies or individuals to try and shame the debtor into paying as can take years and a lot of money to pursue debtors through the courts. They often target the wife of a debtor, following her on the school run and in to town etc.

However the tax office, town hall etc dont need to go to court they can go straight for goods such as a car or the house.

big wheels

That's them. I couldn't remember the name.

Emma-Louise

Blimey! At least the letters arrived at the house, so we have been pre-warned!