sTeamTraen

Hi,

Perhaps someone here has recent experience with this and might be able to help?

My wife and I have fallen in love with Palma and decided to buy a flat. We saw just the right place and put in an offer, which was accepted. We signed a contract for a sale that has to be completed by 31 May, and have paid our deposit. (We have both lived outside the UK since the early 1980s and have previously bought property in the Netherlands and France, so we know most of the drill.)

I knew that I would need an NIE, but all the web pages I found said this was easy, just turn up at the police station with your passport. (There are some other ways, but they all appear to involve notarised copies of documents, which is a pain.) We are currently living in France, but it's no trouble to hop on Ryanair or EasyJet down to Palma, so I planned to take a couple of days off (it's not exactly an ordeal to make another visit!) to do this, open a bank account while I was at it, then arrange the rest of the finance and send the money over.

Then I found this page which says that there is a new system that seems to make it even easier to get an NIE. Go online, get an appointment, turn up with passport, job done. So I went to the web site and found that the only appointment I could get before the deadline is on 30 May at 13:50.

That might just be OK, but it's the last appointment of the day. And if I've understood correctly, they give you a form which you then have to take to the bank (which might be several hundred metres away, and which anyway may well be closed from 13:00 until 16:00), and then go back to the oficina, which in my paranoid visions will be closed. And then if I go back at 9am the next morning (31 May, notario signing day) they will tell me to make an appointment, which will be for six weeks later. So I won't be able to sign, and our deposit will be forfeited.

Sadly, although we are fluent in French, Dutch, and German, neither my wife nor I speak any Spanish worth mentioning. We can read more or less everything, but we can't phone people up and ask complex questions! The estate agent is doing his best, but he mainly deals with local buyers (the apartment we are buying is in a modest block with mostly local families), so it's hard to convey my sense of worry to him!

I'm sure it won't all turn out as bad as the worst-case scenario above, but does anyone have any tips? Are there some "no-appointment" slots to get an NIE?

Thanks for any reassurance anyone can give!
Nick

Rosemary

Hi and a warm welcome to the Spanish forum on BE. Myself and Fred James are the moderators for the Spanish forums whilst BEVS moderates Europe. Moderators are there to ensure that the site runs smoothly within the rules of BE. This is so that members gain the information that they are looking for and find their experiences on the forums to be friendly and worthwhile.

Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderator who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are usually friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge about the issues of living in Spain. I hope that you enjoy your time participating in the forums.

Please let me know if you need any further help.

Rosemary

amideislas

I can't vouch for the "current" system, but I know they've streamlined a lot of processes and reduced bureaucracy significantly.

In the past, when you've had your first scheduled appointment and need to return with payment slip or otherwise, You don't need a new appointment. But you do need to sign in and wait in a queue. And they speak English. If you'd rather speak German or another language, ask. They can assign several people who speak different languages.

Most banks close at 14:30. In the past, the oficina assumes you have an account in a Spanish bank. You can make the payment at your ATM with your card, and print the payment slip even when the bank is closed. Otherwise if you have no account, you'll need to go to the teller when the bank is open and pay cash. There's a LaCaixa just down the street. They do it all the time for non-account holders.

Good luck.

KieronF

You could always find a reliable solicitor and give them Power of Attorney to obtain the NIE for you ..............

alexstrong29

Hi there, sTeamTraen I was interested to read about your story buying a place in Majorca. We have seen somewhere we love and are about to start the process of getting an N.I.E number. I really wanted to know what happened in the end with your purchase? Did it all go through?
Alex

christmasoompa

Hi, welcome to BE.

This thread is from last April and the OP hasn't been on the forum for a while, so you may be better off starting your own thread to ask others experiences.

HTH.

Rosemary

Hi and a warm welcome to the Spanish forum on BE. Myself and Fred James are the moderators for the Spanish forums whilst myself and BEVS moderate Europe. Please read the Site Rules Site Rules | British Expatriate Community adhere to them so that the site runs smoothly. Moderators are there to ensure that the rules of BE are maintained. This is so that members gain the information that they are looking for and find their experiences on the forums to be friendly and worthwhile.

Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderator who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are usually friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge about the issues of living in Spain. I hope that you enjoy your time participating in the forums.

Please let me know if you need any further help.

Rosemary

johnnyone

I agree.
The lawyer who acted for us when we purchased did everything under a POA. This included setting up a bank account, all utility co. accounts and dd's etc. as well as arranging our NIE's.
We turned up and picked up the keys.

alexstrong29

Hi thanks for the info

Would you happen to remember your lawyers contact details? Would you recommend them?

Thanks

Alex

johnnyone

Our lawyer is based in Oliva and only works locally.