jeanc

This may take a while and some of you may fall asleep, but here goes
The house we are buying is being sold in sterling, the vendors are moving back to UK. Our solicitor says she can get our NIE numbers when we give her POA. I have e-mailed her because we cannot open a sterling bank account without NIE numbers and to see if we could get them when we come over next month. I explained that the transaction was being done in sterling so we needed the account. She says that it will have to be converted into euros once it gets to spain then the sellers will have to have it converted back, does this seen right? The estate agents said that was why we needed a sterling account so that we are not converting back and forth between euros and sterling. I am very confused and i know you all must be getting tired of my questions now but one day I will stop asking! HELP

jdr

Cant you pay for it with a UK bankers draft into the sellers UK bank account, or is that too easy, and pay the solicitor fee with €`s.

jeanc

Thanxs jdr knew you would come up with some advice. Will the solictor let us do that? I don't know why she is so against us getting our NIEs whilst we are over there next month, Maybe she doesn't like getting out of bed early, maybe she's an alcoholic

jeanc

will it have something to do with the tax on the property?

Mitzyboy

No
With Halifax or SOL Bank you can have a sterling and Euro account. Tell her to butt out, you're the customer and you want your NIE numbers!!!

sjrw

Perhaps the solicitor just wants his/her cut.
We went to our local extranjeros department at Torre del mar to get ours. Took a matter of minutes after we'd queued for a while. Couldn't speak a word of Spanish at the time so had to take someone with us, but you don't need a solicitor for that.

jeanc

We opened an account with the bank of santander. He said we could have a sterling account as soon as we had our NIE numbers. I have just paid 10% deposit into the estate agents account in sterling. Wish now I'd gone with the estate agents solicitor, Someone from the estate agent will go with you for NIE and to open bank accounts if you want them too, if you are their customers. They are still being very helpful though.But the other stuff is part of their service.

Sugarlugs

I am so glad this was brought up our situation is slightly similar so you all better sit down.
any advice would be gratefully accepted,
We have put a 6000 euros deposit on our property in Spain and have to fly over to pay the rest on completion, we are waiting for the money from our uk property on completion in about 4 weeks to pay it, we got a partial mortgage with Cajamurcia bank in Albanilla but also have an account with the Halifax in England which our money will go into, can we just drive over to Spain and draw the money out of the Halifax in Spain and pay or do we have to mess about converting it all and is there a limit on how much you can get out when the Halifax bank in Spain is not our actual home branch, or would we have to transfer the money into Cajamurcia from the Halifax in the uk so it is there when we arrive. both our Solicitor and Estate Agent are based in Spain and the Estate Agent keeps e mailing me saying he needs 3 weeks notice for the bank for us to go and sign and we dont have a definate date yet. Please Help I,m riving my hair out

SoJohn

Hi,

I get paid in Euros into a sterling account via IBAN transfer. My bank automatically coverts it into pounds using the latest exchange rates. I bank with the Halifax in the UK.

Sugarlugs

We only opened the Halifax account to use for this transaction we have no intention of using it thereafter so we have no money going in to it at all, the only money will be from the sale of our house so still not sure, is yr bank in Spain then cos that will be yr home branch will it ? and do they charge you for conversion if so how much.

skippernicky

I too have an account with halifax in the Uk. Both they and halifax .es(2 seperate companies- owned by the same group)have told me that I need toopen an account with halifax.es in order to transfer money between the 2 accounts. I cannot use the bank in Spain (Halifax .es) to draw money out of my UK account Unless I open a Spanish account.
Once I have 2 seperate accounts in place I can transfer money between the 2 without charges (Although I dont know what the exchange rate would be.

julie22

Hi JeanC
Not experienced in any way on property transactions, however when we purchased our first property here (14 years ago), the sellers also requested sterling, and we agreed a price in sterling for the property. We paid them in sterling, but the solicitor had to convert the price we had paid into pesetas to place on the escrituras, I assume for tax purposes. We then paid the balance, solicitors fees etc. in pesetas.

jeanc

thanks for the info julie22, think that is what my solicitor is trying so say but it seems silly to convert to euros for it to have to be converted back. Obviously I know we shall have to pay her and the tax in euros. I just don't think she wants to get out of bed early to come and get the NIE with us

julie22

I agree with you, you should get your NIE. However the conversion was only a paper exercise to put on the escrituras and did not at all affect the amount we paid in sterling or the amount the seller received in sterling (surely this should be the same in your case?)

jackytoo

We paid in sterling and it happened as Julie says, just a paper transaction for the legal side. The sterling side was a bankers draft. You just need a small part if the seller has to pay the 3% witholding fee which will have to be paid in euros.