Mailing addresses
 

Hi for our first post I have I think a pertinent question.

We have seen several topics which refer to receiving mail from official bodies in Spain, now our property which we have had for about 9 months now doesn't have a mail address. It has a full address registered at the notaries when we purchased but as far as we know, we have no way of receiving lettered mail.

Now supposing ( being pessimistic here) that some official body wanted to serve us with a notice of some description, say for non payment of a bill, just how would they do it?

Would it eventually turn up at our UK address? go to the solicitors office? really we have no way of knowing! Surely we can't be the only ones in this position.

Re: Mailing addresses
 

are you still living in the UK?

if it was really important they'd find you:eek:

otherwise it will all just be waiting for you at Correos

Re: Mailing addresses
 

Yes Lynn we live in the UK and come out for a week or so every 6-7 weeks.

So if it was waiting for us at the post office we still wouldn't know about it and going back to being a pessimist, say we didn't pay our local tax and they took possession of the house, we wouldn't know about it until we arrived to find we couldn't get into our home?

We are very rural by the way, the nearest shop is 5 K's away in the nearest small town, our village having no amenities at all, which is why we don't get mail delivered

Re: Mailing addresses
 

I'm no expert, but if you are here that often it's unlikely that anything that drastic could happen between visits

just pop in to the post office each time you visit - ask your nearest neighbour which one

I do believe (though someone will correct me if I'm wrong) that you can have bills etc. sent to your UK adddress

Re: Mailing addresses
 

Thank you Lynn, the only mail we have received so far are bill from the solicitor :rofl: and bank statements showing us the money the solictor tells us needs paying has already been taken!:rofl:

Re: Mailing addresses
 

other way is to find your local correos, there will be somewhere to queue to get mail if you don't have a letter box, otherwise you should be able to rent a box there, and then inform all relevant peoiple to send mail to the PO Box, that way you shouldn't have the possibility of letters being sent back as undeliverable.

Re: Mailing addresses
 

Bri and Katee


Hello, I know a little bit about this from personal experience and for the area of Chiclana de la Frontera, so it may not be the same in others parts of Spain.

When we bought the house (2003) we did not have a postman and it took us months to find out what our address was. We rented a Mail Box and to this address we had all our post such as Electric, Telephone , Bank statements car documents sent to this address.

For the first two years we never received bills for our rates or any other post from the local council, until one day we just happen to be here in Spain on holiday and a chappy on a pop-pop bike shouted over the wall to us. He had two letter one was recorded delivery that we had to sign for and the other he just gave us. Both were bills for our rates (one was for the previous year) giving us a date by which it had to be paid, previous bill had a small fine of 12euros attached. Last year we had a postman but still no council post was being delivered, we went to pay our rates as we knew they were due, told the lady we had not received the bill and she said "that's no excuse, if you do not get the post you should go to the post office and ask if it is there, it is your responsibility to chase these things not ours. Fair enough!!

So this would not happen again we set up a DD with the bank, but we also went to the town hall to register our Mail Box address for post instead of the house address. This was fine and we could do this, last month we received a letter from this department (sent to the Mail Box) telling us that the Mail Box address was not recognised by them as we do have DNI numbers (we have not taken up residency here yet) so we had to fill in another form stating our house address for post. When we take up residency and we have our DNI numbers they will accept the Mail Box for our postal address.

So what it boils down to here in Chiclana is, it is the responsibility of each person to chase their local post office for any post that they think they may have. We know for a fact that a lot of our post when we first moved here was sent to the local Venta (why!!) we had not asked for this and for the first year we did not even know about it. When we did go to have a look it was a little bit looking for that needle in the haystack, we never found one letter for us there..


You say you are rural, if this is the case are you sure you are legal, if not then you won't be paying rates. There are many people here in this area that do not pay rates as they are not classed as being legal. We pay rates but on paper we are not 100% legal as the house (all the houses in this area)
did not have building permission.

I think when you are next here maybe a visit to the town hall will clear things up for you. I have heard people say on other forums that when they have asked when and how to pay their bills they are told, why are you English always so eager to pay your money for things. Good Luck

Re: Mailing addresses
 

Thanks for the further answers, yes the property is entirely legal (new build on 6000sq mtrs of vineyard) All searches and everything ok by our independant solicitor, all paperwork done correctly at the notary's etc.

Currently our bills are paid on direct debit, water, electricity, the ususal. the council tax, (suma?) will be deducted from our bank account when the figures are worked out by our solicitor.

It's other mail that we don't get! for instance, the water and electricity, deduct cash bi-monthly from our account, but we have no idea how much of each commodity we use cos we don't get a bill!

So it looks like we will have to find our nearest post office, possibly Pinoso? and start searching out someplace that we can rent a mailbox.

Re: Mailing addresses
 

I do not think you need to rent a mailbox to receive post at your nearest main post office. CORREOS. If you ask for mail to be delivered to you at "LISTA DE CORREOS" at the town with the correct Postal Code number then you would just go along to the Correos and ask to see the Lista. They should delve into the file and see if there is any post in your name. if there is then you show your passport for ID.
Also consult the Spanish postal service web site:
http://www.correos.es/dinamic/plantillas/home1.asp ;) There is ENGLISH of many pages just click on ENGLISH at the foot of the first page !
So if your nearest and most convenient town is Pinoso, then according to Spanish postal service, the post office is at:
CANOVAS DEL CASTILLO 28
03650 PINOSO (ALICANTE)
and it is normally open from 08:30 TO 14:30 Monday to Friday but on Saturday opens at 09.30 and closes at 13.00
Why don't you experiment and write a postcard to yourself at Lista De Correos at the above Post office, and next time you are in Pinoso go along and ask to see the Lista.

Re: Mailing addresses
 

Thank you for the answer Nige.

That is such a brilliant idea! going to try it from here in the UK, we are next out in four weeks time sothat should give it enough time to get through the system

Re: Mailing addresses
 

Don't know which electricity supplier you have but here in Andalucia, you can register online with Sevillana and see your bills etc.

Re: Mailing addresses
 

We used to get our electricity and water bills delivered to our urbanisation letter box, but since Jan this year, they have just not arrived. The correos changed the postal address and just stopped delivering our bills, they are paid by DD so no problems, but if we needed one for any reason.. then there is a problem.

Re: Mailing addresses
 

So what did CORREOS office say to you and your other 'urbanisers' ? Did they say that all post was now retained at the post office or what !!?? Surely you must have investigated the reason why this had happened and some explanation has been given. Where does your post go to ??? :(

Re: Mailing addresses
 

Supposed to have kept everything for 7 days, then sent it back, no-one has managed to find any of the 'kept' mail, all happened when there was all the problems with the voting papers not being delivered, think they decided to 'work to rule' but they made the rules up.

Re: Mailing addresses
 

anyone know where nearest for moraira is, and how the system works there?