Tinker254

Hi, I'm new. We are considering a move to Spain, once our house in the Uk sells which I hope will be soon. We are a young family husband 33, me 29, 2 kids 7 & 5, my husband works away and will keep his current job, we just need to be not to far from an airport that flies to Scotland, I have had a look and found malaga, Alicante to be quite good.

Right, re schooling we would hope to send our children to a state school as I believe they are young enough to be able to adapt plus we could afford to send one child to international school but I think we'd prefer not to be paying out for both of them every month.
Are the state schools really that bad? I have been doing some research and found a thread on here from 2012 where they got slated, plus say if we didn't settle or things changed for work and we had to move back to the Uk for whatever reason would our children find it hard adjusting back into the UK system?

One of my husbands work colleagues is just in the process of moving to Marbella and a few others are already out there in various places around spain so we know it can be done.

Next question, finding long term rent. We have 2 dogs, a British bulldog and a small terrier sized dog do we have any hope in finding a rental and where is the best place to look?
We would have upto €1500 a month to spend, could we get a nice villa for that?
I have been looking on various website but none of them say anything regarding animals, they wouldn't be coming over with us straight away but a few months later

We are hoping to come out in a reccie within the next few months for a look at areas, housing & schools

Thank you in advance

Rosemary

As Concierge for the Spanish section of BE I would like to say hello and welcome.

BE is a very large expat website, so if you have problems finding your way around we have concierges who will try to direct you. The moderators for the Spanish forums are Mitzyboy and Fred James, moderators are there to ensure that the site runs smoothly within the rules of BE. Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderador who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge of the issues of living in Spain. At the top of the page you will find a quirkily named thread called Free Beer which is full of important and useful information. Hope you enjoy your time participating in the forums.

Please let me know if you need any further help.

Rosemary

Countryboy1

I'm sure you've thought about this, but many areas of the coastal parts of Spain are lived in by, shall we say, older people/retirees except of course during the summer season when tourists are over. I mention this because I personally know of two young women whose husbands worked back in the UK and life became very lonely for them whilst their husbands were away. They'd left younger friends and family behind and found it difficult to find new ones of a similar age.
Also there wasn't the opportunity for 'going out' with young friends as there had been back 'home'.
It all depends of course on where you settle, but it is a point to bear in mind.

Dxf

Hi

There are several families where the husband works away around Chiclana (2 hours from Marbella) and you can get a year long rental for around 500€ a month with pool and garden

Davexf

Al_Bryant

Hi Tinker254

My wife and I were in a similar position last year. I was offered a role at a company in Barcelona and we were looking to move to a suburb just outside. Our budget was 1300 a month for which we got a town house with a communal pool. At first I wasn't happy about this but I appreciated it when I found out a friend of mine had 600 euro quarterly water bill mainly thanks to filling up the pool! We could have got a larger detached rental if we'd have gone a bit more rural and there were plenty of properties with pools and 4 bedrooms for 1100/1200 euros a month. We spent over a month trawling the property sites to try and find somewhere but in the end our relocation company set up a number of visits for my wife when she went over to check things out and our property was one of those. Just as a pointer, make sure you get your contract translated and check your obligations on what you have to fix when things break :-). Some rentals have a policy where after 6 months you'll have to fix some of the things that a landlord would normally sort in the UK.

We looked into schools a lot and heard similar things to you about state schools. We decided early on that we wanted to go down the international school route although (as I'm sure you know) it's hugely expensive. One of the reasons my wife wanted to do this was so that if we did come back (which we have) then the curriculum wouldn't be too far from that of the UK. We managed to find a couple of schools that were run by English people but again, they didn't come cheap.

I think the main thing with state schools is that although it's probably good for the long term it'll be a real challenge in the short term unless the kids already have a grasp on the language. Or there are other expat kids already attending the school.

I know some people that sent their eldest to the international school and youngest to the state school as the younger you are the more likely you'll be able to integrate.

Hopefully this helps to some extent but give me a shout if you have anymore specific questions and I'll do what I can to help.

Al

NadiaN

My understanding is that if the rental ad or the rental contract does not specifically say that they do not allow pets, then they are allowed.

At least, that is how it has worked for me in Valencia. I have two cats, and both times I moved the rental contract did not mention anything about pets, so I did not bring up the subject with the landlord. My cats are quiet and clean, and I don't think that the landlord ever knew I had them :-)

Tinker254

I hardly know anyone where we live now in the Uk as we moved away from where we grew up and only really socialise with my family or husband, he is only away for 2 weeks and then he has 2 weeks off, so I am not worried about not 'going out' so to speak.

We are just thinking if we don't do something now that we will get old and wonder 'what ifs', and spain isn't that far away from the Uk if family do want it visit.

I was just worried about the school side of things and finding a rental that would allow our 2 dogs

Neptuno

I think you need to do far more research into the areas of health, tax etc, and you can only do that by going to the horses mouth, HMRC, DWP etc.