julieg

Please can anyone help. We are planning to buy a holiday home around Granada and working our way through the list of must do's

We arrive 3rd Jan and leave 7th. From what I am reading we might not obtain our number before we leave. Can we therefore not offer on a house without it?

Am I correct in understanding we must bring 2 signed copies of our passports to prove who we are plus 2 passport photos? Can our UK accountant sign these copies

How do I locate a reputable solicitor, again reading articles it suggests not to use estate agents recommendation?

On your experiences of buying in Spain does it go according to plan or should I expect slow hassle from a distance and several trips.

Any help much appreciated, we have lots to learn no doubt

Thank you

Hillybilly

For advice on finding a reputable lawyer have a look at the spanishpropertyinsight website and forum.
Are you planning to find a house during that short time, 3-7th Jan? I hope you're aware that that is still a holiday period here!

keithwalters

You don't need to have your NIE when you make an offer on the house - you can do this later. If you give your solicitor Power of Attorney they will do it for you anyway.

No photos needed for an NIE number, just the residency card. Number of copies of passports, etc varies according to which office you go to. Best to just leave the whole process in the hands of your solicitor and not worry about it.

I don't know anything about the Granada region, but the Spanishpropertyinsight.com website only recommends one firm of solicitors for our coast and they are the least professional of the lot! So I wouldn't take the advertisements on that website too seriously. A simple google search will bring up solicitors in your area. Or when you get there, try speaking to some of your future neighbours and ask who they used - word of mouth is always best.

Out of interest where are you going - city or ski? We are going to visit the ski resort for the first time this winter.

Keith

Fred James

You do not need a residents card, in fact you have to have an NIE first before you can get a card.

davysmith

Julie,
Depends on the office you go to and how busy. I went to Murcia City and was told I needed my passport and 3 copies, 3 photos. copy of my contract to prove address of property I was buying. In reality I was ushered in the side door which is for EU members only the queue was right round the building for non- EU members this was at noon first week in November. The official looked at my passport took one copy form me and asked me to sign a scrap of paper to check my signature and that was it, number came two weeks later.

DS

mikelincs

Those dates are going to cause you major problems, the 6th is a major public holiday, and NO Spanish firms will be working, you do not need an NIE number to buy a property, we found our property and applied for our NIE number a few days after. I suggest you let your solicitor over here work you through it. We used the solicitors recommended by our estate agents , no problems at all. We actually didn't have any plans to buy when we came out on a holiday, but had bought be the time the holiday ended.

keithwalters

[QUOTE=mikelincs]We used the solicitors recommended by our estate agents , no problems at all. QUOTE]

Yeah, so did we and we didn't have any problems either. I think 9 times out of 10 you would have no problems taking the agent's recommendation, but there have been a few rotten apples that have spoilt it for everyone else and of course if you are new to the area you have no way of knowing whether your agent is recommending you a good solicitor or if he is one of those rotten apples.

Miss Naughty

Hi,
Hubby and i just went to Malaga police station (as that is local to us) we took photo copies of everything, we did not need half the stuff we was told to bring all we needed was our passports and to fill the form in. However that was in spanish but we managed to get through it.
We then was given a receipt and told to call back within the week, i sent my receipts to our friends and they picked them up.
We are in the process of buying a house and we do not need the NIE numbers until the day we complete.
It was really straight forward to get our NIE numbers i would not pay someone to just do them for me good luck with everything.

EsuriJohn

Hi julieg,

This question has been asked and answered so many times on this forum I have saved a file with the instructions. Some may disagree with some details but it worked for us and only costs €6 so it is worth doing yourself.

Regards,

John.

jdr

Handy info John but I am still amazed at how you got charged "stamp duty"

Has anyone else had to pay this ?

keithwalters

Very funny document John, far more entertaining than other NIE guides I have read! I'm in the mood for dishing out Karmas today, so take one.

JDR - I think John is referring to the fee.

I've yet to hear of anyone who has managed to get their NIEs without any hiccoughs whatsoever.

Remember though, if you have already instructed a solicitor then getting the NIEs should be part of their conveyancing package. You shouldn't be charged extra for this service.

Miss Naughty

We did not have absolutely no problems getting our NIE numbers, and our friends got theirs ok. We must be lucky the only problems i have had is paperwork with buying a home, however that is still going through a lot quicker than the uk.
I am hoping to complete either next Monday or the Monday after and from start to finish it would of only took 3 or 4 weeks

jdr

How long have they charged for them, I never had to pay for mine

mikelincs

Had absolutely no problems with our NIEs, were taken by the Estate agents to Alicante at some god awful hour of the morning to get in the queue, waited a while, got in, saw the man and the form was accepted, got the e mail a couple of weeks later that we had our NIE numbers. No fee, but it may well have been part of the Estate Agents fees.

PaulLes

I am sure in some areas it must be easier, we got ours in Murcia city as Police stations do not issue them in Murcia, in fact they look at you daft when asking, so like a few others on this thread we arived at the extranjero office at a huge building at 7am to meet our gestor, a line of hundreds of non EU nationals trailed right round the building, many south american taking up the amnesty. When our gestor arrived we walked straight to the front doors she flashed some paperwork and in we went, we paid 60euros for both including gestor fee and applications and she collected them a week later.
Friends of ours did it themselves and had to wait in the EU line for several hours. A guy walks the lines handing out tickets, once the allocated number for the day have gone the rest are turned away, hence the queues from the crack of dawn, so it looks as though CDS and the police station is a doddle in comparison.

Paul