Pointers on where to start?

Hi Folks,

Looking to move over early next year from Scotland. All depending if hubby gets a new job. He will be away for 3 weeks at a time. Looking to settle in Quesada area. Neither of us will be working in Spain, but will open a Spanish bank account for monies to go into.

So my question is, where do we start with the move? Do we have to apply for residency? Hoping to rent until we find our dream house and get our 7 year old into a school.

If anyone can any shed light, pointers on the best way forward. Hoping things in the UK will be more settled when we move over. Depending on the profit from our house sale, may require a smallish mortgage.

Many thanks for reading and any tips/advice welcome.

Gina

Difficult to advise where to start at the minute since the biggest issue facing you is likely to be Brexit and any fall out from that. Am assuming you are both UK citizens ( if one or other of you has another EU citizenship that would solve the problem ).

Assuming you are both UK and assuming Brexit happens you are likely to be treated as Third country nationals with much stricter regulations to allow you to live here. If you intend to live in Spain ( ie stay more than 90 days, which you are saying you are planning) you'll have to apply for residency as third country nationals. There's a different process for this but it can all be done if you can show a large enough income to support yourselves and your family plus you'll need to take out health insurance for all the family. The income required for third country nationals is a lot higher than for Eu citizens ( think it's around 3k euro per month for the first person plus a certain amount for each dependent) but that may not be an issue for you.

If that is not an issue for you, well your idea of renting to begin with is very wise, so you can decide where you finally want to buy. There is a lot of discussion elsewhere on the forum about schools - so if you look through the forum you'll see advice re schools etc.

I am sure others will chip in with more advice, but much will depend on what happens after 31 October as to practical things you will need to do.

Hi,
We are both UK Citizens, so know we will probably have a struggle on our hands. Not sure what our income will be, 3k euro would be nice

Thank you for taking the time to help us out.

When you say "income", what does that mean?

We have significant savings, and plan to not work at all.

Would I need to show bank transfers at a certain level each month, or would it just depend on the amount of cash in the bank?

Income, my hubby will be working away and earning a salary each month and transferring into a Spanish Acc.
he cant retire just yet.

blingle wrote:When you say "income", what does that mean?

We have significant savings, and plan to not work at all.

Would I need to show bank transfers at a certain level each month, or would it just depend on the amount of cash in the bank?

I have no idea just how much in the bank is considered 'enough' either for those applying as Eu citizens or as non-Eu citizens , just that the latter will need a higher amount than the former. Someone else may be able to point you to documentation on the required minimum amounts.

For people applying as EU residents this year the general advice given to people was that it had to be income/bank transfers per month, preferably pension and evidence of last 3 months worth but , possibly like you, we did not want to do transfers every month but as and when we needed. We showed evidence of money in the bank ( in the form of a stamped certificate from the bank ) rather than monthly transfers. That was accepted without a problem. It may depend on the Police Station where you have your appointment as I gather they are not always consistent in what they ask for. We went to Alicante which is the 'Head' Office equivalent ( compared to Elche, Orihuela or Torrievieja) and maybe that was why.

Oh...sorry GinaG472...I was aiming that question at Shiva!!!

Current income for a non-EU citizen to apply for non lucrative (ie not working in Spain) residence visa is €25,560 per year plus €6390 for each additional family member which includes children. Income can be from work, investments, interest, annuities or any source of income.
That is, of course, all up in the air at the moment as we have no idea what deal, if any, will be struck.

Now, finding a place. Great idea to rent to start with as you will be able to see what areas are like and, more importantly, what they are like during different times of the year. Quesada is lucky in that it doesn't turn into a ghost town during the winter like many places around. It does get busy in the summer with renters and holiday home owners coming over so that nice, idyllic and quiet property you rent in February may get a little hectic in July or August. Renting will also give you plenty of time to look around and see how far it is to shops, entertainment and so on.

You need a good solicitor to handle things for you. When you find a place you want to buy, make sure you get a solicitor who is not involved with the estate agents (if you use one) as they will be working more on behalf of the agents as they get more work from them.

If you become a resident, be aware that if you sell your house in UK then you will be liable to pay Capital Gains Tax on that property based on how much it has appreciated since becoming a resident. That is currently 24% of the value.
If you buy a property in Spain before selling the UK house, you can also get hit for CGT by the British tax man in UK as well as your Spanish property will be classed as your primary property once you are a resident.
May not be much but just something to bear in mind. The longer you wait to buy then the more the CGT could be.

I'm afraid private health insurance is a must unless you are registered disabled (as you have a 7 year old I assume you're not pregnant or over retirement age). You will get emergency treatment in Spain as they never turn anyone away but you will need to prove access to healthcare to get residency in the first place.

I'm afraid I have no idea if children of 3rd country parents get free education so it might be something worth looking into.

You will need to open a bank account and it is very easy to open a non-resident account to begin with. The bank will change this to a resident account later. It will cost for a non-resident account with some banks charging 30 something euro a quarter just to have the account plus a charge for every transaction. There is also a 2 yearly non-resident certificate charge of around 25 to 35 euro each (these charges will no longer apply once you have a resident account with a regular income). Go to the banks and ask them what their charges are for a non-resident account before opening one.

It's always a good thing to ask people who already live in the area what, if any, the problems are. If you like community living you may find the place is run by a dictatorial type president and committee (I have known people who have moved because of that). Or if the local shepherd has the right to drive his flock over you land every other Saturday (well, not quite but you never know).
If you prefer living off a community it might be difficult to get to know people or the council tax may be that much more due to the size of the land.

Best of luck and hope it works out well for you. It really is great here but can take some getting used to. One of the main reasons I hear of people moving back is because they suddenly miss their families or friends in UK. Or they can't actually get their favourite brand of pink wafer biscuits or some such. Another reason renting is great to start.

When you do buy, be aware that you might as well open your front door and throw money at anyone who knocks for the first few months. They will charge you for putting the electricity in your name, putting the water in your name, charging tax on anything they can think of. Not just property tax (an extortionate 10% of the value at the moment) but if you bring things from UK they can charge you import tax once you've been here a while.

Happy house hunting.

Marcliff, this year I’ve had to pay CGT on my property sale in uk. They charged tax on the difference between the purchase price and the sale price (19 years) not just since I became a resident (2 years). It is a hefty sum paid in two instalments; June and November.

Brightonsuperwomn wrote:Marcliff, this year I’ve had to pay CGT on my property sale in uk. They charged tax on the difference between the purchase price and the sale price (19 years) not just since I became a resident (2 years). It is a hefty sum paid in two instalments; June and November.

Wow!
That's contrary to what we told by our solicitors who informed us if we sold our UK house as residents we would have to pay CGT on the difference it had risen since becoming residents. They also said that we would be liable if we sold the house in the same year.
That's why we sold in UK in December 2009 and become residents in January 2010.
If we had been charged on the complete rise (bought in 1984 at 29,000 and sold in 2009 for 160,000) it would have been a hefty whack.

Another reason to think carefully about becoming resident whilst you still have property in UK.
In UK, you now have to pay CGT on any gain made after April 2015 if it is then classed as your second home.

Thanks for sharing that and it also goes to show that you will get conflicting information from different so-called expert solicitors.