My experience when selling a house was the same as DA's - the buyers paid the 10% deposit to their lawyer who transferred it to me pretty much immediately. I did the same thing when I bought my new property a few months later. Both transactions involved estate agents. My buyers wanted completion wit...

A discount was introduced in Vélez-Málaga after the last time catastral values were revised, and for properties up to a certain value it amounted to 90% of the difference between the former IBI bill and the increased one following the catastral revision. In order to qualify, not only did the propert...

The problem with Endesa is simply to change the payment IBAN. Dealing (in Spanish and English) with their Atención Cliente is very frustrating. They refuse to help with the change, constantly referring me to their ‘área cliente’ which I cannot access. They insist I am not the contract holder which ...

The County Council also send the form via email as well as allowing it to be returned via that method - much better, imo, than them spending money on postage and having letters take weeks to reach the people they are addressed to, like this recent example from MyCSP where they were sent out on Chris...

It doesn't seem very cost effective for the pension scheme, though, to be paying 10 pounds to every overseas pensioner just to prove their ID (plus any additional admin fee Western Union may charge to the sender). The method my husband's County Council pension scheme uses (a form which has to be sig...

I received the same letter, Lavanda, also dated 24 December but mine arrived a couple of days before yours. I've scanned it and sent it back via email. I wouldn't read anything sinister into it. In my opinion it's just a "proof of life" form which almost all pension schemes require pension...

I got an email from my home insurance company yesterday telling me that an alerta naranja was in force for Velez-Malaga from late last night until the end of today, for heavy rain and strong winds and giving basic advice such as making sure drains and guttering is clear and all external doors and wi...

As others have said, there is nothing sinister about friends of the owners holding the keys. We have done this for a number of friends over the years, including letting estate agents have access to conduct viewings when the properties were for sale. Our friends preferred us to hold the keys rather t...

The person that I mentioned who had viewed over 30 properties had tried several agents all non Spanish, and I did suggest trying Spanish agents , but they were concerned about not understanding them,but I've rarely come across any who didn't speak English and told them so. However, none of the thre...

The wrong view of Maroma - priceless! Not so funny for you though, DA. As to the ones who announced they'd put their property on the market after saying they would buy yours, I was adamant that I wouldn't even start looking at new properties when we were selling our house (although I did trawl all t...

It must be very annoying to have lots of people viewing your property who are just wasting your time, but I have to say that wasn't our experience when we sold our house in 2017. During the 3 months it was on the market we had just 4 viewings (all couples, one Belgian and the others British) and non...

If the deceased had made a Spanish Will regarding her assets in Spain and a UK Will regarding her UK assets, is it necessary for the Spanish property to be included in the application for the Grant of Probate in the UK? This seems to suggest they should be dealt with separately:- https://worldwidela...

Haven't used it for the past 2 years since we moved house, but when we did we got the old style bombonas delivered by Repsol (we had a contract) and paid whatever the Government regulated price was at the time - there was no extra charge for delivery. We just ordered one as and when it was needed. I...

I have just read elsewhere that Sabadell are to start charging a monthly fee of €5 for their Expansion Account. As I hadn't received any notification of this change I logged into my account and checked the mailbox in the Personal Area. Sure enough, there is a notification in there, dated 4/10/19 con...

You can find the tariff and other conditions on Endesa's website - see here for the price per kwh of the potencia contratada charge and the unit cost of electricity in the non-discounted hours. https://www.endesaclientes.com/static/iberia/ficha-tempohappy20dha.pdf I did a comparison exercise last ye...

As the property is in Iznate, it looks as though there could be one glimmer of good news for you - in that municipality they decided to-reduce the plus valia due on inherited properties by 95%. This article says there are no conditions attached so the fact that you are not resident presumably does n...

In addition to the IHT, I'm sorry to have to tell you that once the tax has been paid and the property transferred to you, you will also be liable to pay plus valia to the Ayuntamiento and if your friend had owned it for 20 years it may be quite a substantial sum. A few years ago a friend inherited ...

You could try ordering a sombra or a nube, but you might find them too milky and not enough coffee, guess you just have to experiment. There is an accepted range of coffee types in the Málaga area, but apparently it's quite a local thing and if you tried ordering a sombra or a nube in Madrid, for ex...

And if we don't use independent local stores, eventually we will lose them.

Cumarjus in Calle Magalllanes. They sell all kinds of spare parts and general electrical supplies.

https://www.paginasamarillas.es/f/velez ... 00001.html