Tell your UK Consulate

Information and questions about the Law in Spain and Andalucia.
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DavidSearl
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Tell your UK Consulate

Postby DavidSearl » Thu Oct 28, 2010 3:14 pm

FROM DAVID SEARL

FOR ALL POSTERS

On Tuesday, November 3, the UK Consuls from all over Spain and Portugal will meet in Madrid for their annual information and contact sessions.

David Searl will participate in a panel discussion there regarding the problems of UK residents in Spain and how their Consulates can help them.

Forum members are invited to send in their suggestions and ideas for David Searl to pass on to the assembled Consuls. No ranting, please. Constructive suggestions or criticisms welcomed. Any words of praise will be even more welcome.

I shall post a brief report upon my return.

Best Regards, David Searl
You and the Law in Spain

Jool
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Re: Tell your UK Consulate

Postby Jool » Thu Oct 28, 2010 3:41 pm

Thank you for giving up time to do this David

I think Consuls or Consulates would help their citizens enormously if they produced an online "booklet" style article emphasising the culture difference between Spain and even specific Regions within Spain and the UK. This would be something that people could print off covering the following

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them - eg

Most importantly - always initiate information seeking, never assume anyone will inform you of anything, the initiative always must come from the individual in Spain

Property purchase and related issues

Differences in property law
Significance of Regional law as opposed to national law in property and other matters
What to ask your solicitor about every property you consider buying
Different classifications of land and the impact on those
The difference in banking law regarding debt, mortgages etc

Other issues

Different attitudes to social care for the elderly

Entitlement to NHS health care in Spain

Need for translators for health care as many doctors do not speak spanish and they, quite rightly, are not happy treating people if they do not fully understand their symptoms etc etc......

The lack of a benefit system as we know

Consumer rights

Thanks them for helpful info already on car ownership, transfer, driving licences etc.......

Is this the kind of thing you mean?

lynn111
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Re: Tell your UK Consulate

Postby lynn111 » Thu Oct 28, 2010 4:14 pm

I did telephone the consulate in Malaga last week as I am experiencing a problem with the S1 form to register for health care. Basically, my husband was issued this form from the DWP and when we took it down to the INSS office in Fuengirola, they were unable to add dependants on (as they had previously done with the old E106 form). They insisted that they needed a separate S1 form for myself and our three children. The DWP insist that they do not issue separate S1 forms for dependants. (Actually, they then said that they do do this in the case of pensioners but not in our circumstances). So, as we got no joy from either country, I contacted the consulate. The gentleman I spoke to there was aware that there is a problem but didn't know what to do about it. He said he would speak with the Madrid consulate and get back to me. I haven't as yet got a reply.
I don't know if you are able to bring up this matter David? At the moment, me and the kids have no health care cover in Spain and it leaves me feeling very vunerable as I'm sure you can imagine.

curatokid
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Re: Tell your UK Consulate

Postby curatokid » Thu Oct 28, 2010 6:04 pm

I would like to ask why the cost of passport renewal is twice the cost of a UK resident, I renewed mine recently and the service was excellant, returned in one week but I still think it is an unfair cost.

masterob
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Re: Tell your UK Consulate

Postby masterob » Fri Oct 29, 2010 9:55 am

curatokid, the FCO has explained this already. This is an extract from their website:
Why is it more expensive to apply for a passport abroad than it is in the UK?

The issuing of British passports is divided between the Identity and Passport Service (IPS), which works in the UK, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), which works overseas. The IPS issues approximately six million passports every year from seven locations. The FCO issues fewer than 400,000 passports a year from over 100 locations. The full costs of issuing must be met through the passport fee. Although we run an efficient operation, we cannot match the economies of scale that the IPS benefits from. Centralising passport production in fewer locations is one way for the FCO to cover costs without any reduction in service to the customer..

curatokid
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Re: Tell your UK Consulate

Postby curatokid » Sat Oct 30, 2010 1:34 pm

Why can we not apply direct to IPS then making it even more efficient !!!

Bongtrees
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Re: Tell your UK Consulate

Postby Bongtrees » Sat Oct 30, 2010 11:14 pm

DavidSearl wrote:FROM DAVID SEARL

FOR ALL POSTERS

On Tuesday, November 3, the UK Consuls from all over Spain and Portugal will meet in Madrid for their annual information and contact sessions.

David Searl will participate in a panel discussion there regarding the problems of UK residents in Spain and how their Consulates can help them.

Forum members are invited to send in their suggestions and ideas for David Searl to pass on to the assembled Consuls. No ranting, please. Constructive suggestions or criticisms welcomed. Any words of praise will be even more welcome.

I shall post a brief report upon my return.

Best Regards, David Searl

Solely concentrate on the mess surrounding regularising the mess surrounding house purchase ........... Until this happens the housing market can never recover leaving 100s of thousands of people in fully legal properties unable to move because we have been all tarred with the same brush.

To dilute discussions with minor matters such as price to renew a passport etc, helps nobody and detracts from the bigger picture.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell

lynn111
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Re: Tell your UK Consulate

Postby lynn111 » Sun Oct 31, 2010 8:12 am

To dilute discussions with minor matters such as price to renew a passport etc, helps nobody and detracts from the bigger picture.

Whilst I sympathise with the plight of all families who find they are unable to sell their property in the current economic climate, I don't think that the issue of accessing healthcare is a 'minor matter' and is more than valid as a suggestion for the consulate to discuss. As I said in my previous post, it is a known problem to the consulate, so a discussion as to how it might be resolved would be helpful. Hopefully, there will be enough hot air in the room to be able to cover more than one issue!

AndaluzCampo
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Re: Tell your UK Consulate

Postby AndaluzCampo » Mon Nov 01, 2010 5:18 pm

Thanks David - regarding the Property Scandal, and based on official guidelines from the fco website:

Question 1 - How is the individual, seriously affected by the Property Scandal, to know if the legal advice they receive is good, and is in their best interest?

If they were badly represented when purchasing, they would presumably avoid that lawyer, and would seek different representation, choosing only those highly recommended. However, I know of one couple whe contacted 3 different abogados and were given 3 completely different perspectives, advice and courses of action they could follow, one of which was they would be wasting their time and money going to court!

Secondly, collaboration is underway for the Junta to install a member of staff acting in an advisory capacity to UK nationals in areas like Purchasing a Property.

Question 2 - But, what specific help and support, if any, is being offered to those thousands of UK nationals, many pensioners, who have already purchased a dodgy property?

Question 3 - Has each of the thousands of individuals affected by this issue, on their own, to bear all the financial costs and responsibility for choosing a lawyer and following their advice?

Given that the UK pensioner might now need to try and offload the dodgy product (the home) they bought to some other unsuspecting extranjero, this is going to prove very, very difficult (practically and morally, for some) or nearly impossible.

Question 4 - Therefore, would the Spanish Authorities, out of respect, consider waiving the legal costs of resolving the issues for those thousands of individuals who have been already conned into buying one of these properties?

Jool
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Re: Tell your UK Consulate

Postby Jool » Thu Nov 04, 2010 8:34 pm

How did the meeting go DAvid?


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