My faith is restored

[Devils Advocate]

I mentioned on here a few years back about a problem we had in Spain. In essence we received a letter saying we had not been paying IBI for a number of years on our casa and that we owed a substantial lump sum.

We would have been worried but for the fact we had been paying the bills without fail and on time.
We took the demand to our fiscal rep. over there and it was confirmed we HAD NOT been paying the bills on our place........but on another property "we owned", well that was news to us!!

After delving deeper, in a nutshell a b0llock had been dropped when houses and land had been combined to one number a few years back apparently. We were still paying on some old number but not the new one, yep it baffled us too

So, the upshot was we owed years of IBI on the house, no way apparently could the payments we'd made on the "ghost" house be transferred to the real house.
It appeared we had to settle this "debt" and claim back the bogus payments...........so for an easy hassle free life we stumped up, that was all me holiday spends gone on the first day of that holiday

I then became annoyed I'd stumped up as I soon realised getting the money back would be like getting blood from a stone, which it was. Every year we'd contact the R de P office only to be told that finances for that year had been used up........maybe next year.

So imagine my delight yesterday when I receive a letter from the Patronato de Recaudación saying that they have issued instructions to the treasury office for immediate repayment of our money..........plus I was gobsmacked they're paying it back with the accrued interest over the time they've had it.

OK it was a right royal PITA to have this happen but at least they came good in the end. We'd given up on it to be honest, so it'll be nice to have a "free" holiday on our next visit.

Can't help feeling it'd have been easier to sort out in England though had the same thing happened.

[katy]

A similar situation happened to my Spanish neighbour. When they bought the plot for their house they were 1000m2 so they bought two plots. They had only been paying IBI on one and were unaware until they went to the bank to withdraw after their monthly salary went in. The account had been embargoed even the credit cards and having two kids and no money they were in dire straits. We loaned them some money and they did manage to sort it in a matter of weeks although they weren't due a refund.

[patricia]

Well that does restore you faith in Spanish Bureaucracy to some extend although it should not have happened in the first place and you should have been reimbursed straight away. Still all in all great news

[Devils Advocate]

Thanks Patricia for that, yep in the real world it should have been credited back as soon as the mistake was discovered, especially as the mistake was at their end.

I think the thing that riled me was them not just "reallocating" the payments we'd made against the new house/land number they'd given us.
In essence we had to pay up again to clear "the debt" or risk emabargos and all that nonsense, which I think would have been the end of a beautiful relationship with the place.
In hindsight it is quite amusing for a government office to tell you "we're skint, try again next year"

However as you say all turned out well, and no hard feelings on my side, it is Spain after all and maybe not what we're used too.

At least they came good and popped the interest on, better than it being in Unicaja really.

Thanks again.

[patricia]

True they work in different ways in Spain and you have to take that into consideration when dealing with officialdom in Spain, however it can be very frustrating to say the least, but you either let it get to you or go with it as you did and in the end it all came together

[Nimrod]

I can't help but think something like this would've been sorted out within a few weeks in the UK.
This is typical Spain,beurocracy gone mad,hit and miss whether you get satisfaction or not.
I think you were lucky,someone probably found your file at the back of a cabinet ,spent 5 minutes on it,decided they'd done a good days work for once and left work early for a kip.

[Beachcomber]

A friend recently discovered on returning from some time away that Endesa had made an error when connecting up the electricity meters and that he had been paying for the neighbour's electricity. As the neighbour lives in his property permanently his monthly bill was many times that of my friend.

Endesa came and sorted out the mix-up but when my friend asked about a refund for the extra amounts paid he was told that he would have to get it back from the neighbour.

There was a lengthy and increasingly ill-tempered exchange of words but Endesa eventually agreed to refund the money and claim it from the neighbour. I think they realised they were on a loser and were just trying it on.

[Nimrod]

Shocking!

[Mariacristina]

Well, Devil's Advocate, it just goes to show that miracles do still happen here in Spain, even if your faith is severely tested while you wait for them!

[katy]

OH has just read this and he now has high hopes go getting back €4,87 hacienda owes him

My faith would be restored if the Priors were to get a cheque in the post for the value of the demolished villa and my friend the €120,000 they won through the courts and are yet to see a euro!

[Mowser]

They took IBI out of my account for a flat I sold in 1989. The guy I sold it to didn't have a bank account and paid the IBI in cash. He then sold the flat to another guy who likewise had no bank account. As I was the only person with an account, they took it from me instead. I got the money back after a year with interest paid.

(I'm still waiting for a rates rebate from Cumbernauld Council for a flat I left in 1975).

[scampicat]

TBH, the longer I was in Spain, the more stressful I found this sort of thing. I like rules to be clear cut and applied fairly, not made up as they go along and some people singled out and others getting away scot- free.

They STILL want money off us for our car, despite the fact that it was re-registered onto UK plates in May 2012 and we sent them details of this. We then sold the car. I just ignore the e-mails now and they haven't got our UK address or phone number. We don't have a Spanish Bank Account or address any longer.