refuse and council tax bills

Hi all, received an email today , informing us about the refuse collection bill and the council tax bill,as we are not resident in spain, were aware of these bills but thought we would receive a bill to the property and then get it paid but this doesn`t seem to be the case, the onus is on us to pay them even if we don`t get a bill.We were told they have to be paid at the town Hall in Vera, has anyone any further information on this. ie what, if any paperwork do we need to take with us and if anybody else has paid theirs a rough idea of the amounts in question. Are there any english speaking or are they able to understand you at the town hall or do we need to take sombody  who speaks spanish with us. Also informed that if the refuse bill isn`t paid by 6th of Dec then there will be an extra charge on top of the bill, we won`t be able to do this as we are not out untill dec 21st. has anybody got any further information, help or advice on this matter,

              many thanks

           Richard & Jackie

Hi Richard & Jackie

Paying these bills at the Town Hall is really easy. We did ours back in August & we took with us our passports & NIE numbers just in case they were needed. It was the NIE numbers that they used to find us on their computer system.

The IBI bills (council tax) usually get delivered to your property in July or once you have set up a direct debit, the payment gets taken in September. We have a 2 bed Apt on Thalassa & our IBI for this year was €124. We had paid our IBI the year before through the Bank but this year, our bill was lost which is why we had to go to the town hall.

We also paid our Basura (rubbish) for the first time. Our bill for this is €31.99 per quarter & we set up the direct debit for it in the same place that we made the payment. We didn't do an IBI direct debit because you had to go somewhere else & we weren't quite sure where it was, so we will pay it when we get the next bill in July 2010.

Depending on when you completed & what Basura payments Key Mare have made, you may actually find that you do not have anything to pay for this tax.

The fines for late payment are, I believe 5% but this only comes out to around €6 so it isn't anything to be too worried about.

The staff at the town hall do not speak English other than one lady who speaks a little but we managed ok. You could always write down:

No Hablo Espanol. Quiero pagar mi IBI y Basura. That should be enough to get you started with them.

Hope that helps.

Noreen

Hola Noreen, Richard & Jackie,

We also received what I am assuming is the same email and were wondering how to go about paying.  Like you Richard & Jackie, we will not be out in Spain now, probably until well into the new year.

I was wondering if there was anyway of finding out the amount and the payment details so that we might be able to do it via the bank over the internet. 

But if the late payment penalty is not too much then we won't get too stressed about it.

Noreen, is the Town Hall that you mention, the one in Vera?

Take care everyone.  Hope you are not too affected by the bad weather and flooding.

Pauline & Noel

Hi Pauline & Noel

Yes, it is the town hall in Vera. If you stand in the main square with your back to the church, the town hall is in front of you, slightly to the right hand side.

As you go in through the door there is a grand marble staircase & the office is on the 1st floor. We went in August & were pretty lucky with the queue as we were all done in about 30 minutes. Be aware that the office isn't open all day, it is mornings only.

I will have a look at my paperwork & see if there is anything like a phone number or email address that you might be able to contact.

Hope you are both well.

Noreen

Thank you Noreen.

We know the building you mean.  We usually go to that square for coffee.  If we are able to get some details so that we might be able to pay via the Bank then that would be great.  But if, as you suggest, the late payment penalty is around 5% then we will try not to lose sleep over it.

When are you out in Spain next?

Our next flights booked are not until May, which is ages away, but I might see if we can fit a few days in before that, maybe in March.  We were out in March this year and had lovely weather.

I have looked at flights for between Christmas & new year, which we did last year, but they are quite expensive just for a few days.  We'll keep looking out for a bargain though.

Thanks again for your help.

Best wishes,

Pauline & Noel

Hi all, hope you all had a lovely christmas and new year, we were in spain  and the weather was still quite warm during the days but got a bit chilly at night but not half as bad as were having at home. While we were over we went to pay our basura which is the refuge bill after a lot of confusion as the staff at the town hall in vera spoke no english and we don`t speak any spanish, but thanks to a couple from thallasa who helped us out we finally got it done plus we were able to set up a direct debit there and then for the next trimester.Then we tried to pay the council tax or IBI but were told there were no details for us there and to visit the catastral office in vera town when we went there we were told that there is no council tax to pay yet as veranda has only recently completed and they are still in the process of calculating the bills, that we would probably have to pay some time in 2010, we all know how long it takes to get things done in spain, hope this helps

            regards

       rich & jackie

Thanks for the update Rich & Jackie.

Since my last posting we have actually booked flights to go out in March, so will try and sort ot the payments then.  Hopefully we will be able to make ourselves understood.

Happy New Year everyone - it's snowing like mnad here at the moment!

Pauline & Noel

Hi everyone,

We have just returned and we also paid the rubbish tax,jose told me where to do it.

There are only a hand vull of banks that you are allowed to use and banco popular is not one of them.and also you had to pay by cash and not a card our bill was 165.86€ that takes in from march last year to march this year so we do not have to pay again until july the bank we used was the caja mar  

Hi Paul & Carol, hope you had a lovely time at veranda, shame to return to the weather were having though. We were over at christmas, we paid out rubbish tax in vera town hall while we were there, we paid three quarters which took us to end of dec, the first bill always has to be in cash and then we set up a direct debit there and then for the future payments.We are with banco popular in vera and ours was ok , they gave us our copy of the direct debit and told us to take it to bank, which we did straight after, where Eva took a photocopy to keep on file, don`t know why you were told different.

    regards

 Richard & jackie