bill & ev marshall (newcastle upon tyne)

Does anyone have any advice on the best way to get the NIE number quickly? 

Thanks in advance.........Ian

Hi Ian

If your lawyer has "Power of Attorney" he can do this pretty quickly in Malaga.

If you try to get it yourself in Spain it can be a nightmare. You have to report to the Police Station in Estepona where you will be given a ticket which has the time and date on it when you have to return, which is usually a week or two later!

Ian

We went to get our own in February, as our solicitor wanted some extortionately high fee for it, and we didn't want him to have PoA; he hasn't acted in our best interests, so didn't want to give him the opportunity to go it alone on anything!

Basically, we printed the form off the Spanish Property Insight forum, plus a translation / notes, filled it in here, and according to the instructions given we turned up at the (correct) Police Station in Estepona with 3 copies, 2 passport photos, 2 copies of our passports plus copy of contract as proof of needing a number.  We queued for 2 hours, but had a lovely chat with a couple of Brits in the queue. When we finally reached the front of the queue the whole thing took about 2 minutes for both of us, didn't need contract or passport photos, and in fact as hubby had nipped to the loo, I also did his (without a PoA). They wrote our names in a book, stamped one copy of the application and gave it back then told us to return in 10 days to collect. Haven't collected yet, will do it when we go back in April. (No queue to collect.)

Although time consuming, it was really easy and I would rather stand in the sunshine for two hours than line the solicitor's pocket any further. There was a solicitor there who did about 20 applications in 5 minutes, having jumped to the front of the queue - easy money! Don't you have to go to Spain in order to do the PoA, anyway, so may as well just do it yourself.

Send me a pm if you want to know anymore.

We have been informed by our solicitor that they can no longer apply for the NEI number. They say the law has recently changed ?

We are going Spain "Estepona" on Thursday for the day to get it sorted out.  I will let you know how we get on......thanks for the advice we will certainly make sure we have the relevant forms in duplicate completed.

Ian

Firstly apologies for some mis-information.  Previously I had posted that a solicitor could not now get the NIE by proxy.  This was incorrect, in most provinces they can't but in Estepona, at present, a solicitor with the power of attourney can still apply on your behalf.  Apologies if I panicked anyone.

We travelled to Estepona on Thursday and found the local police comisarias. ( thank you Emma ).. We waited patiently amongst the rest of the people outside in the sunshine.  From a German girl and a Spanish lady who spoke english ( ours Spanish is a bit "pidgeon" at present ) we understood that this is the system and we should just wait.. After nearly 2 hours @ 1.00pm the policman on the door announced that they were now closed and to come back tomorrow.  After some negotiation and nagging the police officer let us into the room where they register the NIE forms.  Unfortunately we got no further.  We were told that they now have a system where at 8.30am in the morning 50 tickets are handed out to those waiting.  On the ticket is a number and the numbers are seen until all 50 have been seen then that is it......so no number no NEI.... Eventually we gave up and went to get a coffee.  We called Mia formerly of Viva Estates who was brilliant.  She organised for us to see Lex Solicitors in Marbella within the hour and we passed power of attorney to them and they are going to apply on our behalf....   So travelling to Spain for the day was a bit stupid.... but we live and learn....

If anyone is going to Spain to get the NIE please be aware that the Estepona Comisarias is now closed for 10 days for refurbishment...... and I hope system improvement.

We did however open a bank account with the Sol Bank in Sabinillas ( thanks again Emma ) which was the inverse of the problems we had with the NIE.  All their branches across Spain speak English we spoke with a great guy named Jurgen who sorted us out very quickly with the account and internet banking all within 30 minutes......

Ian

Oh no, sorry Ian, I led you to believe it was perfectly possible, we did it on 15 February, so they've changed the system since then. There were no tickets around on 15 February and neither did they close at 1pm! Not a wasted day though as you would have had to go to Spain to do the PoA, anyway. Could have saved you the long wait in the sunshine had you known what you know now!!

Regards

Emma

Hi Ian

We had the same problems when we were over in sept 2006, which is why we opted for using our lawyer to do it and why we suggested using the same method on the earlier posting.

We also instructed him to contact us before he made ANY decision regarding using his power of attorney in relation to the apt purchase which he said he would insist on anyway to avoid any confusion.

Because of the delays and changed completion dates it is much easier to use power of attorney. Some people have been out on 2 or 3 seperate occassions to try and complete but failed due to various reasons and it has cost them quite a bit for the inconvienience.

Ianmack

We got our NIEs via POA as we couldn't get out to Spain. It worked very well, we had to find a local solicitor who could act as Notary Public; the paperwork was drawn up quickly & the NIEs came through within about 3 weeks. It enabled the contract & the utilities to be signed up & related standing orders.

As Ianmack says, we made it absolutely clear to our Spanish solicitor that transactions didn't take place without advising what for & how much first. I don't think Spanish sols must be used to providing breakdowns though as we had to ask several times to get the essential detail.

Hope this helps.

Andrew & Jane