new law about buying a car in spain

Hi there,

We were hoping to buy a car in Spain when we were out there last week. Apparently a new law was introduced a couple of days before we went to buy a car. Non residents are not permitted to own a car in Spain, even if you have  a N.I.E. number. Can anyone throw any light on this new law.

Jean

I think you just need to be on the padron as far as I know.  That doesn't necessarily mean you are resident in Spain.

Hi, Thanks for your reply  I don't quite know what is going on. Our solicitor informed us last week that a new law was passed a few days ago saying that non-residents can no longer buy or own a car in Spain., even if you have your N.I.E. numbers.

Hi i have just got my car last week in spain and i am not a resident but i did order it in july.Irene

Hi there. Sounds like you timed it right then. If we had gone 2 days before we did, we would have been o.k.  Gosh it is getting so confusing. I wil have to see how this thread runs, maybe someone can throw more light as to what is happening.

Thanks

jean

Jean Hi;

This kind of begs the question....did your solicitor just drop this bombshell on you during the course of  a conversation relating to other matters?

I can find no evidence to support his suggestion either on the dgt website nor the ukinspain website run by the British Embassy.

If your solicitor's response was in answer to a direct question relating to car purchase I have to ask, why are you using a solicitor for such a mundane purpose as buying a car?

Cars are expensive enough without paying a solicitor to do what little running around is necessary. Most car dealers handle the ownership transfer as part of the deal... indeed when you trade a car in at a Spanish Dealership, he deducts a figure equal to his costs (and the transfer tax) in carrying out the transfer to the new owner...

The whole transaction from walking in to a showroom to driving off in your new (or second hand) car should take about a week and the only running around you should have to do is to obtain a certificate of insurance for the vehicle. Your car dealer should provide you with a copy of the vehicle's 'Permiso de Circulacion' hich you will need to obtain the insurance. A reputable dealer will not allow you to leave the forecourt without insurance. Your  dealer may  require you to put up a nominal amount (in our case it was 300 Euros) as a good faith payment, prior to leaving a full deposit on the vehicle; (in our case this represented 10% of the purchase price.) Both the good faith payment and the deposit are of course deducted from the final bill.

The good faith payment is used to fund the transfer of ownership process costs and is non-returnable if you decide not to proceed.

The dgt website, (the equivalent of the UK's DVLA) indicates those requirements for vehicle registration and / or transfer as;  Proof of address (ie Padron certificate), NIE, Passport and an EU Issued Driving Licence. These should be all that you need....that and a wodge of cash of course...

Given the reported depth of 'la crisis' such a move would be totally unproductive if not suicidal for the car industry out here...and I suspect would be virtually un-enforceable given the high number of totally illegal UK reg cars already in Spain that get away with it every day...

If anyone has any further (verifiable not heresay) information relating to this I for one would be greatly appreciative as would most other non Spaniards living here I suspect.

Good Luck...

fb
 

Hi there,

Sorry was late and should have made myself clear. Our friends who also use our holiday home in Spain own a car out there. They wanted to sign it over to us because they are both getting on in years and worry about us being able to use car if they can't make it over for health reasons etc. We went to our solicitor bacause we were not sure how to proceed in this. Our Solicitor then informed us that 2 days prior to seeing her that the law had changed and non-residents can no longer buy  a car in Spain. We asked about buying our own car and was told the same thing applies. Apparently you have to apply for residencia finca (not sure if spelt that right) . If you already own a car i don't think it is a problem. We are only out there for a few weeks per year, so do not think we can apply for this. The reason for my post was to see if anyone knows what is going on, as we ourselveds are also confused.  Maybe when we are out again we will just go to a garage and see what happens.

jean

Hi.

My husband just informed me when he sent to see Solicitor, she rang the traffice office who gave her this informtion.

Our solicitor does not charge us for asking her advice, this is why we we went to see her.  If you hear anthing over the next few weeks about this supposed new law, i would be grateful if you would let me know. We are thinking of just going into garage when we go back over in December. Will let you know how we get on.

Jean

Hi Jean;

This is very interesting as we were thinking of buying a car in the UK and taking it to Spain to import it onto Spanish plates.  If there is a new law stopping non-residents owning a car, then we may not be able to this either.  Will report back when we find out more.

Chris

 Hi Chris, I'm about to buy a car in the UK to take to Spain as well. Please let me know if you find anything out. Thanks Kevin

Well, we are in the process of buying a 2nd hand car from a local dealer, and as yet we are not on the Padron.

We have given just 100€ deposit (as we know him) about two weeks ago and he is in the process of sorting out one or two jobs on the car and change of ownership, etc, then we will hopefully be picking up the car over the next few days.

So will let you all know.

We were thinking of buying a car in Germany (cheaper) and importing it into Spain next Feb so am also very interested in this, not sure what we'll do if this wont be possible.

CeeJay, kev2006n and Poppyseed,

Buying a car in the UK and bringing it to Spain is different to buying a car in Spain. What we are talking about in this thread is someone buying a car here in Spain. I can't see that there is a law that prohibits you buying a Spanish car if you don't live in Spain, as just suppose you bought a car in Spain to take to France or Portugal for instance?

However, I own a left hand drive UK car which I was going to sell, but have decided now to keep it an re-register the car onto Spanish plates. There are quite a few threads about doing this around the forum, however I will write an article on this and submit it to EOS for publication, once the process has been done, as there is a specific route to follow and providing you do it right, then you can save a few hundred or even a few thousand euros.

One thing I do know, is that you must be on the padron in order to re-register the car and you must have owned the car for a least six months before re-registering the car, otherwise you will be hit with a very high matriculation tax. Other than that, there is a tax to pay on the emissions on the car, the lower the better.

And it appears that IF you re-register the car within 30 days of informing the DVLA of export, you also save on the matriculation.

I am going to be dealing with a local company, who have come highly recommended, and they will be doing everything for me.

Again, will let you all know of the outcome.

tpau,

Ah!

Just a quick thought...

It may be that in order to get the 2000€ subsidy on a new car in Spain, that you have to be resident?

Hmm!

That could be what your lawyer is saying.

Hi Technoape

I think your right and that is where confusion is!

Just wondering if the same applies in UK for non-residents.

Hi,

Someone had told me that residencia was required but we bought a 2nd hand car yesterday, and all I was asked for was certified copies of my Passport, NIE & Padron. They are sending all the paperwork to traffico and no-one has suggested I needed my residencia or even asked if I lived here the whole year round.

I understand that non-residents cannot sign on the padron now, and maybe this is where the need for residencia comes in, but because we signed on the Padron last year and merely renewed the certificate, maybe we have by-passed the new requirements.

Whatever, I am happily driving around in my little car.

Jacqui

 Technoape, I was thinking of buying a UK car and then registering in Spain. So I would be very interested to find out how you get on. Regards Kevin

It's just a thought; La Zenia comes under Valencia I believe...and...
 

I do seem to recall some time ago on another thread on this forum about there being some strange local varition in the rules in Valencia. This would have been about six months ago when someone had been required to obtain residencia in order to buy a car in Valencia.

However, according to Angloinfo (Valencia)  the rules still stand as can be seen in this paragraph;

A foreigner may buy a Spanish-registered car in Spain provided they have one of the following:

    * an official residence permit (residencia), or
    * proof that they are a Spanish home owner (by showing title deeds) or
    * documentation as proof of being a registered inhabitant of a town, the certificado de empadronamiento (available from the Town   Hall / Ayuntamiento) issued within the 3 months prior to the purchase) or
    * a rental contract for a duration of minimum one year or
    * an NIE/NIF number (Foreigner's Identification Number) in Spain

So it could be that Senor Camps and the Generalitat de Valencia is making their own rules up as he / they go along...

Certainly in Andalucia residencia is not required to buy a car, nor I believe it is necessary to have residencia to obtain a Certificado de Empadronimiento.

In regard to the Plan 2000 arrangements here is a link to the government website; it is unfortunately only in Spanish so here is a link to an on-line translation site that is much better than Babelfish.

Given that the whole idea of Plan 2000 is, in the governments own words  quote " to encourage, along with the commercial effort of the brands, the demand for cars, to maintain employment in the automotive sector and encourage the replacement of older vehicles with less polluting and contribute to joint support criteria sector between the Autonomous Communities, the central government and industry from manufacturers and auto dealers." unquote   I can see no particular reason why it should be limited to Spanish Nationals only. 

Hope some of this helps; as always these are just my interpretations and I stand ready to be shot down in flames if anyone knows different!

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 Foxbat, your reply seems sensible and hopefully all that is needed to be able to buy a car.

I have just received a reply from the guy who would have dealt with our importation paperwork and he tells me that the information is true and you now have to have a Residency Certificate in order to import a car. Back to the drawing board!!