As previously mentioned, due to living with pets, we’ve been travelling in our own aging spacious blue Honda estate, a car which we do love. However, with some repairs becoming necessary, we did think importing old ‘Blue’ would not be cost effective & Rob was also concerned about driving a right-hand-drive on the right. We’d discounted bringing Blue all the way back to the UK for an MOT so had tentatively planned to buy another used vehicle by the deadline of September 2018.
We’d spent a considerable amout of time looking at cars for sale online & options for buying in Portugal, where we’d already had a Fiscal tax number & bank account. Then we looked in Spain, a bigger country with more choice & the added advantage, that for the first four years, Spanish cars don’t require an ITV (MOT), then until the vehicle is ten years old, an ITV is only necessary every two years. This, we thought, would allow the opportunity to travel East for a couple of years before returning just over the border in Spain when necessary. From research, & frustratingly, there still doesn’t appear to be an MOT equivalent valid throughout Eurozone.
Surely road safety regulations are standard across Europe?
Further research then revealed that to either import a vehicle, or buy a car in Spain, we’d need an NIE number (Spanish equivalent of NI) & proof of address (from long-term rental agreement). We’d also need a permanent address in Portugal. So much for travelling & only staying a month or two in any one place.
We revised our options:
MOT Blue in the UK for another year in September – a long drive & expense from Southern Europe
Import Blue into Spain – need an NIE, proof of permanent address & lots of paperwork
Buy a used car in Spain – need an NIE, permanent address & bank account
Buy a left-hand-drive car in England – a long drive back to Spain, or both ways if Rob returned in Blue
Hire a car in each country we travelled to – we’d need a large one, worry about the dogs (hair, mud, sand etc), often rent homes off-road (exluded driving in hire cars) & have to negotiate swapping at each border
Pay someone with residence in Spain to buy the car – we’d transfer the funds & ‘our’ car would be in their name until we could arrange a transfer, subect to having an NIE, address & bank account etc, etc…
There seemed to be no option but to stay in Spain for six months which could have tax implications on my income, but we’d deal with that issue later…
Our travels so-far had brought us to Alhaurin de la Torre, near Malaga in May so whilst staying in our temporary Air B&B accommodation, we popped into a few estate agents to find a long-term rental. With pets, our needs were quite specific – a simple studio apartment just wouldn’t suffice.
“You’ve picked the wrong time to look for a house.” we were told. “It’s the start of summer, you’ll be lucky.” & “We had lots of rentals last month, but not now.” we were informed.
Why had we loitered in the Algarve for three months!
Isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing?
We continued looking & even considered a cheap apartment rental we wouldn’t actually live in, but use just for the address. This could still be cheaper than the returing to England options.
Meanwhile we contracted a Gestor (like a solicitor) to help us apply for our NIEs as fortunately we didn’t need an address for this process!
The Spanish tax system, admin & red-tape for doing anything is notorious & I was prepared for this. However, we obtained our NIE numbers without a problem:
Friday – email a Gestor I’d found in Torremolinos via Google
Monday – initial free consultation with the Gestor who then completed application forms
Wednesday – meet the Gestor at Torremolinos Police Station & after an hour, produce passports & hand in paperwork
Friday – meet Gestor to collect NIE documents & pay his bill.
No problema!
It would have been more of a hassle in Malaga due to the sheer numbers of applicants & the appointment system that the authorities have to run as a result. But I’d researched this, hence heading to Torremolinos instead 😉