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8)
Shades seem appropriate. Love the updates and best of luck
The ship carrying our container has docked at Barcelona harbour!
Now we have to supply a few last bits of paperwork to the shipping agent in Spain for Customs and then the container should be checked and released for road delivery to us. We have had to apply at the local Land Registry office for our "we own a property in Spain" certificates (although we are not official residence yet) and on Monday first thing (which is 10am in Spain) we will pick up our official Tax Clearance stickers from the local(ish) Tax Office.
The Tax Office gives you official stickers (with your Spanish tax number on them) that are then stuck onto your paperwork by the customs officers.
🙂
Our container has been checked and cleared by customs
We've paid the final customs fee - for some sort of "scan" (imagine the size of the X-Ray machine that scans 40ft containers!) and for storage over the Easter holidays. The container is due to be delivered to us at our storage unit (4km from our house) next Thursday morning.
We were worried that we would end up paying some import duties on our belongings but it seems our "proof of residence outside of the EU for the last 12 months" was good enough. Initially Spanish customs wanted a letter from the British Embassy confirming we'd been living abroad but when we phoned them to ask for this letter the Embassy told us they have "no clue where British citizens are around the world" and that they do not supply these letters, that Spain know this and should stop asking! Anyway our docs (utility bills) were enough.
So, one week and I will have my beloved mountain bike and Mrs Spekkie will have her beloved shoes!
All good news. I am a bit confused as to why you'd have to pay import duty if your goods / personal effects came from inside the EU ?
No that's not the problem Jambalaya.
We had to have been living "outside of the EU" for a minimum of 12 months in order to bring goods from SA to Spain (and therefore into the EU) without paying EU import tax.
So you for instance, being an EU resident, would not be allowed to bring in a container of goods from outside of the EU tax free. You'd be hit with import tax, like UK residents are if they buy something in the USA and have it posted to the UK. If we'd moved from the UK to Spain we'd have been fine (until the referendum anyway).
A years worth of utility bills in SA did the trick for us but we weren't certain it would work because customs were at one point insisting on a letter from the British Embassy.
Spanish authorities will try any way they can to get import duties from you,even if it breaks EU rules. Try importing a UK registered car into Spain.Spain was breaking EU rules for donkeys years charging import tax until taken to court,so they changed the charge to a pollution tax !
Spekkie has done it the legal way by getting private health insurance,proof of savings,etc. Very few people do this.
A lot of ex pats living full time in Spain use the EU health card to get free treatment even though they are not entitled to it.This is why the authorities brought in the rules Spekkie has just adhered to.
I know a British guy with a business who has 8 Brits working for him.He is the only one paying any Spanish national insurance and minimal income tax.
The tax authorities never needed to chase up income tax as they were getting plenty of money in from property sales,but thats down the pan now.
Got it
Good luck with it all, you come across as having the positive personality to make it all work, post pics as and when you have them.
Fair play op.
I've followed this thread from a far , just a little jealous. 🙂
Best of luck.
I love and hate this thread-
As I age want to move permanently to an area I've spent many happy holiday but also I'm envious of the OP's competence at making happen so easily whilst knowing I would be living in a container by now.
??
Cheers guys. Your good wishes do help us along, especially when things get a bit stressy.
We are, with the help of a Spanish friend, doing everything by-the-book (I hope!) The plan is to end up with a nice home to live in & a business that pays the bills and feeds us. If we can get to that point we'll be happy and we don't want there to be any "skeletons in the closets" in the years to come. The area is beautiful, the mountains are stunning, the cycling - both MTB and road, is fantastic and the locals are friendly. We couldn't ask for any more.
I will take some progress pics at post them, although my picture posting has only been possible so far with the help of Stoner!
Photos. More than one way. Photobucket account/app. Upload to there. Click on photo and seelct <I info icon> click on Direct and then paste that into stw popup you get from the IMG button above
Advertising on here isn't allowed but if you put your website into your profile 😉
Cheers Jambalaya 🙂
I'll post some updates soon.
We will sort out official advertising on here when we're ready to roll, meanwhile people can love / hate our story on this thread 😉
Container arrives from Barcelona this morning . . .
We drove past your house a few times over the last couple of days Spekkie. If you see the BasqueMTB vans give us a wave and we will stop to say hello. We will be here a couple of days a week for the next six weeks or so.
jealous, love this thread, can't wait to see the updates. Looks an amazing part of the world for biking
😀
[i]We drove past your house a few times over the last couple of days Spekkie. If you see the BasqueMTB vans give us a wave and we will stop to say hello. We will be here a couple of days a week for the next six weeks or so.[/i]
Did see you towing a trailer, but we were a little way away.
Are you still here?
We are in some other areas just now but will be back Tuesday! We will be here a couple of days each week until mid May I think.
Will keep an eye out . . .
When do you plan to be open spekkie? I'm planning a trip to the Ainsa area in early September.
Good luck in the project. I had a bike touring holiday years ago and stayed in the area, set off in Barcelona and ended up in Pamplona staying in casa rurales and camping.
I now live in Spain so well done going legal, most expats don't bother but if something goes wrong and you aren't legal it costs a fortune.
Anyway I would love to return to the area so if anyone else is up for some cycle touring post summer get in touch. We did all the small villages alongside the Pyrenees.
Best of luck my emails in profile if you need any help.
Potdog - We'll have a bed for you by September I'm sure (if not we're going to be broke and in trouble!) and by then I'll have ridden all the trails so I'll know my way around 🙂
Poolman - would be great to see you for some riding sometime and maybe pick your brains by email meanwhile. Cheers for that.
I don't have much to add other than well done, I'm following this too. Keep on keeping on...
Thanks MTB-Idle.
That's great news spekkie. Please drop me a line, my email is in my profile and I'll arrange some dates with you nearer the time. Will be around the 12th / 13th September for 2 or 3 nights before I catch my ferry from Huelva back to Tenerife.
Good luck with the build in the meantime!
Hi, your story somewhat mirrors ours, we moved to Southern Cataluña last September. Mrs PB and I decided to make the leap before we were too old to do athletic stuff like multi-day mountain bike trips(me) and triathlons (her). We bought a 200 year old finca with 8 acres of almond and olive trees. We joined the local bike club and trail running group, the local people have been really friendly and helpful and despite not speaking much Catalan, we get along brilliantly. Take the last 3 weekends as an example, Easter I did a 3 day bike packing trip, 200km around the El Port mountain range, [url= http://pedalesdelosports.com ]Details here[/url], following Sunday, a 40km race around the local mountains which we both did and yesterday a middle distance triathlon, wife did the full race and I was talked into doing the bike leg in a team. She finished 2nd female and our team finished 3rd. Not bad for a couple in our mid 50's.
The people we bought from happen to be British and still live locally, they are amazed that we have already made so many Spanish friends, they have been here 20 years and seem to exclusively associate with ex pats. We are determined to not go down this road, our biggest challenge is that we are learning Castillian Spanish where most people speak Catalan. I'm assuming being in Aragon, this isn't so much of an issue for you.
I too have made a big effort to get to know the local trails to enable us to show people around when they visit. It's a dirty job etc. Not sure if we will make this a business opportunity, we have a self contained flat attached to the house which sleeps 4.
Good luck with your adventure, Ainsa is getting a good rep with the Zona Zero trails, that and the magnificent Ordesa canyon should mean you don't get bored anytime soon.
Nice
[i]Hi, your story somewhat mirrors ours, we moved to Southern Cataluña last September . . . .
The people we bought from happen to be British and still live locally, they are amazed that we have already made so many Spanish friends, they have been here 20 years and seem to exclusively associate with ex pats. We are determined to not go down this road, our biggest challenge is that we are learning Castillian Spanish where most people speak Catalan. I'm assuming being in Aragon, this isn't so much of an issue for you.
Ainsa is getting a good rep with the Zona Zero trails, that and the magnificent Ordesa canyon should mean you don't get bored anytime soon. [/i]
We vowed to "try and fit in" with the locals and we got a fair bit of negativity from people regarding this who said the locals would not accept us, but so far all the locals we've met have been fantastic.
Zona Zero is awesome. Trail discovery starts tomorrow afternoon . . . 🙂
Our stuff arrived on Thursday. Most of it went into storage until the house is ready but some things came back to the apartment with us.
Lot's of help from the locals and our framer neighbour and his tractor - the last bit of lane was too narrow for the truck . . .
[img] https://goo.gl/photos/HrsGusLRZKqcPVmK7 [/img]
[img] https://goo.gl/photos/x1W3F8sf6dDfDHJf8 [/img]
[img] https://goo.gl/photos/EaRDgTVWuijDPJws8 [/img]
[img] https://goo.gl/photos/XBe1onwdE8HCWeJB8 [/img]
[img] https://goo.gl/photos/WNZ1rzkSbJmv5Jye6 [/img]
[img] https://goo.gl/photos/5cLjfa5JjJEW6J6u8 [/img]
The Farmer supplied lunch and a shot of wine midday 🙂
No idea why the images show as broken links - I did a Get Link from my Google Photos.
photo embed SOS 😉
When I've lived abroad (US and Singapore) have always tried to avoid ex-pat only existance. Its tough but IME it really helps if you have a hobby/activity and you join a local club as you've done.
Post the raw link - lets have a look (as I said I can't link from Flikr anymore)
Maybe Stoner can fix this for me . . . .
(Looking at "view page source" didn't clear matters up but there are some funny comments by the page designers hidden in there 🙂 )
[url= https://goo.gl/photos/HrsGusLRZKqcPVmK7 ]1[/url]
[url= https://goo.gl/photos/x1W3F8sf6dDfDHJf8 ]2[/url]
[url= https://goo.gl/photos/XBe1onwdE8HCWeJB8 ]3[/url]
[url= https://goo.gl/photos/WNZ1rzkSbJmv5Jye6 ]4[/url]
[url= https://goo.gl/photos/5cLjfa5JjJEW6J6u8 ]5[/url]
our biggest challenge is that we are learning Castillian Spanish where most people speak Catalan
The Catalan population was diluted by Franco. We found lots of friendly Spanish lived in the region (and a few friendly Catalans happy to speak Spanish). There were a few miserable ****s too. Our boss for example who later did three years in jail.
And for Spekkie, we've found the people in NW Spain great, even the ones who don't like the rest of the Spanish.
The Ordesa Canyon had zealous guards.
@spekkie same reason I cannot get Flickr to work - those are "page links" not references to specific JPG or PNG file references. Also I've found if path uses https that needs to be edited to http. It may be possible to use that Google site to host/link but I'm not sure
I uploaded one to my photobucket - this is the sort of link you need (imo) ending in JPG
[img] [/img]
Cheers Jambalaya - I'll have a proper look when I get home.
I used google photos because I was worried about getting the silly "frog pic (or worse)" if I linked to somewhere I wasn't supposed to! Lol minefield!
Yesterday we took an hours drive to the Historic town of Alquezar we'd been told was worth visiting. It certainly was beautiful.
We've had three builders look at the plans and the property now and we're waiting for quotes. We've applied for planning permission and we're waiting for that to come back now.
Lots of waiting going on, but lots of Trails around Ainsa to explore, so not all bad 🙂
Spanish builders, perhaps the honeymoon is about to be over 😉
Ditto Spanish bureaucracy, it has taken 6 months for our local ajuntament to stamp our house deeds and return them to the solicitor so our retention money can be released to us. It was "only" €800 but the wheels move very slowly. We have been told that if we want to make alterations requiring plans to be authorised, the official architect works in our area 1 morning a fortnight ! Never mind, the sun's shining and the trails are in great nick after the bit of rain end of last week has dampened the loose marbles.
You might be interested in [url= http://cat700.com/en/ ]This[/url] in a couple of months, I entered a couple of weeks ago.
Salut.
good luck with the builders. If ever I were to get the chance to do as you, fortunately Im comfortable enough in my own building capabilities to crack on myself. But still organising subbies to do sparks, or groundworks would be a nightmare!
Re pictures,
google photos is a pain for embedding in threads because the Image adress is too long for STW.
however, if you go to https://picasaweb.google.com/ instead, you should be able to see your photo folders through the old picasa portal. in the Right hand dialogue box of the photo screen you will find "link to this photo"
check "Image only", select "Medium-640" from the Select Size drop down, and then copy the text in the Embed img window.
the Alternative is to paste the long url from the img address in Photos into a url shortener like: https://goo.gl/
and then use that : https://goo.gl/2fooI2
[img] https://goo.gl/2fooI2 [/img]
Also, employing Spanish builders will make you very familiar with the concept of " mes o minus" nothing can be done to alter this phoenomenon. 😀
I'm already familiar with that "phrase".
I will be holding onto the purse strings tightly and I will be on site all day myself doing the garden. So I won't be interested in any nonsense from Mr Sanchez and his mates.
un Saludo
We asked three different builders to quote us on our building project and they are starting to get back to us with prices now. We have a meeting on Friday morning with the first builder we talked to. The other two are not far behind.
It has taken longer than I expected for them to put their quotes together, but they are quoting everything from the new roof on top down to the water service trenches from the street at the bottom . . . and everything in-between.
We should also hear from the municipality this week regarding planning permission. When I spoke to them recently they said that everything was going well and the council architect was happy apart from a small question that needed to be cleared up with our architect.
Slowly but surely . . . . . Meanwhile, to keep ourselves busy, Mrs Spekkie is practising her recipes on me and I'm doing what I can at the house in preparation.
🙂
8)
Well done on this. I live in Spain and just shop around for the building work, use skilled labour for skilled jobs and a peon for the grunt work. I have actually enjoyed the running around pricing up materials.
I may get over your way at the end of summer on my touring bike so will let you know. I have explored the ordessa canyon area and cycletoured the area before.
Good luck in the venture, email me if u want to know anything I wouldn't want to post on a public forum...
Cheers Poolman. I've dropped you a mail.
Check the legals carefully...
My wife's cousin bought a property in Portugal to do up. It turned to have been built without planning permission. To cut a long story short, she lost everything and ended up back in the UK homeless. Along the way her English builder stole many of the nice fittings and new materials she'd paid for - then buggered off.
She didn't speak the language, and as a single woman in a Mediterranean country it seemed like everyone was out to rip her off, including lawyers and accountants 🙁
Cheers IDD - our place was built around 200 years ago and has deeds etc all in order.
IDD, that's a terrible story, sadly not uncommon in Spain and Portugal. Italy neither as planning permission takes 10 years so people just build stuff anyway and deal with the consequences later.
That's a terrible story about the Portugese property, the first thing the estate agent told us was to ensure anything we bought had a habitation certificate, this goes a long way to securing your rights. It seems a lot of the horror stories involve property in urbanaciones on the coast in the south, notably Valencia, Alicante and the Costa Del Sol. North West Spain, especially inland, seems less susceptible to people acting like it's the Wild West.
As a side note to IDD's story (re the English builder/thief), 3 years ago when we first started investigating moving to Spain etc I was saddened to read that the people most likely to try and rip you off if you relocated to Spain were "the Brits already there".
Going out to the French Pyrenees tomorrow, close to the Andorra border.
A friend bought a shed there 3 yrs ago and has slowly been doing it up. He hasn't really come across many issues at all.
Cracking Thread 🙂
Would love to do the same thing in Galicia..
We've had a good couple of weeks. . . .
Last week we stopped at a pavement cafe for coffee and got talking to a couple from Colorado in the US who were touring the area and had hired an MTB each. We ended up riding together on some of the local Zona Zero trails around Ainsa. It was good for me to get out with other riders for a change - usually I ride MTB alone. They have taken our details and they are watching our "blog". They've also given me the details of a business local to them that does MTB tours with a view to sending people our way once we're up and running 🙂 We rode up to our place and they had a good look around - they plan to come back next year and spend more time here in Ainsa and less time touring around.
Aside from a few days of good riding I've been spending my time with the continued job of "taming the garden" whilst Mrs Spekkie practices her recipes for Tapas dishes, and we're both still trying to learn Spanish.
We're still waiting for our planning permission application to come back from the council but in the meantime we've had a quote back from the first of the three builders we've talked to.
Slowly but surely, we're getting there . . . .
Coming to this thread late, but please tell me someone has tipped of Kevin McCloud.
Ha! So many friends of our told us to talk to Grand Designs!
I agree with them. Free publicity, the build documented for prosperity and the chance to be on telly.
Just keep Kev away from your missus 😉
A good couple of weeks and you didn't even mention the snail festival 🙂
It's a great spot you have and that trail from your house to Ainsa is one of my favorites, proper rocky fun! See you soon.
[i]A good couple of weeks and you didn't even mention the snail festival
It's a great spot you have and that trail from your house to Ainsa is one of my favorites, proper rocky fun! See you soon. [/i]
The snails were nice weren't they! But better than that was the craft beer. Was great to catch up Doug - see you again soon for a bit more Brain-Picking I'm sure!
Good to read that you're getting out on the bike, it's easy to get bogged down with the renovation and loose the real reason for being there. We haven't plucked up courage to try snails yet, I thought Lleida was the greatest snail festival in Spain?
Doug, I don't know if you remember me, you kindly lent my mate a rear wheel when his hope free hub disintegrated on a trans Pyrenees trip we did 3 years ago, delivering it 100+ miles from your place was above and beyond.
Once the CAT700 is ticked off I'm hoping to get up to the Ainsa area, just need to get the training in as 5 days self supported over 650km and 13000m of climbing is going to be a challenge.
Good luck Spekkie and hopefully see you soon.
PB - For sure. Give us a shout!
blog?
We've finally had the first part of our planning permission application approved! 🙂
We now have permission to connect to the municipal fresh water and waste water systems in the street. I'll get digging tonight after dark . . . . 😉
Is there a blog?
Today we visited the council offices to chase up our outstanding planning permission application . . . . and we were given a letter of "points that need addressing before the application can be passed" . . . . dated 16th APRIL!
We should have been given it 7 weeks ago!
We've passed it on to our architect, who promptly rang the council office and demanded to know "what they were playing at". So, now the architect can modify the drawings to suit the local area guidelines and then they can be re-submitted.
Finally some progress, but not impressed with a council office where everyone thought that "someone else had done it"
🙂
Welcome to Spain 😉
I feel your frustration. Can I refer you to my earlier comments about Spanish bureaucracy, glacial would describe the sense of urgency. 😕 It seems that many people just do the work and sort it out later which is a mistake, especially if they want to sell in the future and the changes aren't documented in the escatura or nota simple. In the worst case the ajuntament can require alterations to be undone or the value of them cannot be recouped.
Are you on mains electric? We are powered by solar and generators as the cost of connection is huge. A chap locally has a line of telegraph poles which run literally 10m from his house and was quoted €23,000 for connection, we're a lot further off grid than that!
Mrs PB has Facebook friended you, I'm not into FB. She is talking about us having a trip up north later in the summer, I'll let you know when.
[i]Clobber - Member
Is there a blog?[/i]
Sorry Clobber - missed your question . . .
This is a blog . . . . but we are also on FB:
"Tony & Andreas Big Adventure"
PB - TGM?
We're going to plod on doing things properly, will just have to keep a close eye on the builders once they start. I'll be on site myself so won't be too difficult.
Hi Tony, yes it's TGM, also you might think about putting an apostrophe between the a and s in Andrea as it might seem to us pedants that you bat for the other side, and with a German to boot 🙂
Hi Spekkie,
sounds like a dream project ! i live in Madrid and had 3 unrelated thoughts while reading through the thread. Just to throw out there...
1. Check out this website if you haven't already. www.toprural.com it gives a sense of the competition and market value. Domestic tourism in Spain is big and the concept of spending a weekend in a casa rural is popular.
2. Zona Zero is reasonably well known among Spain's mountain bikers (although not quite as famous as Vallnord but still). You could do worse than target Madrid / Barcelona / Bilbao based mountain bikers looking for a long weekend away. Check out www.foromtb.com/ if you haven't already.
3 This is a long shot but you might be able to get some business from the Summer Camp business. Middle class spanish kids all go to summer camp for 2 weeks over the summer - often out in the sticks somewhere. Adding English is an additional attraction. when i first arrived in Spain i taught English at a summer camp run by real Madrid football club for rich kids - the kids only wanted to play football but the organisers added English lessons to sweeten it for the parents. An English mountain biking camp could have a certain niche appeal. Although I've no idea what the regulation / insurance etc would be like.
PB - lol there is an apostrophe on the FB title. I was just being lazy last night.
Dang - good points, thanks. I will have a look. We have already been asked by several people if we will have their kids/teenagers for a week or two during holidays with the proviso that if they don't speak English to us, they don't eat! There is certainly a market for this sort of thing.
One of the things I'm really enjoying here, and missed badly when I was in South Africa for the last 8 years or so . . . . riding in daylight late on a warm summer evening! 🙂
In SA in summer we were getting up and out on the bikes by 6am. Much after 9 or 10am it was just too hot to still be out riding. It was a way of life I got used to and enjoyed . . . but I always missed going out for a ride at 7 or 8pm at night and getting home 2 hours later and it was still light.
The middle of the day here can be very hot - hence the idea of a post lunch "Siesta", which is a tradition we've adopted with much enthusiasm! But the evenings are fantastic. Hit the trails any time after 7pm at this time of year and you can enjoy a lovely warm ride, the evening views across the mountains & valleys etc and still get home in daylight. No lights, no arm warmers, and riding until 10pm! What more could I ask for . .. ?
🙂
Kind of obvious point but I'd wait to make sure we will still be in the EU before putting all my eggs in that basket. What happens if they decide to bump up the tax on foreign property owners? Charge for medical care. Etc etc etc??
Yes good point if UK leaves Europe as I live in Spain and was asked yesterday what happens if we vote out. Strangely I am not hearing many expats talking about it so it's probably denial and or most expats here have kept houses in their home countries.
I think if I only had 1 home in a foreign country I d be a bit worried,ie.nowhere to go if we vote out.
Good luck btw I will have a look at your Facebook page
I'll watch out for you poolman 🙂
Exploring Zona Zero trails today and they are awesome!
Will try to post some pics later 🙂
An old school friend of mine from my days as a kid in South Africa has come to visit 🙂
He and his wife, who live in the UK now and tour around France for two weeks every year, have stopped by at a local campsite with their Camper Van (a mode of transport we will be discouraging once our B&B is up and running!!) so today we will take them out and show them some sights.
Will be nice to catch up 🙂
Yes good point if UK leaves Europe as I live in Spain and was asked yesterday what happens if we vote out. Strangely I am not hearing many expats talking about it so it's probably denial and or most expats here have kept houses in their home countries.
Most of us realise it's out of our hands, and "qué será, será". The worst that could realistically happen in my case would be having to apply for Spanish nationality. Which of course means running the gauntlet of Spanish bureaucracy, and as you've already seen:
Finally some progress, but not impressed with a council office where everyone thought that "someone else had done it"
(It's no better at national level...)
Still, well done for getting so far!
Sounds good Spekkie!
Many articles that I have read, which agree with common sense, says that those living in another EU country to their nationality before the vote will more than likely be entitled to such privileges after the vote due to a pre-existing situation.
As a british passport holder with a british passport holder son a french passport holder daughter and a french passport holder wife living in France and resident here for tax purposes, I suddenly had a panic then did some reading and am now fairly relaxed about it.