DAY-TO-DAY LIVING

Having settled into our new home the most rewarding but also at times the most frustrating experience was day-to-day living and adjusting to our new environment.

We were new to the area and we had to find out where all the necessary shops and supermarkets were located and when they were open. In fairness this was not difficult. You only need to ask the local expatriates who will be only too happy to provide the information you need.

To begin with we did find ourselves going to the supermarket armed with a Spanish dictionary. We recognised most of the food we wanted to buy – in fact many of the names were the same as in the UK – but we realised that we did not know the word for bleach, fabric softener, toilet cleaner and many of the other basics of everyday life. We had inherited a number of bottles of cleaning materials in the kitchen cupboards but even here we made mistakes. The first time we used the dishwasher we only realised after the event that we had used a cleaner which was intended to clean the dishwasher itself, not the dishes. We were also amused by the names of some proprietary products such as a brand of ground coffee called Bonka.

We needed various jobs done in the apartment and this often involved using local tradesmen who spoke little or no English. Finding suitable tradesmen was also a task which we had to do through local friends who spoke Spanish. Most of the time we got by in any dealings with tradesmen with our limited command of Spanish. There was, however, one hilarious occasion. We wanted guttering fitted to the edge of the terrace roof and we wanted to have a wood-burning stove installed in the fireplace. We mixed up the tradesmen and using sign language and a few Spanish words we tried to explain where and how the guttering should be fitted, only to have a reply in perfect English: ‘We have come to fit the fireplace’. This was a Scandinavian fireplace company.

We bought a new telephone only to discover that it had been manufactured in Spain and all the instructions for use were in Spanish. Just imagine our confusion as we tried to figure out how to store numbers and all the other things a modern telephone can do while having to look up every second word in the dictionary. Unfortunately, although we live in a multinational society nowadays, not every instruction book is printed in all the European languages. We had similar problems with a toaster and an electric kettle but at least with them all you really have to do is to plug in and switch on. We also bought a new microwave and we still do not know how to use all its features. We will in time!

The other very basic thing we had to learn was the Spanish for the various programmes on the washing machine and the dishwasher since they were Spanish models.

DRIVING IN SPAIN

Once you are accustomed to driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road, getting around by car is not difficult. The Spanish have a reputation for driving in the Latin way but I have not really found this to be a problem. They do drive fast on occasions and they can get a bit impatient, but I would say they are better than drivers in some other European countries and they are certainly no more aggressive than drivers in the south-east of England.

Should you take a car from the UK, it is possible to insure it on a permanent ‘Green Card’. This will only allow you to take your car back to the UK for a limited number of days per year. Such insurance companies will recognise the Spanish equivalent of an MOT, the ITV, as evidence of the vehicle’s roadworthiness in order to validate the insurance. If you intend to keep the vehicle indefinitely in Spain it would be advisable to officially export it and have it re-registered in Spain on Spanish plates. In fact by law you are supposed to register the car in Spain and officially export the car from the UK, but there are many expatriates who have driven UK-registered cars in Spain for years before they switch to a Spanish registration. The advantage of switching is that you would then have to insure it with a Spanish company and this will save you considerable expense.

We bought a car locally and have been amazed by the low cost of the insurance premium, particularly since it included roadside assistance as a normal part of the insurance cover. This is part of all Spanish car insurance. We were also amazed by the service we had from a mainstream, high volume car dealer. It far surpassed any dealer we had ever purchased from in the UK. They provided us with a detailed breakdown of service costs (much cheaper than in Britain) and fantastic after-sales service.

It is also a very pleasant experience to fill up the fuel tank in Spain since petrol is about half the cost of what we had been accustomed to – although prices are rising.

It would be my recommendation to either export a left-hand-drive car from the UK or buy a car in Spain as soon as possible, since it is much easier and safer to drive a car that has the controls on the correct side.

Car parking is also very well catered for. In most big cities and resort areas there are huge, modern car parks which are very cheap. In smaller towns parking remains free for the moment. There are occasions when cars are double parked or just abandoned, but so long as your attitude to life remains as laid back as the Spanish, this is not really a problem. One pleasant experience we had was when we discovered that in some of the smaller towns the parking meters, when they exist, also have a siesta. Between 2 and 4 in the afternoon parking is free.

KEEPING UP TO DATE WITH THE NEWS IN PRINT

You might be surprised to learn that all the English newspapers are now printed daily in Spain, so if you must read your Times or your Sun every day you can. The only difference is that the weather forecast is for Spain and not for the UK. During our first year we found that we were buying our normal newspaper virtually every day but as time passes one finds less interest in what is happening back in the old country. If anything, reading about the problems of the NHS, public transport and immigration only reinforces the fact that your decision to move to Spain was the right one. You can also buy the British Sunday papers.

In addition, there are large numbers of locally produced and printed English language newspapers and magazines, most of which are available free. These are the publications which are most useful to build up your local knowledge and to read about local news.

If you are an avid reader there are English bookshops in many of the towns, and the large department store El Corte Ingles has an English language section in its bookshop where you can usually buy the latest books published in the UK. We have also found Internet bookstores a very valuable resource for recently published UK books.

HOUSEHOLD MAINTENANCE

No matter where you live you will at some time need to have repairs or redecoration done to your house. This is not a problem at all on the Costa del Sol since there are many expat British who are making a living by doing household work for their fellow expats. This is good in some respects and it is certainly easier to deal with tradesmen who speak your language (if you do not speak Spanish), but should you use the services of such tradesmen you should ensure that you get a VAT receipt for any renovation work you have carried out on your home. Capital gains tax will be charged on your property should you decide to sell and move elsewhere but if you can demonstrate that certain work was necessary to modernise or renovate your home this can be offset against the CGT liability.

LIVING LEGALLY IN SPAIN

There is no bar to foreigners buying property in Spain but under the laws which existed until 2003, anyone, including EU nationals, needed a residence permit, Residencia, if they intended to live in Spain for longer than six months in succession. This residence permit was not difficult to obtain so long as you could prove that your income was above the minimum Spanish wage, you owned property in Spain or you were legally employed in Spain.

Officially anyone who lived in Spain for more than six months in any calendar year without taking out residency was liable to a fine and exclusion from Spain for up to three years, although such an event was unlikely to happen to a EU national since one of the cornerstones of EU policy is the free movement of people and goods throughout the Union. This law has not been strictly enforced and there are thousands of EU nationals who have lived illegally in Spain, more or less permanently.

It is for this reason that early in 2003 the law changed so that there is no longer a need for EU citizens to register for Residencia. Identification documents from the country of origin are sufficient and also allow the EU resident in Spain to vote in municipal elections. This could be interesting in the longer term since local politicians will have to start taking account of the expatriate vote. This will, of course, only happen if all expats register to vote – if they all did there would be some areas in the Costa del Sol where the expat vote would be larger than the local Spanish vote. This could make for very interesting changes in local politics in the future.