Fiona Govan
AN Olive Press reader has claimed that foreigners are being targeted by Spanish town halls wanting to pocket extra cash.
The expat, based in Madrid, believes that a penalty fine for non-payment of ground rent on a property was ‘a set up’.
It comes after the Olive Press reported on two cases in Andalucia, where expats lost their homes due to the incorrect mailing of legal notices.
In one case, Gurney Davey was forced to knock down his home after his house was ruled to have been built illegally in a court case that he knew nothing about.
The Guadalhorce resident only found out about the judgement when a neighbour told him about a demolition notice which had been wrongly addressed to them instead
And earlier this month we reported how Victoria Jenkins and her son were thrown out of their home that had been ‘secretly’ sold from under them at auction over a paltry €4,000 debt to the local council.
“For months and months all the legal notices were sent to an address that didn’t exist,” explained Jenkins. “By the time I found out it was too late.”
Meanwhile a hotelier in Ronda was left furious after having to pay a €900 fine when a IBI letter was inexplicably sent to her ex-partner’s office in Marbella – despite all her documentation being registered at the Ronda address.
The British resident in Madrid told the Olive Press how letters demanding the annual ground rent tax on her property were sent to totally the wrong building.
“Meanwhile I kept asking for the bills, and was told by Madrid town hall that they would come in the post. Eventually when I found out what had happened and complained, I was told ‘these things happen sometimes’ but I still had to pay the penalty for late payment.
“It stinks of a racket to deliberately make money and I have to wonder whether they are targeting those with foreign names around Spain as we are less capable of fighting back?”
Have you been deliberately targeted? Do you have a story about legal and official notices going deliberately to the wrong address? How has it affected you? Get in touch at newsdesk@theolivepress.es
READ MORE:
- EXCLUSIVE: British expat forced to demolish his own villa in Spain or face jail just weeks after wife died
- EXCLUSIVE: Expat mum and son lose Costa del Sol home after courts send legal notices to wrong address
