Post - IBI penalties

As there are no proper postal facilities at the development many owners are going to face penalties for late payment of their

IBI bills. How long must the community put up with the inadequate arrangements for the distribution of the post ?

Why not set up a Direct Debit on your bank accounts?

Please do no blame penalties for late payment of IBI on lack of post boxes, the onus is on you the owner to know local law and sort it yourself or through a legal rep. 

The IBI bill is published on 1st July and you can pay with no penalty up to the 11th Sept. These dates are about the same each year and fixed in the fiscal calendar. Copies available at the town hall. 

If you are out during this period and it has not arrived get a duplicate from the oficina de recaudacion de patronato next to the police station go to the bank and pay it.

The post can be picked up at the security lodge where it is held in block bundles. The post in Spain is not delivered to individual post boxes unless they are available outside the community wall and the main post office has been notified of there existance.

If you had a post box but did not come out often enough to collect your post you would still miss the payment period.

So direct debit is the way.

Quite frankly I find the tone of reply somewhat offhand. Of course it is the responsibility of owners to pay their bills. However the collection of post from the security office is a shambles. Almost as bad as when it was held in AEA's office.

The security guards do their best to sort the post, but t is just not working and post and bills are going astray. Other developments on the hill and in the surrounding areas have made proper post boxes available. Why did the developer not make the necessary arrangements, especially as ours is one of the largest developments in the area.

With regard to the direct debit. I made this arrangement, but to date the monies have not been taken from my account and no bill was available at the gatehouse.

There was no intention to make the reply off hand, but just to state the facts as the postal system in Spain at present is not as good as the UK.

Part of the problem in Spain is that the addresses given to utilities etc. is not accurate enough to ensure a reliable delivery.

Everybody needs to ensure that all utilities and local government have an accurate address

In many communities its the community not the developer that puts up post boxes. Here on my other community I put the boxes up for the whole community and charged the cost of the boxes only to the community.

With DV we need pigeon holes in the gate house because of the number of apartments as 450 letter boxes (Buzons) would be a problem.

Jeff,

I agree that as it is a community problem the community should sort out and pay for the cost of pigeon hole system in the gatehouse. One for each block would seem to be the simplest solution.

Will suggest to AEA 

The IBI bills were delivered (or many that I saw when collecting my own) during the first week or so of August.  I left DV on 11th August and had received mine no problem.  We haven't set up a DD but I am back on 18th September, so shall let you know if any penalty for late payment is imposed.  I won't physically be able to pay it until 21st September, ten days late.

So far, other than the fact that I believe after a few months, uncollected post is returned to the post office (?) we seem to be receiving post with no problem.  But I can tell you that we were expecting a courier delivery from the States when we were there and, when it didn't turn up, queried with the sender what had happened and it would appear that the courier company couldn't locate DV as there was no "road" address!!!  (Although they did have a telephone number to call!)  So the package had been returned!

 Thinking about the pigeon holes, maybe one for each escalera, as opposed to each block?

Is the IBI the "council tax" bill from Manilva Town Hall?

Hi, yes, that's the one

Basically, yes, it's a property tax, I believe.  It's based on the catastral (?) value of the property.  Whoever is the owner at the beginning of the year is liable and the bills are issued in August and payable in September each year.

For the first bill, we went to Manilva town hall with passport and electricity bill and they issued the invoice there and then.  You then have to take it to a listed bank to pay.  Thereafter you can have it paid by DD or they will post the bill to you (as they did ours).

Thought so.  I was just checking in case there was another bill that I didn't know about.  We went up to the town hall to get ours as the post never seems to get delivered on DV.  I haven't seen an electricity bill for the last 8 months!

Our IBI and utilities are always delivered to the gatehouse.  Perhaps yours are ending up in the wrong docket.  We were told if it's there longer than 3 months it goes back to the post office near mercadona and have had a couple of yellow slips to say utility bills are there.  Since we pay utilities by dd we haven't bothered to collect those so far.

Caroline

 Can anyone provide the details address / tel no of the IBI issuing office as we plan to come to Spain and arrange payment albeit late, and would like to check in advance that they have our bill.

Thanks

John

Ibi office of the municipality of Manilva has the phone 952 891621, the 'Place for the payment was already over.

jcl, is this your first IBI payment?  If so, go to the Manilva municipality office, next to the police station when you enter Manilva village (take the road up to Manilva from the roundabout where the petrol station is and the underpass is under).  The office is on your left, just after the first roundabout entering Manilva village.

Take your passport and a utility bill with you and they will issue the bill for you.  If you have already paid an IBI bill before, then they should have posted it to you - as luis dv says, the date for payment was by 11th September, but we too are late and won't be able to pay until next week, when I am there.  But I already have the bill so shall go straight to the bank to pay when I arrive.

you also need your NIE number with you and a copy of the official note of your NIE number

John, I definitely didn't have my NIE number with me.  I only had utility bill and passport and they issued the bill no problem.  Then just took it to the bank to pay.

Jan...it must be the Spanish way..last year I did what you did and managed to pay my bill ok...this year I took with me what I got from them last year al;ong with utility bill , passport etc but luckily I had my NIE documentation with me which  they requested  and without which I couldn't have got my invoice to pay at the bank.

We definately didn't need NIE stuff either.  probably depends who is on duty or whether the rules have changed again!

This is my first IBI bill so I will be going to the office in Manilva unfortunately I will not be in Spain until the 7th October so the payment will be late, any ideas of potential penalty? I guess after the first payment I can set up a DD. I wanted to phone first to verify that they will have a bill for me to pick up.

Thanks for all the information.

John (jcl)