Getting Your House Bills Electronically When Stuck In The UK

Hi, like many people I haven't yet managed to get back to Spain since my last trip in March 20. My house bills (apart from endesa for electric) come by normal mail. I am behind in paying my non resident tax which was due in Dec 20 partly due to forgetting about it with all the pandemic news it went right out of my mind and partly due to the fact I couldn't get into the online bank as the bank clerk had entered a digit where there shouldn't be one, so never got SMS text messages to give me the code to access my account (which was a new layer put on at some point). I have solved that one finally but  getting the details on the IBI bill is more tricky. I have read about getting a digital certificate to view stuff on the government's website which I believe should store my bills (paid via direct debit) but when I try to obtain a digital certificate I keep coming up with the same problem over and over again so I was wondering if anyone else had had the same problem and solved it?.As you may know if you are a property owner the Non Resident tax is based on the catatral valuation - the detail of which isn't shown on any bank receipt and not being in Spain right now I can't see the actual bill where this is shown.

Getting a digital certificate meant supplying my NIE number ( no problem there) but it also asks for a "Support Number". My NIE certificate (with no end date) doesn't show any " Support Number", just the NIE number. Its just a single A4 sheet  I have tried  different ways and stall again as  I am asked for the Support Number. I did try putting in my Passport number which didn't work..............Is there anyone out there who may know the answer? or come across this problem before, short of having to get to Spain and book an appointment at a tax office to obtain this digital certificate? I have emailed the local town hall for help but not yet received a reply.It would be great to get these bills like water, rubbish, IBI etc to my email account electronically instead of piling up in a letter box.

Many thanks for any ideas anyone has, there's got to be something simple I have overlooked in all this.

Spanish Tax Forms Ltd will sort out your non residence tax for you -they do charge but not too much -just Google them 

I've got standing orders in my spanish bank. IBI, car tax, Iberdrola, Emausa. the answer is standing orders.

Hi Cary -

Are you talking about obtaining a digital certificate that you install on your computer (or phone or tablet)? If so, the process involves visiting an 'accreditation office' to have your identity validated. In Spain, that would usually be your local town hall, tax office or social security office. In the UK, you would have to visit the Spanish Consulate in London.

There are several guides on the Internet that describe the full process in English. You can also download the instructions (in Spanish) from the FNMT website.

Once you've installed your digital certificate on your chosen device, you should be able to access the 'Virtual Tax Office' of your local Ayuntamiento, from where you'll be able to download copies of your IBI bills. As you say, those bills will include the catastral value of your property, which you need to complete your non-resident's income tax form (modelo 210).

In order to apply for a digital certificate from the FNMT, you should only need to enter your NIE, your name as it appears on your passport and your email address.

I hope that the above is helpful.

Morning! and thanks to all three of you who replied so promptly...........it has been a frustrating time for many I know. For myself and others  in the UK  I am quite  familiar with submitting tax returns here so eventually in 2019 I did submit my own Non Resident tax instead of using Spanish Tax Forms which had been a great help for many years but as the substance was pretty constant each year I felt compelled to try it on my own., and send the money from my uk bank account since I couldn't get into my Spanish account at the time to do a transfer., but  I would recommend Spanish Tax Forms for any new property owner. (thanks rowlandsbb)

to johnmcmahon- all my bills are on direct debit so the payment of the local tax IBI, water etc wasn't my problem since I estimated how much was left in the bank account there to cover them for the past year, and topped this up during the year, though it has been a horrible feeling of working blind. Anyway I happily got through to an English speaker as although I do learn Spanish its much easier to speak about some things in English, she identified the problem straightaway thankfully and spoke to my local branch to take the zero out after the country code which then activated it  straight away! A simple phone call away............I had been putting it off as over the phone with automated responses, waiting times and not really fully understanding the replies.........

to free_bee I must have  spent a good part of a day looking at the process of obtaining a digital certificate on my phone and/or my computer including the cl@ve/pin etc and each one still asked for a support number on my NIE certificate where there isn't one in my case (passport number didn't work) The website did show where the support number was shown but non of the types of documents shown  on the website were the same as my plain a4 white single sheet of my NIE number/ certificate (with no end date), in fact my document type wasn't mentioned anywhere either,,,,,,,,,,

At the time of obtaining an NIE number I'm sure I would have had to show my passport and give a specimen of my signature, on buying a property,  so I'm concluding that there's a glitch in the system somewhere but I will look at it again if I'm just being stupid as I read also that all I needed was my NIE number, name and email address. Re getting a digital certificate via FNMT the process I read also it required  visiting an office in Spain( or perhaps) the Consulate in London as you suggested................so not straightforward. but thanks for your time and explanation., and no reply from my local town hall office either.

Hi again Cary -

I would say that, particularly under the current circumstances, having a digital certificate is almost a must for any non-resident. It allows you to do many things from the UK that would otherwise be very difficult if not impossible.

As you may already know, there are two types of digital certificate in Spain: the Cl@ve and the FNMT electronic certificate. Both perform more or less the same function, but it's probably slightly easier to obtain the latter.

There are three steps to obtaining an FNMT digital certificate:

1. applying for a certificate online
2. proving your identity in person
3. downloading the certificate from the internet

To carry out the first step, visit 

and select the link 2. Solicitud vía internet de su Certificado. That should take you to the Solicitud de Certificado FNMT de Persona Física web form.

You'll see that there are only 4 boxes to complete on the form:

Nº del Documento de Identificación [your NIE]
Primer Apellido (tal y como aparece en su documento de identificación) [your (first) surname]
Correo Electrónico [your email address]
Confirme aquí su Correo Electrónico [confirmation of your email address]

Once you've completed those boxes, click the Pulse aquí para consultar y aceptar las condiciones de expedición del certificado link to accept the conditions for issuing a certificate, then click the Enviar Petición button.

If all is well, your browser should display an Abrir ConfiguradorFNMT button. Click that button.

You should then be asked to enter a password [Introduzca la contraseña]. This password will 'unlock' your digital certificate when you eventually download it, so make sure that you don't forget it, otherwise you'll have to go through the whole process of obtaining a certificate again.

When you've entered your chosen password and confirmed it, click the Aceptar button. You should then see a notification that your application (ie step 1. above) has been processed correctly. A short while later, you should receive an email containing your application code [código de solicitud]. Then you can move on to step 2.

There's no requirement to enter a support number. I believe that you'll only have a support number if you've got a Documento Nacional de Identidad (DNI), which is different from your NIE document.

The process for proving your identity at the Spanish Consulate is described (in Spanish) on the following web page:

To make an appointment, you now have to send an email message to:

It's a bit of a faff having to travel to London, especially at the moment, but since none of us knows when we'll be able to visit our property in Spain again, it's probably worth the effort for a bit of peace of mind.

Anyway, good luck if you decide to give it a go.

This message was last edited by free_bee on 19/03/2021.

Thanks free_bee, followed your advice and downloaded the software, which wouldn't work for me a couple of days ago. , owing to the internet running in a bumpy fashion at times, but I succeeded today and was comforted with the fact that your steps are what I had actually done the other day but stalled when trying to download the software, which is why the email failed to come through with a code I have to take to show proof of my identity.  I looked up where in I can register if I don't make it to London, and a 10 min walk away form where I live in Andalucia there's the town hall who are actually listed to do this. Its such a small village everyone knows each other there., they know my face ..........could have done this years ago as I realise now! I may just wait till then instead of trekking to London but will check out the London centre in case things don't improve and I can't get to Spain again.

You were also correct regarding the support number not needed for this method,,,,,,,,,was just hoping that with a NIE number I had already, there must have been something missing.

Thanks again for the time you spent on this!!

Hi Cary -

Glad that you got there in the end.

I did my proof of identity at the consulate in London because I needed to get the certificate at short notice.

Once you have it, you can sign up to receive notifications from national, regional, provincial and local government bodies by email. You can also do things like check the Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE) to see if you've got any outstanding debts that you didn't know about.

Take care.

That's good thinking free_bee , I would like to do all those things! I'll see how things pan out travel wise. I'm in favour of a possible vaccine card to make travel happen!! Like everyone else I would like to see life get back to normal............!

Thanks again!