Spanish banks freezing foreign accounts

ALL OF us are in favour of a crackdown on crime gangs - but some people who found their water and electricity turned off when they got to their Spanish villas this summer have the crackdown to blame.

Around 80 per cent or more of foreigners who own Spanish property have bank accounts there to pay direct debits on electricity bills, management fees and the like. Now thousands of Irish people have been told that those accounts are frozen, because they should have produced an ID number for foreigners - an NIE - and a certificate of non-residence when they opened them.

Many Spanish banks used to turn a blind eye to this, but not since the authorities got serious about money laundering. Hence the freeze.

The only way out of this is to get your NIE number and certificate - but how? Colm Murphy of Property Tax International, which advises overseas buyers on tax and related matters, says there are a number of ways: you can apply to the Spanish Embassy in Dublin, but it could take three or four months to process.

The quickest way is to go over to Spain, register with a police station as a non-resident, and then go to the local tax office. Or you could pay Property Tax International €100 to do it for you by proxy - this is acceptable most of the time, says Murphy. Don't assume anything if you haven't heard from your Spanish bank: manana won't do. Call them pronto.