Hello there everyone 😊

My husband Paul and I have just moved to Spain,
I have been surfing the net to find people in the same situation as us, and its nice to find you all here!

I would like to make friends with some like minded people here and it would be great to hear from some of you and your stories 😊

We are currently working in a small town in Jaen, and muddling through what is legally required of us through this mind boggling regestration process (which no-one here seems to understand, so any advice would be greatly appreciated)
Also, can any of you advise if social security payments are mandatory???? as we are just starting out ?225 would be lovely to have spare, but I think are chances of that at the moment are low as we are both currently self employed. (just doing what we can until we find our feet here!)

Would be great to hear from some of you and hear about your experiences too!

All the Best (your friend hopefully)
Susan

Welcome.  Jaen’s lovely; I enjoyed a great evening’s tapas crawl in the city once and I spent a few days in Baeza and Ubeda doing the culture thing.  Must get back there sometime and discover the national parks of the province. 

I’m not an expert as I’m not living permanently in Spain yet, although we’ve owned our house in Granada for about four years, having acquired it as rural ruins.  If it’s any help, the laid-back nature of local authorities, tax people and so on really is extraordinary and you can get away without the proper paperwork or paying stuff for ages. For example we had water connected for 18 months before they put in a contador so they could bill us.  Then we had to go to some trouble to actually pay it - certainly nobody was chasing us.  We’re still waiting for an IBI bill so we can pay that.  As for social security, I know several permanent residents, Spanish and foreigners, self-employed or in casual work, who haven’t paid any in years.  I’m not suggesting you avoid it indefinitely, but don’t get in a sweat either.  The opposite is true where property and building is concerned though - make sure you get all permissions before you spend money because the authorities are quite likely these days to make you change or even remove buildings if they don’t conform.  Please have a look at my blog when you get a chance, you might find it amusing.

Hi Martin,
and thank you for your kind reply!
If you are over this way any point in the future and fancy some walks in the national park, santa elena is attached to a gigantic park, which we still have to make our way around! appparently it is full of history cave paintings and lots of historical artifacts.
It is very beautiful here and still keeping in with the spainish traditions. (was a bit of a shock for the locals when these two foreigners turned up wanting to be a part of their community) though I must say everyone here has been superb so welcoming!
Hope to here from you again soon!
All the Best
Susan 😊