legal advice

[Karen4]

Small claims court might be a good place to start. Some info here from Maria L. de Castro, Lawyer.

"Small claims procedure (SCP) in Spain. "Monitorios"

SCP ( Small Claim Procedure) is a special judicial procedure for claims adding up to 30.050,61 €.  The debt needs to be documented.

The document: can be of any sort, form or physical support . It needs to be signed by the debtor, stamped by him, or just marked by any physical or electronic signal.

Bills, invoices, reception statements, certificates... are also allowed. They just need to prove a commercial relationship between debtor and creditor.

A lawyer and a Procurator of Tribunals are just needed if the debtor opposes the payment of the debt and/or the claimed amount adds more than 901,52 €.

How is the procedure?

1.- Initial petition  to the First Instance Judge. Lawyer and Procurator of Tribunals are not required here ( but advisable). The petition needs to contain indications of debtor´s personal data and address, origin and amount of the debt and document which proves the claim.

2.- Courts notify the claim to debtor for a voluntary payment within 20 days. The debtor can also oposse the debt within those 20 days, giving enough legal reasons for the opossition to the payment.

3.- The debtor can choose between:

   a) Doing nothing. Not pay nor oppose the debt. The Judge will order execution of the debt against debtor´s assets.

   b)  Pay the debt

   c) Oppose the debt, with the intervention of a lawyer and a Procurator of Tribunals.

The judge will convoke the parties for a Court Hearing."

[alan b]

For the last couple of years we have rented our  house out to a couple when we went to the house in February we found they had left the property with out telling us  and had not paid the water and electricity bills since June of 2014 i have now paid the outstanding bills but is their a legal way to reclaim the money from them They are now renting another property here in Spain.