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Services Service 6 of 6

Legal, tax & administration

Owning property in a country you do not live in generates a steady stream of obligations, most of them arriving by post, in Spanish or German, with a deadline. This service is the machinery that makes sure none of them is missed.

The single most common way an absent owner loses money is not a burst pipe. It is an unopened envelope: a community levy that became a lien, a tax return nobody filed, an insurance policy that lapsed, a supplier who kept billing an estimate for four years.

We are not your lawyer and we are not your tax adviser. We are the layer underneath them — the one that opens the post, keeps the calendar of deadlines, assembles the documents and makes sure the professionals you pay have what they need in time to be useful.

What this service covers

01

Correspondence and the deadline calendar

Everything addressed to the property comes to us, is opened on your instruction, translated where it matters and dealt with or escalated. Nothing waits for your next visit.

  • Post received, scanned and archived per property
  • Anything with a deadline entered in a calendar we monitor
  • Correspondence handled in English, German and Spanish
  • Summaries in your language — you read the decision, not the form
  • Responses drafted for your approval where a signature is needed
  • Escalation to your lawyer or adviser when it belongs there
02

Community and building administration

Owners' associations make binding decisions in meetings held at inconvenient times in a language you may not speak. Not attending is a decision too, and usually the wrong one.

  • Assembly notices and agendas summarised in advance
  • Attendance and voting by written proxy on your instruction
  • Minutes translated and the decisions that affect you flagged
  • Extraordinary levies checked, queried and scheduled
  • Community accounts reviewed each year
  • Disputes with the administrator or neighbours documented and pursued
03

Tax and annual filings

We prepare, your adviser files. Every figure they need comes from records we already keep, which is a great deal cheaper than reconstructing a year in March.

  • Annual document pack assembled for your tax adviser
  • Non-resident property tax obligations tracked by deadline
  • Rental income and deductible costs documented as they occur
  • Local property taxes and refuse charges paid and evidenced
  • Direct debits verified — a rejected payment is how penalties start
  • Multi-year archive kept in the form auditors and notaries accept
04

Insurance and claims

Most overseas property is either underinsured or insured for the wrong thing. And a claim made from another country, in another language, without photographs, tends not to succeed.

  • Cover reviewed annually against rebuild cost and actual use
  • Letting declared to the insurer, which most policies require
  • Claims opened immediately, with our own dated inspection photographs
  • Loss adjusters met on site on your behalf
  • Settlements checked against the actual cost of reinstatement
  • Repairs coordinated so the claim and the works stay aligned

How it runs

  1. 01

    Audit

    We establish what obligations the property actually carries, and find what has already been missed. That first pass is usually the most valuable thing this service does.

  2. 02

    Set up

    Address for service, supplier accounts, direct debits, proxies and the deadline calendar are put in place in your name.

  3. 03

    Run

    Post is opened, deadlines are met, assemblies are attended and anything needing your decision reaches you with a recommendation.

  4. 04

    Annual pack

    Once a year everything your adviser needs arrives in one file, indexed, in the format they expect.

How this works country by country

Costa del Sol, Spain

Spanish property administration is deadline-driven and largely paper-based. Non-resident owners have annual filing obligations whether or not the property earns anything, and municipal charges arrive on their own schedule regardless of where you are.

  • Comunidad de propietarios: fees, minutes, levies and voting
  • IBI and basura tracked to municipal deadlines
  • Non-resident tax documentation prepared for your gestor
  • Suministros held in your name with consumption monitored

Central Switzerland

Swiss administration is lighter in volume and heavier in consequence: fewer letters, but the ones that arrive matter, and cantonal and communal rules differ enough that local knowledge is not optional.

  • Stockwerkeigentum assemblies attended and minuted
  • Nebenkosten statements checked line by line
  • Visitor's tax registered and remitted for lettings
  • Cantonal and communal correspondence handled locally

What you receive

  • Deadline calendar

    Every obligation the property carries, by date, monitored.

  • Document archive

    Scanned, indexed and searchable, per property, available to you.

  • Assembly summary

    What was decided, what it costs you and what happens next.

  • Annual tax pack

    One indexed file, formatted for the adviser who has to use it.

Questions about this service

Talk to us · info@m13property.com

Are you a law firm or a tax practice?

Neither, and we do not pretend otherwise. We prepare, coordinate and keep the deadlines. The advice comes from a qualified lawyer, gestor or tax adviser — yours, or one we can introduce you to.

Can you vote for me at the community assembly?

Yes, by written proxy and only on your instruction. We send you the agenda with a summary and a recommendation beforehand, and the minutes with a translation afterwards.

What if something has already been missed?

That is what the initial audit is for, and it is the most common reason people come to us. We establish what is outstanding, what it will cost to regularise and in what order to deal with it.

Can I take this service on its own?

Yes. It is included in full management, but a number of owners who handle their own property use it as a standalone annual service simply so nothing arrives at an empty house.

Other services

All services

Not sure which of these you need?

Describe the property and how you use it. We will tell you what it realistically needs — including the parts we would not charge you for.

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