We live well in Spain.Our income comes from pensions, monies stashed offshore or from gainful earnings either in the UK or Spain.Either way, we live well in Spain.We will always meet a fellow who out-fumbles us at the bar. A woman who claims to speak Spanish and will gladly translate for a modest fee. Someone who will pay for something next week with possession today. Apartments with hidden mortgages on them, details of which usually end up in the British press, frightening readers into remaining in the UK.Yes, we do live well in Spain.

All the imported foods and goodies we might have missed are now easily available – British clothes, French cheeses, Belgian beer and Irish newspapers! Not quite the image of good old Spain – a donkey laden with firewood and a little old lady dressed in black with a water jug on her head. They are now sketches in tourist shops.But we do live well in Spain. That is until something goes wrong!

Perhaps the tax man has discovered undeclared earnings, some Germans have encroached on neighbouring land, a letter has arrived from an obscure official Spanish source, a builder has gone bankrupt, someone has died with confusion over inheritance tax, or the police have stopped us with too much red wine in our stomachs. What do we do? Are we getting conflicting advice? Of course it’s not our fault, at worst just a bit of bad luck. Ignore it, the problem will go away: no problema, as the Spanish say. Perhaps we should read this book again? That’s a good idea! Why not, it’s a good start.A quick reminder – this book is not gospel.

Gospel comes in about 26 leather-bound volumes taking seven years to understand to an acceptable standard. It is a guideline for some of the most common applications of Spanish law affecting a foreigner spending some time in Spain. Laws and regulations are complex and liable to change. But reading this book again should solve most problems or at least point the way.In no way does this book forbid you from hot-footing it down to a friendly English speaking abogado who will ask for a stack of euros for their advice.

Going the slow road, a pure legal route, can have few clear decisions and possibly even fewer clear results. The water is rarely, if ever, clear. Black and white gives way to a hundred shades of gray. Again in no way does this book forbid you from violating what might be loosely called the rules. Sometimes situations force us to examine what is right and what is wrong. We’ve all been in situations where doing the right thing was obviously the wrong thing to do, and in situations where doing the wrong thing was obviously right. It may start with something simple, such as putting up a garden shed without planning permission.

Or it may end up being something of catastrophic proportions such as physically evicting a tenant who does not pay the rent. That’s when the phrases ‘the end justifies the means’ and ‘rules are made to be broken’ come in handy. Only do it, however, if you have all the facts and understand the consequences – for we do live well in Spain ... and it would be wrong to spoil that notion through a hasty decision.