So......we're moving to Andalucia in November and intend to stay for the foreseeable future. We'll be renting, not buying.
Obviously we'll comply with all Spanish legal requirements as I have done here but I'm curious as to how the authorities in Spain check up on whether you are 'legal' or not.
I currently live in the Czech Republic, don't work but fly back to the UK regularly - roughly once a month - and although I have a residence permit here, I can't see how I could be checked on as my passport is never stamped when I arrive at the airport.
We'll bring a car over with us and it will be lhd but on UK plates as we bought it from a UK company which delivered it to the Czech Republic direct from the German manufacturer, VW. If it's a legal requirement, we'll register it here but how can the police tell how long you've had the vehicle in Spain?
I ask these questions not to avoid complying with the rules and regulations but because I spent a lot of time and money here doing the right thing only to find that a) no-one has ever asked me to produce the documents I was obliged to acquire and b) an awful lot of expats here just don't seem to bother to get these documents.