Finding accommodationContract arrangements
The way the process works here is that the searcher pays the agency fee and having found what was pretty much our perfect flat in one day we didn't want to lose it or find we had a problem while we were back in England sorting out other things
If you're in a foreign country planning a move the last thing you want to happen is for the contract to fall through. Unfortunately we never felt completely secure with the contract until we got the keys in our hands.
Essentially for the contract to go through we had to provide bank account details (we had set this up the day before so that was new to us). In addition, we had to pay the fee to the agency and then the deposit to the owner with the first month's rent. In addition we needed the standard Spanish customs of photocopies of passports and, in this case, a photocopy of the employment contract.
But... before contracts could be exchanged the owner had to agree to us taking the flat and this meant waiting for confirmation. Then once confirmation was made exchange of contracts (signed by us and the owner) would take place while we were back in the UK. This kept us on tenter hooks and created an additional problem for us which relates to schools (see the schools topic).
