I have lived in Spain since 1969 with periods of working in Latin America. Before I learnt Spanish I have to admit I had a few problems trying to communicate with the various police forces which at times got me in to trouble. Since being able to communicate well I have to say that I have found the police to be reasonable. At one stage I even offered my services as a translator with the Guardia Civil.
Currently I live in the campo in my dream finca. Unfortunately because of the way the majority of Brits have behaved in my area we do not rank highly in the authorities eyes. Because of this the authorities are inclined to treat us all with some kind of caution. We are unfortunately looked upon as trouble makers due to past experiences. As soon as it is discovered that I speak Spanish and have resided here for many years the difference in treatment I receive is really noticeable. My advice therefore to all new arrivals is learn some Spanish and life will be so much smoother.
Having said the above I have one very big concern with living in the campo here in Malaga. The address of my finca is a Catastral address which is made up of reference numbers. For example my Catastral address is Poligono 8, Parcela xxx, Alhaurin el Grande, Malaga. The finca has no other address. Every other casa rural has the same type of address. Should we need assistance from any of the emergency services we have to try and explain exactly where we live or arrange to meet the service requested at a designated point. If someone is having a heart attack in the early hours of the morning or you are being held up a gun point this is not possiblle.
Some time ago the Spanish Government spent a fortune setting up a system so that every legal property in Spain could be quickly located. This system is known as the Oficina Virtual del Catastro and can be found by entering the following address in your web browser <http://ovc.catastro.minhac.es> It may appear a little complicated at first but after playing around with the site it is very simple to locate your property on a map and will even show a reasonably recent ariel photo of your home.
When I discovered this foolproof system of quickly locating my finca I visited the Policia Municipal, Guardia Civil and local Ambulatorio to confirm that they were using it and that there should be no problem in finding me in an emergency. I regret to say that none of the three had ever heard of the Oficina Virtual del Catastro and more alarming was that the new local head quarters of the Guardia Civil did not even have a computer available for the duty crew to access. The only one available was installed in a duty officers office and could only be used with special permission. If the duty officer was not available nor was the computer.
I have since tried to speak with senior officials of the above named services but get the distinct impression that nobody is interested in adopting this system of location as I suspect that it would lead to more work. We are all aware that currently it is very easy to summon help and when nothing arrives hear the same old excuse after the event that you could not be located.
I can only relate my experience in the region where I live. Hopefully in other areas of Spain they have adopted, and successfully use the Oficina Virtual del Catastral. Without doubt every single Ayuntamiento in the country will use it daily to keep track on it’s inhabitants and illegal building. I can not accept that the Spanish emergency services are not aware of this location search system but for the reason stated already choose not to use it.