Municipality of Alhaurín de la Torre - Alhaurín de la Torre, Province of Málaga

Hannah L.

I debated on whether I should post a review of my experience. I decided that I will because I am hoping people with similar experiences will be validated - and to warn others.

My partner and I arrived to get a very simple piece of paperwork completed for me (we know it was simple because we had, just a week before, went in to get the same paperwork for him). When we were called to the desk, we kindly handed the required documents to the man and he shook his head and said something to us angrily in Spanish. Admittedly, we have just arrived in Spain and know very little Spanish but try extremely hard to speak Spanish with everyone we meet - even when it is clear that they speak English! In this case, the man was speaking very quickly and he was clearly very angry and we told him we don’t speak much Spanish and asked him to type what was wrong about our paperwork in the translator on our phone. He laughed at us and refused (the first of many many times we asked). He then bent back to speak to his colleague and laugh at us.

We were in shock at this treatment at a government building by a government official. We had brought in the identical documents for me that we brought in for my partner, yet he was unable and unwilling to help us understand why he wouldn’t process our request. Multiple times when I was trying to explain that I couldn’t understand him and to ask him to type what he was saying into my translator he would raise his voice, put his hand up to try and get me to stop talking and shush me. By that time everyone in the room was looking at us and one woman who worked there came out of her office to see what was going on and I asked her if she spoke English or if anyone that spoke English could help us. She didn’t look at me and walked by and started laughing with her colleagues. My partner and I looked at each other in total shock. It was all so humiliating.

Eventually, we had to leave and go to another government building in another town that could process the paperwork for us. Truly, we felt dehumanized by the entire experience. For the record, almost every Spanish person we have ever met has been a superb human - welcoming and kind and so understanding of our limited abilities to speak Spanish at the moment. The people that should be the most understanding and kind treated us like second class citizens - even worse - they didn’t even treat us like we were human, refusing to engage with us and laughing at us instead. All of this on top of the fact that the document we came to get for me, we got easily the week before for my partner (with the same exact documents). One’s ability to receive important documents like this (for visas, housing, IDs) should never ever be based on the person who happens to be working and their mood. This sort of inconsistent bureaucratic behavior is typical of third-world countries and has no place in a country like Spain.

I didn’t catch the man’s name but he was at Mesa 5 on December 13th, 2023 around 10-11am. Though I don’t expect there to be any recourse as such terrible situations are usually a result of a lack of accountability.

F R.

They are absolutely useless, incompetent, lazy, inefficient, complete waste of people's time. They have absolutely no care in providing a service ! AVOID buying a property in Costa del sol, they are all corrupt and will do you over big time, they're all in it toghether to rob you including lawyers, town halls, estate agents architect and builders

Mark P.

Pretty helpful. I spoke in Spanish and I believe they appreciated it but I heard them explaining things to other in English and it seemed like two of the women in the downstairs offices speak pretty well.

Matt S.

Very Helpful from security lady at the entrance to the ladies at the desks, we arrived with incorrect documents and they assisted us to resolve the problem. All done the same day. Thank you

Caz

Nice lady on security. Very helpful lady on table 4. Thank you for her help with my Padron today.

Miguel A. M. G.

Super pleasant and helpful staff! Thank you for the help urbanisation department

Harry C.

Helpful staff, great service.

Mehmet ?.

Municipality