We have received the following information about the current state of play concerning Brexit from a property owner on our urbanisation and which we think could be of interest to British home owners.
46,000 Brits in the Netherlands are suing Amsterdam and the Dutch government to get an answer to the question whether they can maintain their EU Citizenship and rights. The provisional hearing in the Netherlands was today (Tuesday) and it is expected to have an immediate referral to the ECJ. Should they win, then this will go for all 1.2 million Brits in mainland Europe (and should also help EU27 national in UK too). The case will have to be heard by ECJ before Brexit is finalised.
There are several other court cases around Europe relating to various aspects of protecting rights. Also another attempt to get the voting rights of Brits who have been abroad for longer than 15 years being reinstated.
To clarify over web sites, the Gov.uk site has official forms and information (although not always everything eg CSI info was only added a few months ago despite being required for many years – but there is now a legal challenge to that going on anyway as well!), but the Number10 web site is party political and not necessarily accurate. Although the UK government has stated the rights of EU27 in UK and Brits in EU27 have been sorted that is not strictly true, nothing has been signed and sealed and there are many issues not yet clarified or even yet considered. The advice being given out is that everyone should seek to be ‘legal’ in their present situation as they possibly can be (easier to do for Brits in Spain than in the UK for EU27 nationals strangely!) so if anyone has any doubts that they are following the rules they should seek legal advice.
Concerning Brits in Spain not using the NHS – the recent rule change concerns pensioners only, so not for those below state pension age. This means that under certain circumstances pensioners can but they must make it clear that they are Spanish residents when doing so and not lie by pretending to be a UK resident.