Inherit a property in Spain

Normally, this procedure will be easier when there is a Spanish will that dispose of the Spanish assets of the person who has passed away.

Be aware that exist varied inheritance rules depending on the autonomous community, for example: Basque country, Balearic Islands, Aragon, Catalonia, or Navarra, where the Spanish regional law is applicable.

Therefore, it must be verified whether the deceased had executed a Spanish will or not. Once this information is obtained, the legal heirs will be identified to distribute the inheritance.

Regarding the patrimonial partition, it must be determined which law is applicable, whether regional or national. Each case needs an individual study. In addition, the way to proceed legally depends on the existence or non-existence of a Spanish or foreign will.

It should be noted that foreigners may have multiple wills. These must take place in different countries, such as their home country and Spain.

According to Spanish law, a spouse keeps all the estates acquired before the marriage, half of the property acquired during the marriage and all gifts or personal inheritances that have come directly to the spouse.

When a person passes away leaving children, their estate is divided into three equal parts:

One third must be left to the children in equal parts.
Another third must also be left to the children, but the testator decides how it is to be divided. A surviving spouse has a life interest in this second third and the children who inherit it cannot dispose of it freely until the surviving parent pass away.
The final third can be freely disposed of.

If the person which has passed away has no children the surviving parents have a statutory right to one-third of the estate if they have a surviving spouse, or half of the estate if they do not.

Some of the documents you will need to inherit a property located in Spain are the following:

The will in case there is one.
Death certificate of the deceased and proof of his relationship with the deceased. These documents must be translated into Spanish by an official translator.
List of Spanish assets. It is mandatory to pay the inheritance tax in Spain.
Power of attorney, written in Spanish, duly signed by all the heirs before a Notary Public in their country, duly legalized, designating the lawyer who will proceed to the estate partition in Spain on behalf of the heirs.
All kind of documentation about the Spanish assets.
Passport´s copy.
Certificate of the foreign law of succession applicable to the different cases.

Every foreign document must be translated into Spanish, also the inheritance tax must be paid in Spain.

Contenido

What happens if the deceased has not made a will?

Children, both biological and adopted, are treated equally. In the absence of one or more children, the parent’s share is passed down to their own children.
In the absence of the deceased’s parents, the nearest remaining ascendants.
Survivor’s partner
Siblings and nieces and nephews are examples of collateral families.
The estate passes to the state when there are no families who are entitled to inherit.

The estate passes to the Spanish state if an inheritance is not claimed, if there are no legitimate heirs, or if all beneficiaries refuse the inheritance.

You must pay gift tax if your net worth increases because of a donation from a living person. The Spanish gift tax is a progressive system, with the base tax rate determined by the value of the donation.

To sum up, wills are not required in Spain due to the country’s forced heirship system. When it comes to property and assets in Spain, Spanish law acknowledges foreign wills. Such wills must, however, be legalized before a Spanish consul (or affixed with an apostille in signatory countries) and translated into Spanish to be enforceable in Spain.

This procedure can be more costly than drafting a Spanish will in some cases. Using a foreign will from a country (such as the United Kingdom) requires waiting for the Grant of Probate to be released, which can take time. This is important to remember because, in order to prevent fines from the Spanish, the inheritance process must be completed within six months after the date of death.

Getting a property appraised by a Society approved by the bank of Spain such Euroval.

The property value can be determined in two ways:

Official Approved Real Estate Appraisal

It is a report made with standardized methodology, according to the requested purpose, in order to obtain the value of a certain property or the right over it.

It is carried out by and expert appraisal team and is finally supervised to control its quality by the Euroval validation department. valid for all financial entities and official organizations. Obtain a report made by an expert technical team, perfectly argued, which includes property value, characteristics, urban environment, registry information, cadastral, photographs and map.

Among the regulatory purposes are those set out in Ministerial Order ECO 805/2003:

Mortgage guarantee of credits or loans
Coverage of technical provisions of insurance companies
Determination of real estate collective investment institutions equity
Determination of the equity real estate of pension funds

The non-regulatory purposes cover a wide spectrum, however, all of them with the common purpose of knowing the market value of a real estate. Among this type of purpose, we can highlight:

Processes of partition of equity by reason of inheritance or marriage separations, etc.
Financial statements. Adjustment of the value of assets
Advice on a purchase and sale
Advice on a property division
Corporate mergers and splits
Extinction of pro-indivisional
Auctions

Among the administrative or process-related assessments of the administration we can highlight

Debt deferment with the administration
Capital increases through non-cash contributions
Checking tax values
Expropriations
Expert and judicial assessments
Urban development reparcelling

Valuation for Real Estates Advice

It is a valuation oriented to the knowledge of value, elaborated by a Euroval technician and with a lower cost than the official valuations. VIA reports are ideal for buying and selling or distributing goods. These valuations can be carried out in real estate premises Dwellings, offices, warehouses, buildings, or land.
At Euroval Valuation Society we offer a specialized report of valuation of a real estate oriented to the knowledge of its value, without the burden of procedures and formalities prescribed by official valuation regulations or statistical procedures.

Advisory real estate valuation is ideal for: