Inheriting property in Spain: the whole process

A relative dies, there is a flat in Alicante or a house near Málaga, and you are in Manchester or Chicago. What follows is a Spanish procedure conducted in Spanish, with deadlines running from the moment of death. Here is what the whole thing actually involves.

Step one: find out whether there was a Spanish will

Spain keeps a central register of wills. A certificate from it — the certificado de últimas voluntades — tells you whether the deceased made a will before a Spanish notary and, if so, which one holds it.

There is a second certificate worth requesting at the same time, covering life insurance contracts. It regularly turns up policies nobody in the family knew existed.

Neither certificate can be requested until fifteen working days have passed since the death, so the calendar effectively starts there.

Which country's law governs the inheritance?

This is the question that changes everything, and it is not obvious.

Under the EU Succession Regulation, the general rule is that the succession is governed by the law of the country where the deceased was habitually resident at the time of death — unless they had expressly chosen the law of their nationality in a will.

The practical consequence is significant. Spanish law reserves fixed shares for certain heirs, whereas English law allows broad freedom of disposition. So a British national who had lived in Spain for twenty years without making a choice of law may find Spanish forced heirship rules applying to their estate, whether or not that was the intention.

Conversely, a British national resident in the UK with a Spanish holiday home will generally have English law govern the succession, even for the Spanish property.

Establishing this first is not a formality. It determines who inherits and in what proportions.

Step two: work out what is actually there

Before accepting anything, the estate has to be established: land registry extracts for any property, bank certificates showing balances at the date of death, and any outstanding debts. Spanish inheritances pass on liabilities as well as assets.

This matters because of what comes next.

You have three options, not one

Accept outright. You take the assets and you become liable for the debts, potentially beyond the value of what you inherit.

Renounce. You take nothing and owe nothing. This has to be done formally.

Accept under benefit of inventory. You inherit, but your liability is capped at the value of what you receive. This is the cautious route when the financial position is unclear, and it has its own formal requirements and time limits.

Step three: the deed, without flying over

The acceptance and distribution of the estate is formalised in a deed before a Spanish notary. You do not have to be there.

You sign a power of attorney at the Spanish consulate in your city, and a representative appears on your behalf. Because a consular power is a Spanish public document, it requires no apostille and no sworn translation — unlike a power signed before a local solicitor or notary, which needs both.

The saving is several hundred pounds and, more importantly, weeks. The practical constraint is consular appointment availability, which in some cities is the longest part of the whole process.

Step four: tax

Spanish inheritance tax is due within six months of the date of death, extendable by six more if requested within the first five. Late filing means surcharges.

If there is urban property, a second and separate municipal tax on the increase in land value is also payable to the local town hall.

Both have to be settled before the property can be registered in your name.

Step five: getting the property into your name

The final step is registration at the Land Registry, followed by transferring bank accounts, utilities and community of owners records.

Skipping this is more common than you would think, and it causes problems years later: the property remains registered to a dead person, which makes selling it, mortgaging it or passing it on considerably more complicated.

What tends to go wrong

Three things, in order of frequency. Waiting too long and incurring surcharges. Accepting outright without knowing what debts exist. And a power of attorney drafted too narrowly, which stops the process halfway through and has to be redone from the consulate — losing another month.