Spanish Wills

Dear Sirs,

My husband recently passed away. We both made Spanish Wills to avoid any problems, and I have decided to sell our Spanish house so I can move back to the UK and be nearer my family.

I went to the estate agency with the documents for the house and a copy of the Will that the notary gave us, which shows that I am the beneficiary of my husband s ´ estate and therefore own the house.

The estate agent said that the house is registered in my and my husband’s name, and I had to put it in my sole name before I could sell it.

Surely, if the Will says I am the beneficiary, this should be sufficient to prove that I am the sole owner, so I can sell the property.

Your comments would be greatly appreciated.

ANSWER

Drawing up a Spanish Will is certainly a good idea. But let me explain the process that has to be taken now and the reasons.

When one makes a Spanish Will, a notification is sent to the Ministry of Justice in Madrid, where it is recorded. The contents of the Will is not recorded, but only the name of the Notary, the Town where is was signed and the date. Each time someone grants a Spanish Will, the same process is followed. Therefore, in the said Ministry there is an up to date record of each and every will.

It is possible that the deceased made another Will after the date of the Will you hold. The only way that the authorities accept as proof of which is the Last Will and Testament, is with e Certification of Last Wills from the Ministry of Justice.

Once this certification is in hand, a visit to the Notary is required for you to formally accept the inheritance. This may not seem logical, but you may not want to accept the inheritance, or may want to renounce it if favour of some third party. In other words, you have the right to own it, but you have to execute this right, if this is what you want.

Assuming you accept the inheritance, the document will be signed by you and the Notary. The next step is to file the correct tax forms, even if there is no tax to pay, the filing has to be done.

The new deeds together with the tax forms, the certified copy of the Will and the certification of the Ministry of Justice are presented to the land registry for registration. The land registry will then register your ownership by inheritance.

Before you go to the Notary, you will also need to take into consideration that you will be accepting the entire estate of you late husband, and this includes any money in any bank in his name ( even if it is a joint account), any vehicle registered in his name, etc.

For the bank, you will need to take the certification from the Ministry of Justice and a copy of the Will. The bank will issue you with a “certificados de saldo a fecha de defunción” – this is a certificate of balance on the date of death. Once the bank has knowledge of the death of an account holder, the account will be blocked until the bundle of document has been taken back to the bank to be processed.

Please send us your queries either by email, or letter indicating that you wish your letter and reply to be published in the Costa Blanca News. You may either send these directly to our offices or to the Costa Blanca News.

This column is intended for informative purposes only and we strongly advise any readers to seek professional advice prior to taking any action.

Please send us your queries either by email, or letter indicating that you wish your letter and reply to be published in the Costa Blanca News. You may either send these directly to our offices or to the Costa Blanca News. This column is intended for informative purposes only and we strongly advise any readers to seek professional advice prior to taking any action.