Foreign will is valid in Spain

October 28, 2009 - Posted By (Admin) in (Law)

Legally, it is not absolutely necessary for you to make a Spanish will to dispose of your assets in spain. A Briton who owns property in Spain can bequeath his Spanish apartment in the same British Will he uses to dispose of his property in England, and his will can be probated in Spain. However, there are a number of steps which must take place in order to do this.

If you have lived in Spain for a long time, it may be necessary for you to re-create a legal domicile in your home country for purposes of making a will. You may be able to do this by filing an official "letter of intent" with your lawyers. This letter states that, even though you hold a Spanish residence permit now, you really intend to return to your home country in the end. This should be sufficient for establishing a leal domicile in your home country and will allow its law to apply.

Let us suppose that you do this. Your foreign will (which can be made at yuor consulate in Spain as long as the proper formalities are observed) must go through the following process before it can dispose of your Spanish assets:

1. A certified copy of the grant of probate must be legalised by the Spanish consul in the testator`s home country, and a Spanish translation of this certified copy prepared. A Spanish lawyer must then be empowered to prepare a list of the assets in Spain, see that the Spanish inheritance taxes are paid, and handle the rest of the paperwork involved in distributing the assets.

2. Two lawyers registered in your home country, or a Notary, or a Spanish consul-general in your home country, must prepare  a certificate of law, a Certificado de Ley, which affirms that the testator had the legal capacity to make a will; that the will is valid; that the Spanish law of obligatory heirs and the dispositions relating to property of spouses do not exist in the law of your country; that the will has been duly proved, and that the trustees named have the correct legal powers to administer the estate.

3. Finally, your will is declared effective to dispose of your assets in Spain, and your Spanish lawyer can carry this out.

Its a complicated, time-consuming and expensive process, and it is clearly better to make a Spanish Will disposing of your assets in Spain.