Advice following inheritance
 

Hi, First time here and I am really hoping someone can help and advice me following the death of my father who had a property on costa del sol. He left a spanish will luckily and the property was left 80% to myself and the remaining 20% to grandchildren (5% each). My problems begin with the fact that the house or land has never been registered in my fathers name, (he did sign the correct papers though), he built an extension without planning permission, and I need to find a large amount of money to pay the inheritance tax. How could I go about getting it valued for the inheritance tax and can I get it done without the extension that is falling down anyway. I am just in a nightmare situation. Help and advice please. Thank you

Re: Advice following inheritance
 

All I can suggest is that you contact a reputable Solicitor, try to find one that has been personally recommended. Best of luck

Re: Advice following inheritance
 

I have a good solicitor that has offices in the UK and in spain. But what we are finding is that different areas seem to have different laws, even on the costa del sol. Our new solicitor is in marbella but my fathers house is in colmenar, malaga. My fathers solicitor didn't speak english and i don't speak spanish. She also didn't seem to get any where with the house registration issues even after 1 year. What I could do with is being recommended to an english speaking surveyor to value the house in is current state. I feel like I am going round in circles all the time. :confused:

Re: Advice following inheritance
 

Do you need one who speaks English though surely your Spanish Solicitor will have the necessary contacts and as long as they understand the valuation and can pass the same to you there shouldn't be a problem?

Re: Advice following inheritance
 

You dont get surveyors here the same as you do in the UK. Maybe go to a couple of estate agents & get it valued for your needs.

I have a feeling the state will value it for inheritence tax but our resident expert Fred will be along soon to tell you for sure.

Do you know the story as to why your dads name is not on the land registery papers? Is there an escuitura? What is the taxable value of the property .... do you know?

Re: Advice following inheritance
 

There was a problem at the spanish registry office. My dads Power of Attorney signed and then my dad went out to spain and signed but when the paperwork went to the registry they put it in the POA's name. This wasn't noticed until my dad came to sell the property just over 12 months ago.

Re: Advice following inheritance
 

Hi Calls;576910,

Can I play devils advocate and suggest that your dad never owned the property if his name is not on the deeds and that the POA owns the property as it is registered at the land registry.

You want the best Spanish abrogado you can get to sort out this mess and one who comes highly recommended and works on the CDS is Maria de Castro (google her name I'm sure she will be there). You can get RICS registered surveyors there is a branch in Spain and one who posts on here is Rowland Webb.

Regards,

John.

Re: Advice following inheritance
 

Thank you for your help. Do you know what Rowland Webb's members name is as I can't find his name in the directory?

Re: Advice following inheritance
 

Log on to the RICS site and they will list all the surveyors who work in Spain.

Re: Advice following inheritance
 

Johns right .... that really is frightening. I hope the POW is trustworthy ... you need to check out if any loans have been taken out against the property, as technically it seems possible your dad doesn't own the property. I'm sure it will be fine but you really need a good solicitor to sort it out

Re: Advice following inheritance
 

I cannot comment on the registration/ownership issue apart from advising you to find a good lawyer.

As for valuation for IHT you don't need a surveyor, you need a valuer (tasacion) and I would suggest you contact Krata at www.krata.es who will give you a full valuation. The banks often use this company for mortgage valuations.

As far as the government are concerned, there are tables of values based on the catastral value of the property which they will use to verify what you declare the value to be. It is up to you to declare the value for IHT and if it comes within their guidelines it should be accepted.

The value is the catastral value multiplied by a factor depending on the location. If you go to http://tinyurl.com/2tyjtz you will be able to enter the details of the property and get a valuation figure.This will, at least, give you some idea of the figures that you should be looking at.

Re: Advice following inheritance
 

Thank you for your advice Fred. We have a appointed a lawyer who is based in Marbella. But when my father died we were unaware the IHT in spain was so high. We are currently trying to reduce our costs as much as possible and attempting to arrange as much as possible ourselves. Unfortunately we are in the UK but find the internet a great source of information.

I feel a bit overwhelmed at the moment with the whole process and feel like I am taking one step forward and three back. Because of the property not being registered correctly initially when my father brought it just seems to add to all the problems. The POA has now passed away and was investigated by the police for fraudulant activities. (My father seem to be quite lucky as others paid their money to him for a property, he was an estate agent, and he never passed the money on to the vendors so they lost all their money).

I have another estate agent who claims to be a friend of my fathers who has said he is willing to assist us with the processes required using his contacts and lawyer, but I am obviously apprehensive about this due to the previous experience above we will have to pay him also for his time and expertise he says. Am i being overly cautious?

Any cost saving advice would be extreamly welcomed as would a break down of the process/stages we need, I have asked the lawyer for this but I am still waiting!

Thanks again

A very confused Lisa

Re: Advice following inheritance
 

Lisa, again as the house was seemingly not in your dads name I would urgently suggest you to make enquiries to see if any loans have been taken out against the house. Afaik the loan would stay with the house and you really dont want to go through all the cost of what you have to do to get it registered properly and find a nasty shock at the end of it.

Re: Advice following inheritance
 

Thank you Mitzyboy,

I have emailed my solicitor to ask her to look into it. Hopefully it will be ok as the estate agent wasn't aware that the house had been registered incorrectly.