inheritance
 

Hi my late husband left his share of the apt we have in Tenerife to the four children Three of the children have waiver there inheritance to me but the fourth is wanting his share. My solicitor has sent letters but he is just ignoring them. The thing is I have a buyer for the apt but I can't sell until my son signs so I can take my late husbands name of the deeds.
does anyone know if this could be overruled by a lawyer. The people wanting the apt will only wait until May.

Re: inheritance
 

You have to consult a lawyer locally. This is too important to take advice from an online forum.

Re: inheritance
 

Hi scot47
I will have to go over to Tenerife and see my lawyer.
Many Thanks

Re: inheritance
 

If what can be over ruled? He owns it, you cannot sell something owned by somebody else. Is there a particular reason he wants to keep the apartment rather than have the money from the sale? I wouldn't have thought any legal system in the world could force somebody to sell a property they want to keep in this scenario.

Re: inheritance
 

Hi Bermudashorts
My Sons inheritance is one 16th of the apt which equates to about £6500. He doesn't mind me selling but he just won't sign the papers so I can have my late husbands name taken of the deeds. He is only doing it because he doesn't speak to any of the family.

Re: inheritance
 

So your husband did not leave it to the children equally? Never mind though, he is still the partial owner and as I say, can't see that any country is going to make an owner sell in this kind of situation. I think you will need to try and negotiate.

Re: inheritance
 

Bermudashorts
That's just it he doesn't talk to anyone and doesn't reply to solicitors letters

Re: inheritance
 

It's interesting but I only found out last week that UK wills can be changed AFTER death.

I don't mean contested but CHANGED!

How the h*ll can that happen?

Re: inheritance
 

snikpoh
Hi
I wish Spanish ones could. I will have to go over to Tenerife and see my lawyer over there more expense.

Re: inheritance
 

"It's interesting but I only found out last week that UK wills can be changed AFTER death."It's not quite how it looks at first glance.

You can change a person’s will after their death, as long as any beneficiaries left worse off by the changes agree. You can change a will to:

• reduce the amount of Inheritance or Capital Gains Tax payable
• provide for someone who was left out of the will
• move the deceased’s assets into a trust
• clear up any uncertainty over the will

Re: inheritance
 

You can also change the type of ownership from joint tenants to tenants in common if that suits you better. That way, the deceased share goes into probate and the will can be "rearranged" to avoid Spanish IHT.

Re: inheritance
 

rspltd and Fred James
Hi to you both
That's good to know thank you

Re: inheritance
 

My point is that if someone was left out of the will, they can be added even though this might be against what the deceased wanted. ... and all this without having to contest it!

In my mind this makes a mockery of ones 'last will and testament' if it can be changed willy nilly.

Re: inheritance
 

Not really, since the person being added is being done so at the request and agreement of the original beneficiary. The person writing the will obviously wanted the beneficiary to do as he/she pleased with that inheritance. It is essentially no different to the person taking the inheritance and giving it away save for legally having the pottential to cut out the tax man.

Ask yourself this question, did the person making the will intend the tax man to get the largest slice possible ? If the answer is yes then he should have instructed the lawyer that the will should contain a provision to make it impossible to vary the will to make it more tax efficient (it is after all the job of the person advising on the will to cover every eventuality to suit to the clients wishes, no matter how daft they may be)

Re: inheritance
 

How does one know - they're dead!

It is no more than an assumption.

Tax may have nothing to do with it at all either.

Re: inheritance
 

The beneficiary who is prepared to "give away" his legal inheritance is very much alive. Clearly the deceased wanted the original beneficiary to have the money or he would not have been left it to him.

It can have tax implications if the beneficiary is tax resident in Spain as it is the individual beneficiary who is liable for tax which is not the case in the UK.

Re: inheritance
 

There is a thing in Spanish law where one party cannot block the sale. The sale can be forced and the law is satisfied as long as the difficult beneficiary gets their due (and pays their tax!)

You definitely need to get info on this from a lawyer.

Re: inheritance
 

Thanks for that dairymaid

Re: inheritance
 

I think you've missed the point. It's not the beneficiary who's will is being changed.

If someone dies leaving the estate to just two of three children. Then the will can be changed to include the third - irrespective of what the deceased wanted.

This is currently happening to a friend of mine who's father recently passed away in UK.


Can anyone please put this more simply for me as I may be misunderstanding the situation.

Re: inheritance
 

How is this relevant to the OP situation? It seems to have been a perfectly equitable distribution of the property between four children. That three of the children choose to hand over the property to the mother and the other does not, does not mean that the will should be changed so that fourth child does not inherit.

To be honest this appears to have little to do with wills and more to do with a co owner of a property refusing to sell.

Re: inheritance
 

The fourth child is wanting his share of inheritance (money) which he is entitled but he
wont sign the form for his inheritance. I cant sell the property until my husbands name is taken off the deeds. He is just being awkward and letting his brothers wait until he's ready

Re: inheritance
 

Maybe if he has to start paying his share of non residency tax, share of maintainance and ongoing running costs etc pro rata for his share that may focus him to a sensible view of the situation. If he is a co owner then he should be legally bound to pay his fare share? I know you say he won't respond to solicitors etc but if things are correctly served on him then ignoring them does not absolve him of his due responsibilities . I would speak to your solicitor and see if you can get anywhere taking this route?

Re: inheritance
 

I assume that you are the executor and will be attempting to sell the property on behalf of the beneficiaries - (although 3 of the beneficiaries have renounced their inheritance in your favour - is that what you mean by 'waiver'?).

I, as executor for my parent, was able to reregister a property into my name with the addendum "as executor for ........(deceased)". I was then able to sell the property and divide the proceeds among the beneficiaries according to the will (even though the will itself only named the asset and did not say that the value of the asset should be divided - poor drafting by whoever drew up the will). You obviously need to consult a lawyer or accountant to ensure that you don't end up with any IHT or CGT liability by doing this, of course.

Re: inheritance
 

I did not say that.

I pointed out that is was up to the beneficiary to decide if he wanted to change the bequest to another party.

Re: inheritance
 

Hi bobd22
MikeJ
He has already had a letter from solicitor saying he will have to pay his share of the bills but that didn't do any good (bobd22)
That is what i'm trying to do is sell the property (MikeJ)

Re: inheritance
 

I am a joint executor and beneficiary of my late uncle's will.
There was a mistake in drafting the will (it was drafted by a solicitor!) that excluded his wife from benefiting from the estate.
The beneficiaries (3) recognised this and had the will changed to reflect the true intent of the will.
A beneficiary can also pass the benefit of there share of a will with a deed of change. It is often used to miss a generation to reduce future IHT.

Re: inheritance
 

I would suggest the simplest / quickest and perhaps the only(?) way out of this situation is to buy his share from him. If you don't have / can't raise £6500, he may accept a legally binding contract to accept the cash on completion of the sale?

Re: inheritance
 

Hi missile
This has been tried, I think everything has been tried, that was why I wondered if a Spanish lawyer could overrule this and give him the money he was entitled to after the sale. I even offered to sign an agreement for him to receive the entitlement. Iv'e tried talking to his solicitor but he won't speak to me, and as iv'e said before he doesn't reply to my solicitors letters

Re: inheritance
 

It seems he doesn't like you ......... You can pick your friends, but not your family?

Re: inheritance
 

He doesn't like any of the family missile. He didn't go to his dads funeral but he will have his money.

Re: inheritance
 

Karma will get him ......... hopefullyhttp://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3HTO4If1lX...rma+quotes.jpg

Re: inheritance
 

They always say that missile and what goes around comes around, only hope I'm still around to see it.

Re: inheritance
 

what gets me Missile is he was critically injured on a motorbike and on a life support machine. We looked after him for seven years until he could fend for himself and thats what we get from him.

Re: inheritance
 

I think your on the same lines as me Missile.

Re: inheritance
 

The process I was talking about is called

EXTINCION DE CONDOMINIO

Hope this helps

Re: inheritance
 

Interestingly, I saw the Karma message from the point of view of the fourth son!!

It seems that the OP and her other sons are getting what they deserve and rightly so.

No amount of threats from lawyers would make me sign something in this situation. Threats from lawyers aren't worth the paper they're written on. Only the courts can order somebody to do something.

Clearly, the OP thought she could bulldoze her son into complying with her instructions. Maybe it's time you and your other sons apologize to the fourth son for something that happened a long time ago ????

He knows all this is driving you nuts and I bet he's enjoying every minute of it.

Re: inheritance
 

I don't know how different spanish law is, but in UK , it is the executors responsibility to dispose of the deceased assets and distribute them according to the will. I was executor for my FIL and his will said his house was to be split equally amongst his 3 children. One did not want me to sell the house so the alternative was we had it valued and offered the two thirds of it he did not own to him at market value. (probate value). He could not raise the mortgage needed so as executor I sold the house (in my name as "executor of ..." and gave him his share of the proceeds. As executor I could not be stopped from selling the house,unless he was ALREADY a joint owner or a tenant in common,(which he wasn't) but could be challenged by the beneficiaries that I had not obtained the best price. On the other hand, I was also executor for my father. In this case after probate we had the house put in our 3 names as tenants in common. After a couple of years one of my brothers and I wanted to sell , but my other brother did not as he thought we should keep it a few more years for the value to appreciate. In the end it took us another year before he finally agreed to sell the property but did not want to share the sale costs. We gave in! I hope your spanish solicitor comes up with a satisfactory answer. :)

Re: inheritance
 

I know where you are coming from, I am also puzzled as to why the sons agreement is needed to handle the estate. I executed my fathers estate, the children all inherited equally (intestate in this case) and I sold the house single handedly as executor without needing to get any signature from my siblings.

Re: inheritance
 

Spanish inheritance law is totally different from UK law, so any experiences in the UK are mainly irrelevant.

The key differences are that there is no "estate" as such, just individual inheritances. There is no executor either. Each beneficiary is responsible for paying the inheritance tax on his estate. The property cannot be sold until all the tax is paid and the sale can be blocked by any one of the inheritors as they are all co-owners.

Re: inheritance
 

The property is in Spain but that does not mean Spanish inheritance law applies. It sounds like OP does not live in Spain so perhaps husband did not and was UK domiciled, in which case this is UK inheritance matter and there simply happens to have an overseas asset in the estate.