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.

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.

Thanks for that dairymaid

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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)

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.

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?

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

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

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