Going to make Spanish will next week. My wife and I have retired to Spain and have a property here, and have a daughter back in UK. Is it just a straightforward if something happens to one of us leave to other half, and to both of us leave to daughter? Any info much appreciated.

I have a feeling you'll get post(s) telling you to look at Free Beer, but I too will be interested to see if you get anything more specific by way of advice.....I believe the received wisdom is you should have a Spanish Will AND a UK Will, both tallying with each other; matters are further complicated if you're not married, of course!

Thanks Fiona but did check out free beer first before posting but did not find much. I just thought I would try on here as I got a lot of helpful advice regarding pensions etc. before moving here. Let you know if I get anything useful.

Margaret and Derek - we are in much the same boat so would also appreciate any info, you do amass. I know about the separate matching wills, but not the level of detailed match required, nor the actual form in which provisions might have to appear. I believe IHT is also an issue (but am not sure)

I believe there is another thread on here that covers this, I seem to remember posting before but then it could be on another forum. Hubby and I have will's in the UK and Here in Spain they mirror each other, I leave all to him and he leaves all to me if and when we both die the money (0 and property is divided between the 5 named children.

We have 5 kids between us so it was important to get the wording and details correct so there was no mis-understanding, it has been said that your UK wills, will be valid here if there is a Spanish translation with them but for us we wanted/needed to be as sure as we could that we would get what we wanted. We were not married at the time so it really was very important for us to get this in black and white. If you have Spanish wills along side your UK ones it really means that there SHOULD not be any hold ups in the paper work when the time comes.

That's my understanding anyway, I'm sure someone will say different I think the other thread was more to do with using a solicitor or not! Hubby and I did not use one we used a translators to draw up the wills and who then went to the notary office with us, where it was typed up on the correct form and then presented to the notary who read it through and signed.

Hi

We don´t have any property in the UK, just here in Spain, nor do we have children. The Spanish Wills are for your assets here and you need to have your UK assets covered in the UK. We have made our wills (and you need one each) leaving everything to one another and, in the case of joint deaths, to our beneficiary. We also had a Power of Attorney arranged at the same time, just in case.

Hope this helps.

not sure if we have Power of Attorney here in Spain we do have in the UK I think we just assumed that the UK person would handle the Spanish assets as well. Will have to sort this one out. Thanks jjh

Hi Hon

I´m sure the mirrored Wills are OK, as long as you have one in each country. Power of Attorney, I understand, is a completely different ball game. I do know for certain though, because of the experience of a friend, that if you only have a UK Will it costs a lot of money, and I´m talking thousands of €´s to have it sent back to UK, authenticated and then sent back to Spain where it is then translated. Obviously this also takes time so what happens in the meantime, while this is happening, I´m not sure.

We'd echo jjh, as we've been advised to ensure we have separate wills which are duplicated in Spain and the UK for simplicity and you have to cover all eventualities including sorting out your PA for the spanish side of your affairs, in advance. We've also been advised to ensure that we use a solicitor who is recommended as having both plenty of experience and a good reputation with inheritance laws in Spain- this is stating the obvious, we know, but sometimes it's worth remembering the basics. As with any property dealings in Spain, it mainly seems to be a question of applying the same thorough, common-sense approach that you would in the UK.

http://www.tenerifesolicitors.com/spanish-wills.php

What happens if there is no will made in spain. Someone I know of - a couple with 1 daughter, they have no spanish wills made and the husband has recently died and the wife is now planning to go away for 3 months......... What is the situation in this case?

Was there a UK will or did they die intestate?

As far as I am aware no UK will either.

Right here we go - as some of you know I work in an English speaking lawyers firm - PLEASE PLEASE MAKE BOTH ENGLISH AND SPANISH WILLS IT IS SO IMPORTANT!!!!!!!

Yes you can use your English Will for your Spanish estate after you have obtained English Probate and then had it translated and apostilled - expensive exercise - please also bear in mind that Spanish Inheritance Tax has to be paid by THE BENEFICIARIES within six months of date of death.

At the moment in the office I have at least three cases of where Spanish Wills were not made and one Partner has died and the expense is just awful. Also for those of you THAT ARE NOT MARRIED but have joint property and no Spanish Wills - how do you intend to inherit - neither Spain or England recognise you as next of kin!! I know of one person who had been with their Partner for over 30 years but no Will - she cannot even the sell the property because she is only entitled to the half of the property that she owns - there are no heirs on her Partners' side so effectively nothing can be done to help her!!!!

I will not comment any futher but if anyone wants to e-mail privately I can put you in touch with my office. First Interview free

Hi

Can I make a suggestion? With property prices the way they are, if you are into negative equity or your property gain in price is not much, then why not sell it to the benficiaries. (No money need change hands). That way you do not own the property so no death duties are payable.
I am sure that there will be some caustic comments, but there may well be some good ideas to.
No one has said about the Spanish laws of inheritance, does not the oldest son get the biggest piece of the cake?

Davexf