I'm not even sure that Spanish law has the concept of an executor.

We recently revised our UK wills and therefore our Spanish wills (property and assets in both jurisdictions). Our Spanish lawyers firm are Executors and the will confirms the existence of our UK Will and the clear instruction that our Spanish estate is to be liquidated and alĺ proceeds are to be forwarded to the UK for final settlement.

all we want really is to stop a certain person gaining after our deaths, and to make sure our daughter dose.we want her to be the soul inheritor

I'm very interested to know if when you say 'forwarded to the UK' do you mean directly to the UK legatees or to the Executor of your UK Will?

So if hypothetically I have 'bienes' in Spain of 200,00 and leave 100,000 to my girlfriend in Spain and 100,00 to my brother in England, they both have to complete tax forms which decides how much they will receive, depending on various factors. In the meantime, who is sitting on the money and administering the assets if the concept of Executor doesn't exist?

Sounds like leaving Spanish assets to a UK resident is difficult for the legatee as they would have to deal with the Spanish tax system.

Yes, they both have to have NIE's and must pay any taxes due - before receiving any assets. This can be hard if they don't have spare cash to pay the taxes.

I think the assets just 'sit' there. Any property can't be sold until taxes have been paid. Any cash is held in the banks.

Money in bank accounts just sits there, other investments likewise, property just keeps accumulating costs such as utility standing charges, IBI bills and community fees if applicable. Once the inheritance tax is paid and, in the case of property, an escritura de herencia drawn up by a notary, then the legatees can take possession.

It really can be difficult and costly for a UK legatee to receive an inheritance of assets in Spain. A friend of ours inherited a house in Spain from her brother (he had no closer relatives). She also inherited his UK property and savings - luckily, because she was able to get probate in the UK quite quickly and use that money to pay the Spanish inheritance tax within six months of his death. The Spanish inheritance tax was quite substantial, even on a house valued at under €100,000k, she also had to pay plus valia to the Ayuntamiento on the "official" increase in the value of the land the property was built on, and of course she had to pay a lawyer to sort everything out for her. It all took well over a year. A child inheriting a Spanish house from a parent would pay less inheritance tax as they are in a different group for Spanish IHT purposes, having a closer degree of relationship. Leaving it to a girlfriend, though, would mean an even higher IHT bill for her as she would be classed as a person unrelated to the deceased and therefore would not be entitled to claim any tax allowance to offset against the IHT due.