We asked our Spanish lawyer to do our Wills as we had just bought a property over there (we live in the UK). He has since emailed us a bill for 570 euros (that is for the two of us but still steep don't you think??!!)
Do we have to pay this does anyone know?? Or could we pay him the 70 euros for the notary, which I think is what they charge for signing the wills. We only had it done for the property, we have nothing else over there and we now feel so ripped off. We were stupid not to get a price off him before we got the wills done.

My lawyer charged me 100 Euros plus the notary fee. He was doing my property as well so cut me a deal.

Spain is a difficult place to not pay bills. They tend to just take it out of your bank account if you don't. Ask him for a breakdown of the charges and try to haggle.

That cost sounds very much OTT. However, has the Will been made in an unusual manner. Or has the lawyer had to spend more time on it than a 'standard' will. As you know, in Spain it is the norm for property to be left to the children. I think that it is a requirement that 2/3 rds of the estate goes to the children. That is often why you may see a farm estate being divided up into smaller units so each of the children get their share. But according to British law, you can decide and Will to whoever you wish,(subject to certain obligations) and can totally exclude the children and leave it all to charity. This is why it is considered important for a 'foreigner' owning property in Spain to make a will and have it offically recorded . On this web page, http://www.123propertynews.com/archive/08/pages/08.html there is an explanation of this subject . the author also comments as follows:

Having a Spanish will certainly will speed up the legal processes of inheritance. The notary will charge around 10,000 pesetas for the will and the lawyer's fee could be about the same, a total of 20,000 pesetas, although this could go much higher if the will is complicated or involves large sums of money.
Now 10,000 Peseats is about Euros 60 and given that the article was written a few years ago, we could assume that this has gone up to at least 70 Euros.
So according to this advice, the lawyer should also get a similar amount UNLESS the Will has taken longer than normal to prepare or we are dealing in a large estate. The Will should also contain the Spanish/English translation.
My feeling is that paying Euros 500 to a lawyer for a fairly basic Will in Spain is too much.

Seems like we have been well and truly 'had'! There are no children involved, it was a straight forward 'me to him' and 'him to me' if anything should happen to either of us.
Ta for the web address.

A Spanish will made by a foreigner has to be drawn up bilingually and must be translated to the granters when appearing before the notary.

You have to take into account the time spent discussing the will, the time taken to prepare it and the time taken in the Notary's office which can sometimes amount to several hours even though the actual process only takes a few minutes.

The amount you paid may be a little over the top but the important thing is that it has been done properly which isn't always the case with the cheaper options.

What are the complications of not having a will?

I don't know all the "ins and outs" but there are lots of complications if you have poperty and personal effects in Spain.

If you just had an English will it would have to be translated by a bilingual notary public at great expense, then sent to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to be endorsed with the Apostille of the Hague Convention and eventually sent to a lawyer in Spain to be administered.

By the time all this has been done the time limit of six months will probably have passed and the estate will be subject to fines and surcharges for late payment of the inheritance taxes.

If you have no will at all your Spanish estate would be subject to the 'law of forced inheritors' which means that it would be distributed according to Spanish law which may not be in accordance with what your wishes would have been.

Distributed according to Spanish law

Is this a set procedure or not, I did hear once that if I had children the norm would be that the oldest son would inherit. I have three daughters and a wife.

For example: - If I buy a house today, then die before I make a will, what happens?

The law where the first born inherits is called primogeniture and, I think, this still applies in France.

Assuming the property is in the joint names of yourself and your wife the distribution according to Spanish law is that the three children will inherit one third of your estate each, your wife continuing, of course, to own her half.

Your wife will have a lifelong interest, known as usufruct, in the shares owned by the children so she will have the right to continue to live in the house until her death.

Thank you very much indeed

Do you know about non resident tax's in spain

There are two non-resident taxes which have to be paid each year. The form on which the declarations have to be made is called Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio y sobre la Renta de no Residentes (214) and both declarations are made on the same form subject to certain conditions.

The wealth tax (patrimonio) is calculated at 0,2%, up to €167.129,45 and on a sliding scale thereafter, of the highest of the three following values

Valor Catastral (rateable value)
Any revised value imposed by the tax authorities
Escritura value

The income tax (renta) is calculated at 25% of 2% of the valor catstral (1,1% if it has been revised since 1st January 1994.

The simplified 214 form can only be used if just one property is owned and a separate declaration has to be made in respect of each person named in the title deed with the base upon which the taxes are calculated divided by the number of owners. The taxes can be paid at any time during the year following that in which they become due.

If more than one property with a different referencia catastral is owned (even if it is just a lock-up or a garage) the declarations have to be done on form 714 for the patrimonio and for 210 for the renta and the declaration has to be made from the 1st May to 20th June in the year following that for which the taxes are due. It is still individual declarations for each owner. All of the properties may be listed on one form 714 for the patrimonio but a separate form has to be submitted for each property in respect of the renta.

Hi

We made our Spanish Wills out yesterday and it cost 120 euros each plus IVA. It was fairly painless and we are pleased we did it. However anyone doing their wills should check thoroughly the copy as we were told at the Notary this is not the exact replica of the original and I insisted they mentioned in my copy the beneficiaries in case of demise!!! Quite an important thing I think???