Legal tip 1200. Question on avoiding forced heirs in Spain
Thursday, September 4, 2014 @ 11:43 AM
On the forum today:
QUESTION:
Maria, what if a person has a UK will for their assets in the UK and a Spanish will for their assets in .
Spain?
Surely , as UK had not yet signed up to this rule, British law will still apply to their UK will, and they would only have to amend it If the UK signed up?
ANSWER:
Uk Law will apply to that person in all cases but IF he/she does not have estate assets in the Uk and he has Spanish residency. Why? Because in this case , UK Law forwards his inheritance to Spain Law.
In that case, if this person wants to avoid the application of Spanish Inheritance Law ( legal heirs), as it would be due to his spanish residency, he needs to make a new will by which he states he chooses UK Inheritance Law.
When does he need to grant it? Prior to August 2015, just in prevention he died with a current will that could be contested by his "legal heirs" according to Spanish Law.
Of course wills can also be made after August 2015. As said above, doing it before August 2015, is just a matter of prevention for if someone dies before that date and leave things into the Spanish Inheritance rules because of being resident in Spain.
Granada from the Veredillas de San Cristóbal, South eastern Spain, at facebook.com