It is often necessary for people living in Spain to apply for a Grant from the Probate Registry of England and Wales. Grants of Probate and letters of administration are issued by the Probate Registry of England and Wales.
This could be because the deceased died without a Spanish Will but had assets in Spain. In some circumstances, the only way to deal with this is by getting a Grant.
There are also occasions when a Spanish resident is one of the beneficiaries of someone who lived and died in the UK and they want to deal with all of the non-Spanish inheritance without having to go back to the UK to do this.
If there is an English form Will covering the assets, then a Grant of Probate is applied for. The Grant essentially proves the validity of the Will and allows the executors and/or administrators to deal directly with the asset holders and distribute the assets. In the absence of a Spanish Will, the Grant and Will can be used in Spain to deal with the assets here.
If the deceased died intestate, then an application must be made for a Grant of Letters of Administration. The Grant can be applied for by the persons entitled to inherit under the intestacy rules. Sometimes this requires the filing of a certificate of law by one of our specialist lawyers.
It is necessary to complete inheritance tax forms and it is important to get the right advice on issues such as domicile and how to deal with tax in both jurisdictions.
Once the Grant is obtained, all of the UK assets can be dealt with individually, banks and financial institutions have their own individual forms, the Land Registry has forms for transferring real estate and there are also forms for dealing with shareholdings.
We can assist with the whole process and all of the paperwork including the Probate Registry and Tax offices. Our firm can also assist with the documentation required to make the declaration of Spanish succession tax in respect of assets received from abroad by Spanish tax residents.
For a consultation about your particular circumstances call us on +34 952 527014 or email one of our English solicitors Jon Sutton or Sam Baker on [email protected] For our Tenerife office call on +34 922 719 520 or email on [email protected]