“My mother died leaving a property in Spain but I’m not sure whether she made a will there.”
In Spain, it is possible to check whether a deceased person made a will recorded in the Spanish Registry of Last Wills. The resulting certificate identifies the latest recorded will and the notary or official involved, but does not disclose the will’s contents.
The situation: A Spanish property and uncertainty about a will
Mrs S’s mother died in the UK following a short illness. She owned a property in the south of Spain which they had often enjoyed as a family on holiday. She had a vague recollection of her mother mentioning a Spanish will. This may have been a recommendation by the lawyers who assisted with the property purchase in Spain, but Mrs S wasn’t sure whether her mother had followed their advice and made a will in Spain.
Her mother did have a will in the UK, where she had other assets, but Mrs S wasn’t sure whether this would be applicable in Spain, especially if there was also a separate Spanish will. The UK will appeared to cover assets worldwide, but the existence of a Spanish will could complicate matters, depending on the wording and dates of both wills.
For the family to establish how the property in Spain would pass, it became necessary to find out whether there was a Spanish will and, if so, how it interacted with the UK will.
How can you find out whether someone made a will in Spain?
In Spain, most wills are made in the presence of a notary public who stores the original will and sends a notice of it to the Spanish General Registry of Last Wills (Registro General de Actos de Última Voluntad). This adds an element of traceability of the will that does not exist in the same way in the UK.
After a person has died, it is possible to apply for a certificate from the Spanish Registry of Last Wills, which confirms whether or not the individual had made a will in Spain at the offices of a notary public (where most wills are made) or with a consular official. Even if Mrs S had been certain that her mother had not made a Spanish will, obtaining the certificate would ordinarily still be necessary as part of the Spanish inheritance procedure.
Obtaining the Spanish Registry of Last Wills certificate
Because Mrs S’s mother had died in the UK, her UK death certificate needed to be translated and legalised for submission to the Spanish Registry. Specifically, the document needed an official sworn translation and a legalisation with a Hague apostille.
An application was then submitted to the Spanish Registry together with the death certificate. Although Mrs S had started her enquiries only a few days after her mother’s death, the certificate could not be issued until at least 15 working days had elapsed. The Registry then took approximately two weeks to process the application. A quicker turnaround is sometimes possible, particularly for deaths that have been registered in Spain and do not require the submission of foreign death documentation.
The result: A Spanish will was registered
Once issued, the certificate confirmed that a Spanish will had indeed been made by Mrs S’s mother many years earlier. It gave the date of the will and the name of the notary before whom it was executed. Registry searches do not provide the text of the will; an official copy must be requested from the notary who attested it or, if the records have subsequently been transferred, from the notary currently holding them.
The certificate from the Registry was translated into English for the daughter and she was provided with an explanation as to how to interpret the result. She was surprised to find out that her mother had made the will only eight years before her death, although she had owned the house for much longer. Her mother could still have made an earlier will in Spain, perhaps when she purchased the house, as she had been advised. However, the certificate identified the latest will recorded in the Registry. Whether that will revoked any earlier testamentary provisions would depend on the contents of the relevant wills. It was the will specified in the Registry’s certificate that she would need to obtain a copy of.
What happened next?
The key was now going to be establishing the contents of the Spanish will and analysing how it interacted with the UK will made on a later date. An official copy of the Spanish will would be needed as part of the estate administration process in any case.
Mrs S was considering travelling to Spain at some point to sign the paperwork for the inheritance, but obtaining a copy of the will was an initial step that she preferred to arrange remotely. She therefore also requested assistance with obtaining the copy.
If a relative has died leaving property in Spain and you are unsure whether they made a Spanish will, or need to locate the will, we can assist with obtaining the relevant Registry certificate and explaining the next steps.
To see how a copy of a Spanish will can be obtained remotely, read our related case study. You can also find general information on our Locate a Will service page.
Note: This is an illustrative case study based on circumstances encountered in professional practice. Certain details have been adapted or combined from different matters to protect client confidentiality. It does not describe a single identifiable client or case.