How to inherit property in Spain from abroad: a step-by-step guide

Inheriting a property in Spain when you live abroad is a process that combines two legal systems, a strict six-month tax deadline, and a chain of documents that must be authenticated across international borders, often in parallel. 

This guide walks through each stage in order: what you need to gather first, how the deadline works, how to act remotely, what the transfer of ownership involves, and what taxes apply to non-resident heirs. Ábaco Advisers works exclusively with foreign property owners and their families throughout Spain, with no ties to estate agents, and the guidance here reflects the practical steps our team handles on behalf of overseas clients every day.

Why is inheriting Spanish property from abroad more complex than it looks?

The core challenge is that you are dealing with two separate legal frameworks at the same time, each with its own requirements — and both running against the same clock.

In your home country, the probate process is conducted in your own language, with familiar institutions and solicitors who handle the paperwork locally. Inheriting Spanish property as a non-resident requires you to produce and authenticate documents across borders, understand which law governs the succession, and meet Spanish administrative deadlines that do not pause because you are overseas.

The applicable law for a Spanish succession is determined by EU Regulation 650/2012, which came into force across the EU in 2015. Under this Regulation, the law of the country where the deceased habitually resided at the time of death governs the succession as a whole. If your parent lived in Warsaw or Prague and owned a flat in Alicante, Spanish law may govern who inherits — and Spanish succession law includes forced heirship provisions (legítima) that reserve portions of the estate for children and other legal heirs. The only way to override this in favour of a different national law is to have a Spanish will explicitly electing the law of one’s nationality, as permitted under Article 22 of the Regulation.

This is one of the reasons why making a Spanish will in advance simplifies everything. Without one, the process is still workable, but it is longer and more document-intensive. If the person who has died left no will at all,  Spanish law would apply only if the deceased had their habitual residence in Spain and did not make a will specifying the applicable law. If they had their habitual residence in another country, the law of that country will apply to the entire estate, regardless of where the assets are located.

What documents do you need to gather immediately?

The death certificate is the starting point for everything. Every subsequent step (legal and administrative) depends on it.

The core set of documents you will need includes:

• The original death certificate from the country where the death occurred
• Passports of all heirs
• The Spanish property title deed (escritura de compraventa) or, if unavailable, a nota simple from the Land Registry
• Any will, whether made in Spain or in the deceased’s home country
• If there is no will, a declaration of heirs will be required. The documents mentioned here (birth certificates, marriage certificates, etc.) must be submitted to prepare the declaration of heirs, which does not necessarily have to be done in Spain, but rather in the country where the deceased resided.

Once the death certificate is available, your Spanish lawyer can request the Certificado de Últimas Voluntades (Certificate of Last Wills) from the Registro General de Actos de Última Voluntad at the Spanish Ministry of Justice. This document confirms whether the deceased registered a will in Spain and, if so, before which notary. The certificate cannot be requested until 15 working days have elapsed from the date of death. Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays do not count. This mandatory waiting period is unavoidable, so use the time to prepare everything else.

If the certificate confirms that no Spanish will exists, and the deceased left only a foreign will, that will must be validated in Spain before a notary will accept it (see the step-by-step section below). If there is no will at all, a declaración de herederos abintestato — a notarial act identifying the legal heirs — must be authorised before the process can proceed.

Which documents require apostille and sworn translation?

Any document issued outside Spain must meet two formal requirements before a Spanish notary or tax office will accept it.

• Hague Apostille: an internationally recognised authentication stamp that certifies the document is genuine. In the UK, apostilles are issued by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). In Poland, the competent authority is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; in the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Justice. Over 120 countries are party to the Hague Convention of 1961, and the apostille is recognised in all of them.
• Sworn translation: once apostilled, the document must be translated into Spanish by a translator officially registered with the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At Abaco, we handle this to ensure that the translations of the documents we receive are valid. Standard commercial translators or online tools are not accepted. Presenting documents without a proper sworn translation will cause the notary to suspend proceedings. 

Both steps take time, sometimes several weeks when coordinated internationally. Therefore, it is advisable to inform your lawyers promptly so they can guide you in your specific case and begin the process of obtaining an apostille for the necessary documents as soon as possible.

What is the 6-month deadline — and what happens if you miss it?

The inheritance tax declaration must be filed within six months of the date of death. This is established by Ley 29/1987, de 18 de diciembre, del Impuesto sobre Sucesiones y Donaciones, and it applies regardless of where the heirs live.

The declaration is made using Modelo 650, submitted to the tax authority of the autonomous community where the property is located. When neither the deceased nor the heirs were residents in Spain, the filing goes to the Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria (AEAT) at state level.

If six months is not sufficient — for example, because a foreign will needs to go through a validation process first — an extension of a further six months can be requested. This request must be submitted within the first five months from the date of death. If submitted in time and not expressly denied within the following month, the extension is considered granted. If the five-month window passes without a request, no extension is available.

Missing the deadline without an extension triggers recargos por presentación extemporánea under Article 27 of the Ley General Tributaria 58/2003. The surcharge starts at 1% of the tax due, with an additional 1% for each complete month of delay. After 12 months of delay, the surcharge becomes a flat 15%, and interest on late payment (intereses de demora) begins to accrue from that point. Separate administrative sanctions may also apply if the administration initiates proceedings.

The practical reality is that apostille processing, sworn translations, NIE applications, and notary appointments together consume far more time than most overseas heirs expect. The six-month deadline is a financial consideration as much as a legal one.

Can you manage the whole process without travelling to Spain?

Yes. The standard route for non-resident heirs is to manage the process remotely through a poder notarial (notarised power of attorney), which authorises a Spanish lawyer to act on their behalf in all legal and administrative steps.

The power of attorney is signed before a notary in the heir’s home country, apostilled by the relevant authority, and then sent to the lawyer in Spain. Once received, the lawyer can request the Certificate of Last Wills, obtain bank certificates, attend the notary for the deed of acceptance, file and pay the inheritance tax, and register the change of ownership, without the heir needing to travel.

Each heir must grant their own power of attorney. However, they do not necessarily each have to be a separate document; instead, they can be combined to sign the same document (power of attorney). The same lawyer can hold powers from all heirs and manage the process as a whole, which is the most common and efficient arrangement.

One step that must be arranged early is the NIE (Número de Identidad de Extranjero), the Spanish tax identification number issued to foreign nationals. Without a NIE, it is not possible to pay inheritance tax or register the property at the Land Registry. UK-based heirs can apply at Spanish consulates in London, Manchester, or Edinburgh. A Spanish lawyer holding a power of attorney signed in Spain can also apply for the NIE in Spain on the heir’s behalf, which is often the faster route. If the power of attorney was signed abroad, you must obtain a NIE from the Spanish consulate in your country of residence. In either case, this should be initiated as early as possible.

What are the steps to transfer the property into your name?

The process follows a defined sequence in which each step depends on the previous one having been completed correctly.

A note on step 3: if the deceased left a will made in their home country (and no Spanish will), that document or the declaration of heirs that confirms who the beneficiaries are must be apostilled, sworn-translated, and — depending on the legal system — may need to go through additional validation. UK wills, for example, require a Grant of Probate before a Spanish notary will accept them. This step alone can take several months and must be factored into the overall timeline.

Only after step 7 — registration at the Land Registry — is the property legally in the heir’s name. Until that point, the heir cannot sell the property, rent it out formally, or mortgage it.

How much inheritance tax will you pay as a non-resident heir?

As a non-resident heir, you pay Spanish inheritance tax only on assets located in Spain, not on assets in your home country. This is known as sujeción real (real liability), as opposed to sujeción personal (personal liability), which applies to heirs who are tax-resident in Spain.

Following a landmark ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union in 2014 (Case C-127/12) and the subsequent amendment to Ley 29/1987 through the Disposición adicional segunda, non-residents are now entitled to apply the same regional allowances and reductions as residents. Before this change, non-residents were taxed under the less favourable state-level scale, which often resulted in significantly higher bills.

The autonomous community that receives the tax, and whose allowances apply,  is generally determined by where the property is located (for non-resident deceased and non-resident heirs, the AEAT manages the procedure and applies the regional rules of the community where the property sits). Regional variation is significant:

Note: regional rules change. The figures above describe the general position as of early 2026 and should be confirmed for any specific case.

Even where the applicable reductions reduce the tax to nil, the obligation to file the Modelo 650 declaration still exists. Failing to file, even when no tax is ultimately owed, can create complications when you later try to sell the property or resolve any administrative queries about ownership.

One further point worth confirming: British nationals are subject to the same rules as EU nationals for the purposes of inheritance and gift tax. This was not altered by Brexit, and the CJEU ruling and subsequent legislative reform apply equally to UK heirs.

In conclusion

The three steps to take immediately after a death involving Spanish property are: begin the apostille, instruct a Spanish lawyer to request the Certificado de Últimas Voluntades (from day 15 working days), and initiate NIE applications for all heirs. The rest of the process flows from there, but these three actions determine whether the six-month deadline can realistically be met.

The process is not legally complex in the sense of being disputed or contentious. What makes it demanding for overseas heirs is the coordination: documents crossing borders, administrative sequences with fixed waiting periods, and a hard tax deadline that requires all of it to happen in parallel. With the right guidance from the outset, it is entirely manageable.

If you have recently inherited or are likely to inherit a property in Spain, contact Ábaco Advisers for an initial consultation. Our team handles the full process — from document preparation and power of attorney to tax filing and Land Registry registration — on behalf of non-resident clients across all of Spain.

Frequently asked questions

What happens if there is no Spanish will? 

Without a Spanish will, the first step is to establish who the legal heirs are. We’ll have to see if there’s a will abroad and, based on that, determine whether a declaration of heirs is necessary—which will only be required in Spain if the deceased was a resident here. This is done through a declaración de herederos abintestato, a notarial act in which a notary formally identifies the heirs on the basis of family relationship documents (apostilled and sworn-translated if issued abroad). This will only apply if the deceased was a resident of Spain and there was no will. Once this act has been authorised, the process can continue to the acceptance of the inheritance and the tax filing. It adds time and cost compared to a case where a Spanish will exists, but it is a standard procedure.

Can all heirs use a single power of attorney? 

Yes. Each heir must grant their own power of attorney. In practice, all heirs can appoint the same lawyer in Spain, who then manages the entire process as a whole. This is the most common arrangement for families inheriting from abroad.

What if the deceased only had a will made in their home country? 

A foreign will is recognised in Spain but must be authenticated. It usually needs to be apostilled, sworn-translated, and — depending on the legal system of origin — may require additional steps. For UK wills, a Grant of Probate is generally required before a Spanish notary will proceed. In other countries, the will itself is not required, but a declaration of heirs issued by the competent authority in that country is necessary.This process takes time and should be started as soon as possible, as it forms part of the overall six-month timeline.

Do I need a NIE even if I plan to sell the property straight away? 

Yes. There is no exemption. Every non-resident heir must hold a NIE before inheritance tax can be paid and ownership registered at the Land Registry. The requirement applies regardless of what you intend to do with the property — keep it, rent it, or sell it immediately.

Is it true that some regions charge virtually no inheritance tax for close family? 

In several autonomous communities, the reductions available to direct-line heirs (children, spouses, parents) are high enough that the effective tax due is very low or, in some cases, nil. However, the obligation to file the Modelo 650 declaration exists in all cases, even when no tax is owed. The exact calculation depends on the community, the relationship between heir and deceased, and the value of the estate. A professional adviser should calculate this for each specific situation.