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YOUR WILL do you know your will will work after your death?

Postby CuevaCascada » Thu Feb 23, 2012 1:47 pm

When I bought a property in Spain, I did as everyone tells you to, and made a Spanish will (with a Spanish solicitor) to cover everything I had/owned in Spain, had it signed at the notary and put it away.
On seeing a different solicitor recently he offered to check my will was correct for me.
He told me it was not correct and would in fact block the transfer of my property rather than speed it up, and I would be better not to have a will rather than the one I had got.

He told me;
I was not allowed in Spain to have a benefactor as an executor of the will. (As we would in the UK)
He said that it should be a Spanish lawyer who should be the executor as only he could deal with all the legal formalities.

Someone else then told me that in Spain you do not have an executor at all! Getting completely confused I wrote the British Embassy who on there site suggest going to a solicitor, but if the solicitors info conflict who do you trust? They pointed me to the Notary site, which has not helped me much.
http://www.notariado.org
I have now made a new will but worry that having a Spanish solicitor as an executor is not right, as I would never do that in the UK. I asked how much he would charge for being the executor and he said he could not tell me as I might be around in 30 yrs. time. I asked what happened if he died, he said he would not!!
If the Notary signed the first will and it was not correct surly they would have said it was wrong?

Can anyone help advise me what to do? tell me what your exp has been?
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Re: YOUR WILL do you know your will will work after your dea

Postby MickeyB » Thu Feb 23, 2012 4:45 pm

I'm not sure it will make much of a difference but can you tell which tyupe of will you have got : Testamento Abierto, Testamento Cerrado or Testamento Olagrafo ?
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Re: YOUR WILL do you know your will will work after your dea

Postby CuevaCascada » Thu Feb 23, 2012 5:03 pm

Hi,

Not got the new one back from the Notary yet, the old one was a Testamento Abierto
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Re: YOUR WILL do you know your will will work after your dea

Postby admin » Thu Feb 23, 2012 5:16 pm

In my personal opinion, the answer you have been given by your Abogado is completely wrong, and having a Will does not complicate the process but quite the contrary.

As a foreigner in Spain, you have the free disposition of leaving your estate to whomever you choose as your national law is not imposed but the Spanish one.

I would recommend bthat you speak with a lawyer who is qualified and experienced in this aspect of the law - you could try http://www.perezlegalgroup.es as I know people that they have helped in the past.
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Re: YOUR WILL do you know your will will work after your dea

Postby CuevaCascada » Thu Feb 23, 2012 5:25 pm

Cheers for that I have mailed them to ask what they think, will let you know what they say
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Re: YOUR WILL do you know your will will work after your dea

Postby CuevaCascada » Thu Feb 23, 2012 5:36 pm

They replied, said it is easy to make a new will if I am not happy with the one I have, so not much help!!

Wrote back again asking again and saying what the problem was, and the reply I got was;

Then there is nothing to worry about. You have done the right thing. Believe me, that I have dedicated 17 years of my life to foreigners and the inheritance process,
Kind rgards and all th best,

Raquel Perez

They sound worse then the ones I have used so far!!
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Re: YOUR WILL do you know your will will work after your dea

Postby OldTimer » Thu Feb 23, 2012 6:17 pm

It sounds to me like your Second Lawyer is getting confused here. He is correct that it is not normal to appoint an executor of a will in Spain, and insisting on doing this will only complicate the process - especially when a Spanish Lawyer will have enough on their plate trying to ensure than your assets are bequeathed to your beneficiaries in accordance with UK law rather than Spanish law. My guess is that Lawyer no.2 is confused by exactly what is meant by an "Executor".
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Re: YOUR WILL do you know your will will work after your dea

Postby CuevaCascada » Thu Feb 23, 2012 7:07 pm

Thanks for your reply, that is what I am feeling, so have cancelled my old will to make a new one with the solicitor as executor, now it looks like I will have to do another one!!
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Re: YOUR WILL do you know your will will work after your dea

Postby BigPete » Wed Feb 29, 2012 4:11 pm

This is confusing me.
As I thought that I understood things, as a UK National, a UK Will took care of my UK assets, and a Spanish will took care of my Spanish assets. And that in each case I could leave whatever property to whoever I wanted in my will. Is this NOT the case ?
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Re: YOUR WILL do you know your will will work after your dea

Postby CuevaCascada » Wed Feb 29, 2012 5:12 pm

That is how it should work, the problem I am having is finding out what is correct in a Spanish will as one should be able to trust a solicitor to do that for you, but my new solicitor says my first Spanish solicitor had it wrong, but how do I know who is right, I have now done 2 wills in Spain, and fear the latest one is wrong as well so need another one, but who do you trust? I wish I knew.
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