Property Services in Spain: Lawyers, Wills, Probate

Who Needs Property, Wills or Probate Help in Spain

Advisors in Spain handles four specialist legal services on this hub: property lawyers for buying and selling, wills specialists for Spanish and cross-border estates, probate solicitors for Spanish inheritance, and English-speaking lawyers for other legal matters, including divorce.

Four jobs bring people here. Each lands on a different service:

• Buying or selling. A lawyer runs the legal and tax side: title checks, contracts, and completion at the notary. A purchase engagement typically bundles NIE, bank account and power of attorney help in free; the section below names that rule.
• Owning. Annual compliance follows: local property tax, the non-resident income return, and a tourist licence if you let it out.
• Writing a will. You decide whether a Spanish will should sit alongside your UK or US one. Spanish succession law treats your estate differently.
• Handling an inheritance. A lawyer runs the Spanish probate file end to end, plus extra US paperwork for a US heir.

Buying Property in Spain

Buying a home in Spain follows the same sequence whether you pay cash or borrow. The buying guide covers each step, and the property lawyer service covers what a lawyer does at each one:

• NIE. Your foreigner’s tax ID number, needed before you sign anything.
• Bank account. Handled free as part of a lawyer’s purchase engagement; arranged separately through the bank accounts service if you are buying without one.
• Budget. The purchase price plus transfer tax, notary, registry and lawyer fees.
• Mortgage. Non-resident lending terms differ from a resident mortgage.
• Arras contract. The reservation deposit contract, with its own penalty if either side pulls out.
• Due diligence. A nota simple check on the title, plus the planning and licence status.
• Survey. Bank-appointed on a mortgage purchase, optional otherwise.
• Power of attorney. Not mandatory, but how most non-resident buyers complete without travelling.
• Notary completion. Signing the escritura and paying the transfer tax.
• Post-completion registration. Registering the sale and switching utilities into your name.
• Buying via a company. A foreign company needs its own NIF, and a Spain-based tax representative once it trades here through a permanent establishment or the Agencia Tributaria asks for one.

Pitfalls turn up at nearly every step, most often around planning status and unpaid community charges.

Selling and Owning Property in Spain

Selling triggers two taxes. The buyer withholds 3% of the price at completion, a payment on account of what the seller owes on the sale, according to Agencia Tributaria. Separately, the local ayuntamiento charges plusvalia municipal, a tax on the rise in the land’s value since you bought, under the framework set by the Ley Reguladora de las Haciendas Locales.

Owning carries its own annual obligations. IBI is the municipal property tax every owner pays regardless of residence. In Alicante province that bill arrives from the provincial Suma agency and not the town hall, so the name on it reads Suma. Non-residents who do not let the property still owe tax on its imputed income, filed on modelo 210; rental income itself is taxable too. A holiday let needs a tourist licence first, granted by the region or the town hall depending on where the property sits, and every listing also needs the national registration number Real Decreto 1312/2024 made mandatory from July 2025.

Wills, Inheritance and Probate

A UK or US will covers worldwide assets, but a Spanish notary acts on it only once it carries an apostille and a sworn translation. That slows probate and invites disputes over the wording. A Spanish will, covering only your Spanish-situs assets, avoids that step.

Spain runs on forced heirship. Under the Civil Code, two-thirds of an estate is reserved for children, so a testator cannot leave everything to a spouse or charity. Catalonia, Navarre, Aragon, Galicia, the Basque Country and the Balearics set their own rules, and a foreign national may be able to choose the law of their nationality; Spanish wills covers both. Inheritance tax is national, but each comunidad sets its own allowances, so the bill on the same estate differs sharply between, say, Andalucia and Valencia. One term worth knowing is usufruct: a surviving spouse’s right to use an asset without owning it; the inheritance tax guide covers how it is valued.

Probate itself is notarial: a declaration of heirs where there is no will, a deed of acceptance dividing the estate, and registering the property in the heirs’ names. A US-situated asset such as a brokerage account adds a second trail: the estate applies for an IRS transfer certificate, Form 5173, and files Form 706-NA first where those assets exceed $60,000, according to the IRS.

Divorce and Other Legal Matters

Not every enquiry is about property or an estate. Divorce, whether contested or by mutual agreement, follows Spanish family law once either spouse is resident here, and the process differs enough from a UK or US divorce that a Spain-qualified family lawyer should run it, not your home solicitor. Custody, maintenance and the split of assets held in Spain all follow the Spanish court’s own rules once a case is filed here. Contract disputes, employment questions that fall outside a company’s own payroll advice, and other civil matters go through the same route. These matters cover too wide a range for one card to represent. Advisors in Spain handles them all through the general legal service below.