Inheriting a Property in Spain: the Step-by-Step Guide for Heirs Abroad
A parent dies abroad, and among the papers there is a deed for a flat in Torrevieja or a villa in Jávea. Nothing about the Spanish side of that inheritance happens automatically, and almost nothing can be skipped: Spain runs the succession through a notary, not a probate court, and the tax clock starts on the day of the death rather than on the day you find out or the day the paperwork is ready. This guide walks the whole procedure in the order it actually happens — the certificates, the will, the NIE, the inventory and its valuation, the deed of acceptance, the two taxes, the Land Registry and the Catastro — and then covers the part nobody warns heirs about: from the moment the house is yours, you are a non-resident owner in Spain, with an annual modelo 210, an IBI bill and, above a threshold, wealth tax. Every deadline and percentage below is cited to the article it comes from. No professional fee is quoted anywhere, because those depend on the deed, the tariff and the province.
Quick answer
Inheriting a Spanish property runs in a fixed order: death certificate, the last-wills and insurance certificates from Madrid, the will or a notarial declaration of heirs, a NIE for every heir, an inventory valued at the Catastro reference value, a notarial deed of acceptance, inheritance tax and plusvalía within six months of the death, then Land Registry and Catastro.
Reviewed by
Valery Grinkevich
Licensed economist · tax adviser · 20+ years of experience · Torrevieja, Costa Blanca
Key takeaways
- Inheritance tax accrues on the day of death (art. 24.1 LISD) and is filed within six months (art. 67.1.a RISD). A further six months can be granted, but only if you apply within the first five (art. 68 RISD) — and the extension carries late-payment interest.
- Neither the last-wills certificate nor the death-cover insurance certificate can be requested until fifteen working days have passed since the death (Ministerio de Justicia procedure; art. 12.2 RD 398/2007), so the first fortnight is spent on the death certificate alone.
- For real estate, the inheritance tax base is the Catastro reference value at the date of death, unless the value you declare is higher (art. 9.3 LISD, as redrafted by Ley 11/2021). Debts left by the deceased (art. 13) and last-illness, burial and funeral costs (art. 14.b) come off the estate.
- Plusvalía municipal on a death is declared to the town hall within six months, extendable to one year on request (art. 110.2.b TRLRHL) — a different administration, a different form and a deadline that does not extend automatically with the ISD one.
- Non-resident heirs are entitled to the rules of the relevant Comunidad Autónoma (disposición adicional segunda LISD), including the Comunitat Valenciana, even when they file with the State tax agency. That entitlement now covers residents of third countries too, not only the EU and the EEA.
On this page
- What happens the moment somebody dies owning a house in Spain
- The death certificate — and what changes when the death happened abroad
- The two certificates from Madrid: last wills and death-cover insurance
- The will, or the notarial declaration of heirs when there is none
- Every heir needs a NIE before anything can be signed
- Building the inventory: what goes in, and at what value
- Debts and expenses that legitimately reduce the tax base
- The deed of acceptance and adjudication — and how to sign it from abroad
- Inheritance tax: six months, the extension, and which administration
- Plusvalía municipal: the second tax, on the same death
- Land Registry and Catastro: getting the house into your name
- The frozen bank accounts, and what actually releases them
- What nobody warns you about: life as a non-resident owner
- When it goes wrong: past six months, disagreements and debts
- A realistic calendar, and where the time actually goes
- How to inherit a Spanish property, from the death to the Land Registry
- Frequently asked questions
What happens the moment somebody dies owning a house in Spain
Spanish law transfers the rights of a succession at the instant of death (art. 657 of the Código Civil), and heirs succeed the deceased in all their rights and obligations by the mere fact of the death (art. 661). That is the theory. In practice you own nothing you can sell, mortgage or register until you have formally accepted the inheritance before a Spanish notary and the deed has been registered — and the effects of that acceptance, when it comes, are backdated to the day of the death (art. 989).
The tax law works on the same instant. Inheritance and gift tax accrues on the day the deceased dies (art. 24.1 of Ley 29/1987, the ISD Act), which means the tax base is measured on that date, the six-month filing period is counted from it, and the value of the house is its Catastro reference value on that day — not on the day you finally get around to the paperwork. Plusvalía municipal accrues on the same date. Both clocks run while you are still gathering documents, and they run whether or not you knew about the Spanish property.
The practical consequence for a family abroad is that the first weeks are the expensive ones. A death in August in northern Europe, with a funeral, a local estate and a summer of closed offices, routinely burns two of the six months before anyone has even asked for the Spanish certificates. Nobody in Spain will contact you: there is no probate court that opens a file, no registry that writes to the heirs. The process starts when you start it.
Watch out
The six-month deadline is not counted from the grant of probate in your own country, from the reading of the will, or from the day the heirs found out. It runs from the date of death (art. 67.1.a of the ISD Regulation, RD 1629/1991).
The death certificate — and what changes when the death happened abroad
Everything else is built on a literal death certificate, the certificado literal de defunción. Where the death occurred in Spain it is issued by the Registro Civil of the place of death, and every later step — both Madrid certificates, the notary, the banks, the tax return — will ask for it or for a copy of it. Ask for several originals from the start: the number of institutions that want to keep one is larger than anybody expects.
Where the death occurred outside Spain, the foreign certificate has to be made usable in Spain, and that means two separate operations that people constantly conflate. The first is legalisation: for countries party to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 that is an apostille, obtained from the designated authority in the issuing country, and for the rest it is consular legalisation. The second is translation into Spanish by a sworn translator — in Spain, a traductor jurado appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; abroad, typically the Spanish consulate or a translator it accepts. A notary or a tax office will refuse a document that has one but not the other.
Multilingual civil status forms issued under the 1976 Vienna Convention, and the EU multilingual standard forms that accompany a certificate under Regulation (EU) 2016/1191, spare you the translation in many cases and are worth asking about at the foreign registry office before paying a translator. The rule of thumb: get the apostille while you are still in the country that issued the certificate, because obtaining it later from abroad is slow and, in some countries, impossible without a local agent.
The two certificates from Madrid: last wills and death-cover insurance
Two national registries in Madrid answer the questions that decide the shape of the whole succession. The Registro General de Actos de Última Voluntad says whether the deceased ever made a will before a Spanish notary and, if so, before which notary and on what date. The Registro de Contratos de Seguros de cobertura de fallecimiento, created by Ley 20/2005, says whether the deceased held a life or accident policy with death cover, and with which insurer. Both certificates are requested from the Ministry of Justice, they are commonly requested together on the same form, and both must be produced to the notary.
Neither can be requested immediately. The Ministry of Justice will not accept an application for the last-wills certificate until fifteen working days have passed since the date of death, and the same fifteen-working-day wait applies to the insurance certificate under art. 12.2 of Real Decreto 398/2007; the underlying statute puts it as fifteen days from the death for access to the register (art. 6 of Ley 20/2005). Working days exclude Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, which in Spain include regional and local ones — so a death in the first half of August or around Easter can stretch that fortnight considerably. The insurance register itself keeps the data available for five years counted from the fifteenth day after the death (art. 11 RD 398/2007), and the certificate is issued within a maximum of seven working days from the application (art. 13.1).
The insurance certificate is the one heirs skip, and skipping it is a mistake in two directions. A forgotten policy is money the family never claims. But a policy that does exist is also a taxable item: sums received by the beneficiary of a life policy form part of the inheritance tax base (art. 9.1.c LISD) and, where the deceased was both policyholder and insured, are added to that beneficiary’s share of the estate. Filing an inheritance tax return that ignores a policy the register would have revealed is the cheapest way to turn a clean succession into a regularisation.
Watch out
Fifteen working days is the earliest you can apply, not the date the certificates arrive. Plan the first month of the six as document-gathering time and start the rest of the file in parallel — the NIE applications in particular.
The will, or the notarial declaration of heirs when there is none
If the last-wills certificate shows a Spanish will, the next step is an authorised copy — a copia autorizada — from the notary who holds the protocol, or from the notarial archive if that notary has retired. Only somebody with a hereditary interest can obtain it, proving that interest with the death certificate and the last-wills certificate. A photocopy of the will the deceased kept at home is not a copia autorizada and no notary will work from it.
If there is no Spanish will, the succession may still be governed by a foreign will, and this is where Regulation (EU) 650/2012 does the heavy lifting: as a general rule the law applicable to the succession as a whole is that of the State in which the deceased had their habitual residence at the time of death (art. 21), unless they had chosen the law of their nationality in the disposition itself (art. 22). The Regulation also created the European Certificate of Succession (art. 62), which a Spanish notary and the Land Registry will accept as proof of the capacity of heirs. Which law applies changes who inherits and in what proportions, and it is the single question most worth resolving before anybody signs anything — our guide on Spanish wills and the EU Succession Regulation goes through it.
If there is no will at all, the succession is intestate (art. 912 CC) and the heirs have to be declared. In Spain that is now done before a notary rather than a judge, in a notarial act of declaration of heirs, with the death and last-wills certificates, documents proving the family relationship and, ordinarily, two witnesses who knew the deceased. Foreign birth and marriage certificates used in that act need the same apostille and sworn translation as the death certificate. Where Spanish law governs the succession, remember that it reserves a compulsory share, the legítima, for children and descendants, in their absence for parents and ascendants, and for the surviving spouse in the form the Code sets (arts. 806 and 807 CC): a foreign will that leaves everything to one person may not do in Spain what it does at home.
Every heir needs a NIE before anything can be signed
The Número de Identidad de Extranjero is the identifier Spain uses for any foreigner with tax or property interests here, and in a succession it is not optional for anyone: every person named as heir or legatee needs one, including heirs who intend to sell the property immediately, heirs who will receive money rather than the house, and minors. Without a NIE the notary cannot identify you in the deed, the tax office cannot register the return, the Land Registry cannot enter you as owner, and the bank cannot open the account the sale proceeds would go into.
The application is made at a Spanish consulate in the country of residence or, in Spain, at a police station handling foreigners’ documentation, with the standard application form, a passport, and a statement of the economic reason — here, the inheritance. The waiting time depends entirely on the consulate, and in the countries that supply most Costa Blanca heirs it is the single least predictable item in the whole calendar. Start it in the first fortnight, while the fifteen-working-day wait for the Madrid certificates is running: the two waits then overlap instead of stacking.
A NIE for a non-resident is an identification number, not a tax residence and not a registration for anything. It does not make you resident, it does not put you on any Spanish register of citizens, and it does not by itself create a filing duty. What it does is unlock every later step, which is why it belongs at the front of the calendar rather than at the point where the notary asks for it.
Building the inventory: what goes in, and at what value
The inventory is a complete list of what the deceased owned and owed in Spain at the moment of death, each item with a value at that date. The taxable base of a mortis causa acquisition is the net value of each heir’s individual share — assets and rights less deductible charges and debts (art. 9.1.a LISD) — so the inventory is not an administrative formality but the document the tax is calculated from.
For real estate, the rule changed with Ley 11/2021 and it is the change that surprises returning families most: the value of a property is its Catastro reference value at the date of accrual, and only if the value the heirs declare is higher does that higher figure become the base (art. 9.3 LISD). The reference value is not the cadastral value on the IBI receipt and not a market appraisal; it is a separate figure the Dirección General del Catastro publishes per property, and where a base is the reference value the tax office may not run a value-verification procedure against it (art. 18.1 LISD). Where no reference value exists or the Catastro cannot certify one, the base falls back to the higher of the declared value and market value. Our guide on the valor de referencia explains how to obtain the certificate and how to challenge the figure.
The rest of the inventory follows the same date. Bank balances are taken at the date of death, and the balance certificate the bank issues for the succession should also state the average balance of the preceding year, because a large withdrawal shortly before the death is exactly what a tax office looks for. Vehicles are valued using the official valuation tables the Ministry of Finance publishes each year. Life policies revealed by the insurance register go in at the amount payable (art. 9.1.c). And the household effects, the ajuar doméstico, are added at 3 % of the value of the estate unless the heirs assign a higher value or prove the effects do not exist or are worth less (art. 15 LISD) — a rule that quietly adds to the base of every estate whose main asset is a furnished holiday home.
Tip
Pull the Catastro reference value for the property with its cadastral reference at the Sede Electrónica del Catastro, on the date of death, before you agree any figure with the other heirs. It is what the tax will be built on, and it is frequently very different from what the family believes the house is worth.
Debts and expenses that legitimately reduce the tax base
Three categories come off, and they are worth real money on a modest estate. First, charges of a perpetual, temporary or redeemable nature established directly on the assets and genuinely reducing their value, such as censos and pensions — but expressly not mortgages or pledges, which do not reduce the value of what is transferred (art. 12 LISD). Second, debts the deceased left behind, provided their existence is evidenced by a public document, by a private document meeting the requirements of art. 1227 CC, or otherwise justified, and excluding debts owed to the heirs themselves or to their close relatives (art. 13.1). Taxes owed to the State, the Comunidad Autónoma or the town hall and Social Security debts are expressly deductible even when the assessment arrives after the death (art. 13.2).
Third, expenses: the costs of last illness, burial and funeral, in so far as they are evidenced, with burial and funeral costs having to be proportionate to the estate according to local custom (art. 14.b LISD). Litigation costs incurred in the common interest of all the heirs when the succession becomes contentious are also deductible, excluding costs of administering the estate (art. 14.a). Keep the invoices: an unevidenced funeral bill is not deductible, and a bill in the name of somebody who is not an heir is an argument you do not want to be having by correspondence from abroad.
The mortgage point catches people out every single time. A property in Orihuela Costa with an outstanding mortgage is not valued net of the mortgage for inheritance tax: the charge does not reduce the value of what is transferred (art. 12). What may be deductible instead is the underlying debt, as a debt of the deceased, if it satisfies the conditions of art. 13. It is the same money, but the article and the evidence required are different, and a return that simply nets the loan off the reference value is a return that will be corrected.
The deed of acceptance and adjudication — and how to sign it from abroad
The escritura de aceptación y adjudicación de herencia is the document that converts heirs into owners. It is signed before a Spanish notary — any notary in Spain, not necessarily one in the province where the house is — and it recites the death, the title of succession, the inventory with its values, the debts and expenses, the acceptance by each heir and the specific allocation of each asset. Where the testator did not make the partition and the heirs are of age with free administration of their property, they may distribute the estate as they see fit (art. 1058 CC), which in practice means the heirs can agree that one takes the house and compensates the others, provided everyone signs.
Nobody has to fly to Spain. An heir abroad grants a power of attorney for the succession — a poder para aceptar y adjudicar herencia — before a Spanish consulate, which is the cleanest route because the document is already Spanish and needs no legalisation, or before a local notary, in which case it needs an apostille and a sworn translation into Spanish. The power must be specific enough: a generic power to manage assets will be rejected, and a power that omits the authority to accept the inheritance, to make the partition or to sign the tax returns will send the file back to the drafting stage weeks later. Ask the Spanish notary to supply the wording before you go to the local one.
Acceptance is a decision, not a formality, and it has three doors. Pure and simple acceptance, express or tacit, makes the heir liable for the deceased’s debts without limit (arts. 999 and 1003 CC). Acceptance under benefit of inventory limits that liability to the value of the estate (art. 1010). Renunciation must be made before a notary in a public instrument (art. 1008). Careless handling of the deceased’s assets — selling the car, emptying a flat — can amount to tacit acceptance under art. 999, so decide before you act, not after.
Tip
Have one document drafted that lists what the power of attorney must cover: accept the inheritance, make the partition and adjudication, apply for and obtain the NIE, sign and pay the inheritance tax return and the plusvalía, and deal with the banks. One trip to a local notary, not three.
Inheritance tax: six months, the extension, and which administration
The return is filed within six months from the day of the death (art. 67.1.a of the ISD Regulation). An extension for a further six months may be granted, but the application must be lodged by the heirs, executors or administrators of the estate within the first five months of that period, with a certificate of the death registration and the details the Regulation lists (art. 68.2); if the office has not notified a decision within a month, the extension is deemed granted (art. 68.3), and no extension at all is granted where the application arrives after the first five months (art. 68.4). The extension is not free: it runs from the end of the initial six months and carries late-payment interest up to the day the return is filed (art. 68.6). Where litigation over the estate is genuinely under way, the filing periods are interrupted (art. 69).
Who you file with depends on residence and on where the assets are. Where the deceased was not resident in Spain, the heirs file with the State tax agency, and taxpayers who have to discharge their obligations to the State administration must self-assess — compute the debt themselves and pay it with the return (disposición adicional segunda, apartado Dos, LISD). Where the deceased was resident in a Comunidad Autónoma, that region collects, and in the Comunitat Valenciana self-assessment is compulsory by statute (art. 34.4 LISD). Either way, non-resident heirs of a Spanish property will need the deed, the certificates, the NIEs and the valuations before the return can be filed, which is why the practical bottleneck is almost never the tax itself.
The rule non-resident heirs must not miss is the second additional provision of the ISD Act. Where the deceased was not resident in Spain, the heirs are entitled to apply the rules of the Comunidad Autónoma in which the greatest value of the Spanish estate is situated; where the deceased was resident in a Comunidad Autónoma, non-resident heirs are entitled to apply that region’s rules. Since Ley 11/2021 that entitlement extends to residents of third countries as well as of the EU and the EEA. For a house on the Costa Blanca this means the regional rules of the Comunitat Valenciana, whose reductions and bonificaciones are the difference between a large bill and a small one — they are set by regional law, they change, and they belong in the Valencian inheritance tax guide rather than in a figure quoted here. Non-residents who are not resident in another EU Member State must also appoint a representative in Spain before the filing period ends (art. 18.4 of the ISD Regulation).
Watch out
The extension is applied for in the first five months, not in the sixth. Month six is already too late (art. 68.4 RISD), and the most common cause of a surcharge on a Costa Blanca succession is an heir who assumed the extension was automatic.
Plusvalía municipal: the second tax, on the same death
The town hall taxes separately the increase in the value of the urban land under the property, the IIVTNU or plusvalía municipal. On a transfer for free, which an inheritance is, the taxpayer is the person who acquires the land — the heir (art. 106.1.a TRLRHL). It is a different administration from the one that takes the inheritance tax, a different form, and a deadline that has to be diarised on its own.
For a transfer on death the declaration is filed within six months from the accrual, extendable to one year at the taxpayer’s request (art. 110.2.b TRLRHL). Note the shape of that rule: unlike the ISD extension, it has no five-month cut-off in the statute, but it is a request, not an automatic right, and each ayuntamiento handles it through its own ordenanza. Many Costa Blanca town halls operate the tax by self-assessment, in which case the payment is made within the same period (art. 110.4). Notaries send the ayuntamiento a quarterly index of the deeds that trigger the tax (art. 110.7), so the town hall finds out either way.
No rate or coefficient is quoted here on purpose. Each ayuntamiento sets its own within the statutory ceilings, in an ordenanza fiscal it revises annually, and Torrevieja, Orihuela, Dénia and Alicante do not coincide. What is worth knowing before you sign the deed is that since the Constitutional Court struck down the old automatic formula there are two ways to compute the base and you pay on the lower, and that where the land shows no increase in value the transfer is not subject at all — a real possibility for land bought at the top of the market. Our plusvalía guide and the calculator on this site work it through with the ordinance in force.
Land Registry and Catastro: getting the house into your name
With the deed signed and both taxes filed and paid, the deed goes to the Registro de la Propiedad for the district where the property lies. Registration is what makes your ownership effective against the world, and it is the step that lets you later sell, mortgage or leave the property in your own will without reopening the succession. Documents containing acts subject to inheritance tax are not admitted and produce no effect in public offices or registries without evidence that they have been presented to the competent tax office (art. 33 LISD): the proof of filing is not paperwork you can leave until later, it is the key that opens the registry.
The Catastro is a separate database with a separate duty. Changes affecting a property that are relevant for IBI oblige the taxpayer to file the declarations needed to record them in the Catastro Inmobiliario (art. 76.1 TRLRHL) — in a succession, the change of ownership. In many municipalities the notary or the registry transmits the change and no separate filing is needed, but the obligation sits with you, and the consequence of not checking is mundane and annoying: the IBI receipt keeps being issued in the name of the deceased, the direct debit fails, and the surcharge lands two years later.
Do the small administrative chores in the same week, because each of them has an owner-of-record trap. The water and electricity contracts have to be changed into the new owner’s name. The community of owners needs the new owner and a contact address for notices. Any standing order from the deceased’s Spanish account will stop when the account is blocked. And if the property is let, or you plan to let it, the tenancy and the tax treatment change with the ownership from the date of death, not from the date of registration.
The frozen bank accounts, and what actually releases them
Spanish banks block the deceased’s accounts as soon as they learn of the death, and they are not being obstructive. Financial intermediaries who hand over money or securities deposited with them in a transfer on death are subsidiarily liable for the inheritance tax (art. 8.1.a LISD, repeated in art. 19.1.a of the Regulation). A bank that releases funds to the family before the tax is dealt with can be made to answer for the tax itself, so it will not.
The same article draws the exception the heirs need. It is not treated as a delivery of funds when the bank issues a bank cheque, charged to the deposits or to the proceeds of selling the securities needed, for the exclusive purpose of paying the inheritance tax on that same transfer, provided the cheque is made out to the tax administration to which the tax is owed. In other words, the estate can pay its own inheritance tax out of the blocked account: what it cannot do is pay the heirs. Where money is needed sooner — to collect a life policy, credits of the deceased, or to withdraw deposited funds — the law provides a partial assessment on account, requested for those purposes only and treated as a payment on account of the final assessment (art. 35 LISD; procedure in art. 78 of the Regulation).
What the bank will ask for is predictable: the death certificate, the last-wills certificate, the authorised copy of the will or the declaration of heirs, the deed of acceptance and adjudication, the NIE of each heir, and evidence that the inheritance tax return has been filed and paid. Ask early for the certificate of balances and positions at the date of death, and for the average balance of the preceding year, because you need both for the inventory and the bank can take weeks to produce them. Note also that the account of a non-resident deceased is often a non-resident account with its own documentary regime, which adds a step nobody anticipates.
What nobody warns you about: life as a non-resident owner
From the moment the house is yours, you are a non-resident owner of Spanish real estate, and three recurring obligations attach to that status. The first is imputed income. Income imputed to individuals who own urban property in Spain not used for an economic activity is taxable non-resident income (art. 13.1.h TRLIRNR), computed under the personal income tax imputation rule (art. 24.5 TRLIRNR): 2 % of the cadastral value, reduced to 1.1 % where the cadastral values of the municipality have been revised under a general collective valuation procedure that took effect in the tax year or in the previous ten, apportioned by the number of days of ownership (art. 85 LIRPF). It is taxed at 24 %, or 19 % for residents of another EU Member State or of an EEA State with effective exchange of tax information (art. 25.1.a TRLIRNR), and declared on modelo 210 in the calendar year following the year it accrues. Because it is apportioned by days, the year of the death splits between the deceased and the heirs.
The second is IBI. The town hall charges the annual property tax on whoever holds the ownership on 1 January, since the tax accrues on the first day of the tax period and the period is the calendar year (arts. 61, 63 and 75 TRLRHL). Across most of the province of Alicante the billing and collection are run by SUMA on behalf of the ayuntamientos, but which body issues your receipt is a question to settle from the receipt itself or the town hall, never from an assumption. The third is wealth tax, where it applies: individuals who are not resident are taxable on assets and rights situated or exercisable in Spain (art. 5.Uno.b of Ley 19/1991), the tax accrues on 31 December on the assets held that day (art. 29), the EUR 700,000 exempt minimum applies to taxpayers taxed on that real obligation (art. 28.Tres), a return is required where tax is payable or where the value of the assets exceeds EUR 2,000,000 (art. 37), and non-residents are entitled to the rules of the Comunidad Autónoma where the greatest value of their Spanish assets lies (disposición adicional cuarta).
There is also the question you should ask before the inheritance is finished rather than after: what happens if you sell. A non-resident selling Spanish property faces a 3 % retention by the buyer on account of the seller’s tax and a capital gains charge on the difference between the transfer value and the acquisition value — and for an inherited property the acquisition value is built on the value declared for inheritance tax purposes. Declaring an artificially low value to save inheritance tax therefore raises the capital gain on a later sale by exactly the amount saved, and does so at a moment when there is a buyer, a notary and a retention already in play.
Example
Generic illustration of the imputation, with no fee or local figure assumed. A flat whose cadastral value on the IBI receipt is EUR 90,000, in a municipality whose values were revised eight years ago, inherited on 1 July: the imputation for that year is 1.1 % of EUR 90,000, apportioned to the 184 days you owned it, then taxed at 19 % or 24 % depending on where you are resident, and declared on modelo 210 the following calendar year.
When it goes wrong: past six months, disagreements and debts
If the six months have gone and no extension was applied for, file anyway and file before the tax office writes to you, because the difference is large. A return filed late without a prior demand carries a surcharge of 1 % plus a further 1 % for each complete month of delay, rising to 15 % once twelve months have passed, at which point late-payment interest is also charged from the day after those twelve months; the surcharge excludes penalties that might otherwise have applied (art. 27.2 LGT), and it is reduced by 25 % where the surcharge and the tax are paid in the terms the article sets (art. 27.5). Once the administration has made a formal move towards regularising the debt, the surcharge route closes and the penalty route opens.
If the heirs cannot agree, or one of them is unreachable, there are tools short of litigation. Any interested party who can show an interest in the heir accepting or renouncing may go to a notary to notify the person called that they have thirty calendar days to accept, purely or under benefit of inventory, or to renounce; silence within that period is treated as pure and simple acceptance (art. 1005 CC). No action can be brought against an heir to force that choice until nine days after the death (art. 1004). Where heirs of age cannot agree on how to divide the estate, the Civil Code leaves them to the judicial route (art. 1059), which is slow, and where a genuine dispute is under way the tax filing periods are interrupted (art. 69 RISD) — but only a genuine one.
If the estate may be insolvent, or you simply do not know what the deceased owed in Spain, acceptance under benefit of inventory is the instrument. Any heir may accept under benefit of inventory even if the testator prohibited it, and may ask for the inventory to be drawn up before deciding (art. 1010 CC). The declaration is made before a notary (art. 1011), or, for an heir abroad, before a Spanish diplomatic or consular agent authorised to act as a notary in that place (art. 1012). It only takes effect if it is preceded or followed by a faithful and exact inventory (art. 1013). The deadlines are short: an heir in possession of the estate must notify the notary and request the notarial inventory, with creditors and legatees summoned, within thirty days from the day they learned they were an heir (art. 1014); the inventory must begin within thirty days of that summons and finish within sixty more, which the notary may extend where the assets are distant or very large, but never beyond one year (art. 1017). Miss them through fault or negligence and the heir is deemed to have accepted purely and simply (art. 1018) — with the unlimited liability that entails.
A realistic calendar, and where the time actually goes
Set against six months, the calendar is tight but workable if it is run in parallel rather than in series. Days 1 to 15: obtain multiple original death certificates and, for a death abroad, start the apostille and the sworn translation immediately; start the NIE applications for every heir the same week. Days 16 to 45: apply for the last-wills and insurance certificates, request the authorised copy of the will or open the declaration of heirs, and ask the bank for the balance certificate at the date of death. Days 45 to 90: build the inventory, pull the Catastro reference value at the date of death, gather the evidence for debts and for last-illness, burial and funeral expenses, and prepare the powers of attorney.
Days 90 to 140: sign the deed of acceptance and adjudication and prepare both tax returns. Days 140 to 180: file and pay the inheritance tax and the plusvalía, then lodge the deed at the Land Registry and settle the Catastro change and the utilities. If any of those blocks slips — and the two that slip are the NIE and a foreign document that turns out to need an apostille nobody asked for — apply for the ISD extension inside the first five months rather than hoping. It costs interest; a surcharge costs more.
Where several heirs live in different countries, appoint one to run the file and give the professional a single channel. Successions on the Costa Blanca do not usually fail on the law; they fail because six people in four time zones each hold one document and nobody holds the calendar. And where the plan is to sell the house rather than keep it, say so at the start: the inventory values, the wording of the partition and the way the deed allocates the property all change if a sale is coming, and they are far cheaper to get right once than to correct with a buyer waiting.
Step-by-step
How to inherit a Spanish property, from the death to the Land Registry
Get several original death certificates
From the Registro Civil of the place of death, or from the foreign registry if the death occurred abroad. A foreign certificate needs an apostille under the Hague Convention of 1961, or consular legalisation, plus a sworn translation into Spanish. Obtain the apostille while you are still in the issuing country.
Start the NIE application for every heir the same week
At a Spanish consulate or, in Spain, at a police station handling foreigners. Every heir and legatee needs one, including those who will only receive money. Without a NIE no deed can be signed, no return filed and no registration made. Consular waiting times are the least predictable item in the calendar.
Wait fifteen working days, then request the two Madrid certificates
The Certificado de Actos de Última Voluntad and the certificate from the register of death-cover insurance contracts, both from the Ministry of Justice and usually requested together. Neither can be applied for earlier (Ministry of Justice procedure; art. 12.2 RD 398/2007). Working days exclude Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.
Obtain the will, or open a notarial declaration of heirs
Ask the notary named in the last-wills certificate for an authorised copy of the will. If there is no Spanish will, check which law governs the succession under Regulation (EU) 650/2012 and whether a foreign will or a European Certificate of Succession applies. With no will at all, the succession is intestate (art. 912 CC) and the heirs are declared before a Spanish notary.
Ask the bank for balances at the date of death
Request a certificate of balances and positions at the date of death and the average balance of the preceding year. Expect the accounts to be blocked: a bank that releases funds is subsidiarily liable for the inheritance tax (art. 8.1.a LISD). Where money is needed to collect a life policy or the deceased’s credits, ask for a partial assessment on account (art. 35 LISD).
Build the inventory and value it at the date of death
Property at the Catastro reference value on that date, unless the declared value is higher (art. 9.3 LISD); bank balances at that date; vehicles at the official valuation tables; life policies at the amount payable (art. 9.1.c); household effects at 3 % of the estate unless a higher value is assigned or a lower one proved (art. 15 LISD).
Gather the evidence for deductible debts and expenses
Debts of the deceased evidenced by a public document, by a private document meeting art. 1227 CC, or otherwise justified (art. 13.1 LISD), including taxes and Social Security debts assessed after the death (art. 13.2); and invoices for last illness, burial and funeral, proportionate to the estate (art. 14.b). Mortgages do not reduce the value of the asset (art. 12).
Grant the powers of attorney if any heir is abroad
Before a Spanish consulate, which needs no legalisation, or before a local notary with apostille and sworn translation. The power must expressly cover accepting the inheritance, making the partition and adjudication, signing and paying the tax returns and dealing with the banks. Get the wording from the Spanish notary before signing locally.
Sign the deed of acceptance and adjudication before a Spanish notary
The deed recites the death, the title of succession, the inventory and values, the debts and expenses, the acceptance by each heir and the allocation of each asset. Heirs of age with free administration of their property may divide the estate as they agree (art. 1058 CC). Decide before signing whether acceptance is pure and simple, under benefit of inventory, or a renunciation (arts. 1008 and 1010 CC).
File and pay the inheritance tax within six months
With the Comunidad Autónoma, or with the State tax agency where the deceased was not resident in Spain, in which case self-assessment is compulsory (DA segunda, apartado Dos, LISD). Claim the regional rules you are entitled to (DA segunda). If the file will not be ready, apply for the six-month extension inside the first five months (art. 68 RISD).
File the plusvalía municipal with the ayuntamiento
Within six months of the death, extendable to one year on request (art. 110.2.b TRLRHL). The heir is the taxpayer (art. 106.1.a). Rate, coefficients and any relief come from that town hall’s ordenanza fiscal in force at the date of death; where the land shows no increase in value the transfer is not subject.
Register the deed and update the Catastro and the supplies
Lodge the deed with proof of the tax filing at the Registro de la Propiedad — without that proof the document produces no effect in a public registry (art. 33 LISD). Record the change of ownership in the Catastro (art. 76.1 TRLRHL), then move the IBI direct debit, the utility contracts and the community of owners into the new owner’s name.
| Step | Deadline | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Request the last-wills and insurance certificates | Not before 15 working days after the death | Ministry of Justice procedure; art. 12.2 RD 398/2007 |
| Notarial interpellation to accept or renounce | 30 calendar days for the person called to answer; no action before 9 days from the death | Arts. 1005 and 1004 Código Civil |
| Benefit of inventory, heir in possession of the estate | 30 days from learning they are an heir; inventory begins within 30 days of the summons and ends within 60 more | Arts. 1014 and 1017 Código Civil |
| Apply for the inheritance tax extension | Within the first 5 months of the filing period; refused after that | Art. 68.2 and 68.4 RISD |
| File and pay inheritance tax | 6 months from the death, extendable by 6 more with interest | Arts. 67.1.a and 68 RISD; accrual art. 24.1 LISD |
| File plusvalía municipal | 6 months from the death, extendable to 1 year on request | Art. 110.2.b TRLRHL |
| File modelo 210 for imputed income | In the calendar year following the year of accrual | Arts. 13.1.h, 24.5 and 28 TRLIRNR |
| Tax | Charged by | What triggers it |
|---|---|---|
| Inheritance and gift tax (ISD) | The Comunidad Autónoma, or the State tax agency where the deceased was not resident | The death itself; accrual on that date (art. 24.1 LISD) |
| Plusvalía municipal (IIVTNU) | The ayuntamiento where the property lies | The transfer of the urban land on death (art. 106.1.a TRLRHL) |
| IBI | The ayuntamiento; billing run by SUMA across most of Alicante province | Owning the property on 1 January (arts. 63 and 75 TRLRHL) |
| Non-resident imputed income (modelo 210) | The State tax agency | Owning an unlet urban property (art. 13.1.h TRLIRNR) |
| Wealth tax | The State tax agency, applying the regional rules you are entitled to | Spanish assets held on 31 December, above the exempt minimum and filing threshold (arts. 29, 28.Tres and 37 of Ley 19/1991) |
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How long do I have to pay inheritance tax on a Spanish property?
Six months from the day of the death (art. 67.1.a of the ISD Regulation, RD 1629/1991). The tax accrues on the date of death (art. 24.1 of Ley 29/1987), so the clock is not affected by when the heirs learned of the death, when a foreign probate was granted, or when the Spanish documents were ready. A further six months can be granted, but only on an application made within the first five months (art. 68 RISD).
Can I get an extension, and what does it cost?
Yes, an extension for a period equal to the original one — another six months — but the application has to reach the competent office within the first five months of the filing period, accompanied by a certificate of the death registration and the details listed in art. 68.2 RISD. If no decision is notified within a month, the extension is deemed granted (art. 68.3); an application filed after the first five months is refused outright (art. 68.4). The extension runs from the end of the initial six months and carries late-payment interest until the return is filed (art. 68.6).
Do I have to travel to Spain to sign the inheritance?
No. You can grant a power of attorney to a representative in Spain, either before a Spanish consulate in your country, which needs no legalisation, or before a local notary, in which case the power needs an apostille under the Hague Convention of 1961 and a sworn translation into Spanish. The power must expressly cover accepting the inheritance, making the partition and adjudication, and signing the tax returns; a general power over assets is routinely rejected. Ask the Spanish notary for the wording before you sign anything locally.
When can I ask for the certificate of last wills?
Not until fifteen working days have passed since the date of death, per the Ministry of Justice procedure for the Certificado de Actos de Última Voluntad. The same fifteen-working-day wait applies to the certificate from the register of death-cover insurance contracts (art. 12.2 of RD 398/2007), which is issued within a maximum of seven working days from the application (art. 13.1). Working days exclude Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, including regional and local ones.
What value does the Spanish tax office put on the house?
The Catastro reference value of the property at the date of death, unless the value the heirs declare is higher, in which case the declared value is the base (art. 9.3 LISD, as redrafted by Ley 11/2021). Where a base is the reference value, the tax office cannot run a value-verification procedure against it (art. 18.1 LISD). Where no reference value exists or the Catastro cannot certify one, the base is the higher of the declared value and market value, subject to verification.
Can I deduct the mortgage still outstanding on the property?
Not as a charge on the asset: mortgages and pledges expressly do not reduce the value of what is transferred (art. 12 LISD). What may be deductible is the underlying debt of the deceased, as a debt, provided its existence is evidenced by a public document, by a private document meeting art. 1227 of the Civil Code, or is otherwise justified, and it is not owed to the heirs or their close relatives (art. 13.1). The distinction matters because the evidence required is different.
Why has the bank frozen the deceased’s accounts?
Because a financial intermediary that hands over deposited money or securities in a transfer on death is subsidiarily liable for the inheritance tax (art. 8.1.a LISD and art. 19.1.a of the Regulation). The same article allows the bank to issue a bank cheque charged to the deposit for the exclusive purpose of paying that inheritance tax, made out to the tax administration, without that counting as a delivery of funds. To collect a life policy or the deceased’s credits sooner, ask for a partial assessment on account (art. 35 LISD; art. 78 of the Regulation).
As a non-resident heir, can I use the Valencian regional rules?
Yes. Where the deceased was not resident in Spain, heirs are entitled to the rules of the Comunidad Autónoma in which the greatest value of the Spanish estate lies; where the deceased was resident in a Comunidad Autónoma, non-resident heirs are entitled to that region’s rules (disposición adicional segunda LISD). Since Ley 11/2021 that entitlement covers residents of third countries as well as of the EU and the EEA. For a house on the Costa Blanca that means the rules of the Comunitat Valenciana, whose reductions and bonificaciones are set by regional law and are covered in our Valencian inheritance tax guide.
What happens if the six months have already passed?
File and pay before the tax office contacts you. A return filed late without a prior demand carries a surcharge of 1 % plus 1 % for each complete month of delay, becoming 15 % plus late-payment interest once twelve months have passed, and it excludes the penalties that could otherwise apply (art. 27.2 LGT); the surcharge is reduced by 25 % where it and the tax are paid in the terms of art. 27.5. Once the administration has taken a formal step towards regularising the debt, that route closes and penalties become possible.
Is plusvalía municipal payable on an inheritance?
Yes, and by the heir: in a transfer for free the taxpayer is the person who acquires the land (art. 106.1.a TRLRHL). It is declared to the ayuntamiento within six months of the death, extendable to one year at the taxpayer’s request (art. 110.2.b). Rates, coefficients and reliefs are fixed by each town hall in its ordenanza fiscal, so no figure applies across the Costa Blanca; where the land shows no increase in value the transfer is not subject at all.
What is acceptance under benefit of inventory, and should I use it?
It is acceptance that limits the heir’s liability to the value of the estate, so the deceased’s debts cannot reach the heir’s own assets. Any heir may use it even if the testator prohibited it (art. 1010 CC); the declaration is made before a notary (art. 1011) or, from abroad, before a Spanish consular officer acting as notary (art. 1012), and only takes effect with a faithful inventory (art. 1013). The deadlines are short — thirty days for an heir in possession (art. 1014), the inventory beginning within thirty days of the summons and ending within sixty more, extendable by the notary but never beyond a year (art. 1017) — and missing them through fault means pure and simple acceptance (art. 1018).
What do I have to file every year once the house is mine?
A modelo 210 for imputed income on the unlet property, at 2 % of the cadastral value or 1.1 % where the municipality’s values were revised in the year or the previous ten, apportioned by days of ownership (arts. 13.1.h and 24.5 TRLIRNR; art. 85 LIRPF), taxed at 24 % or at 19 % for EU and qualifying EEA residents (art. 25.1.a) and filed in the calendar year after accrual. Plus the annual IBI from the ayuntamiento, charged on whoever owns the property on 1 January (arts. 63 and 75 TRLRHL), and wealth tax where a return is due (arts. 5.Uno.b, 28.Tres, 29 and 37 of Ley 19/1991).
Sources
- Ley 29/1987, del Impuesto sobre Sucesiones y Donaciones (BOE, consolidated)
- RD 1629/1991, Reglamento del Impuesto sobre Sucesiones y Donaciones (BOE)
- Código Civil, sucesiones y aceptación de la herencia (BOE, consolidated)
- RDLeg 2/2004, texto refundido de la Ley Reguladora de las Haciendas Locales
- RDLeg 5/2004, texto refundido de la Ley del Impuesto sobre la Renta de no Residentes
- Ley 58/2003, General Tributaria (recargos por declaración extemporánea, art. 27)
- RD 398/2007, Registro de contratos de seguro de cobertura de fallecimiento
- Ministerio de Justicia · Certificado de Actos de Última Voluntad
Last updated: 2026-09-10