# Inheritance issue



## David_J (Apr 22, 2015)

This is my first post on this forum, I have found it a very valuable source of information and would like to ask you for your thoughts on my situation. I have kept the following as brief as possible, but I didn't want to miss any information that may relevant.

My Mother and Father used to spend their winter holidays in Fuengirola and had their own apartment. They were non-resident and their main home was in the UK.

Sadly, in January 2008 my Father died (in the UK) and my Mother had just been diagnosed at that time with vascular dementia and was no longer fit to travel to Spain. My Father had a Spanish Will (leaving the property to my Mother), but when we made initial enquiries, we were told that my mother would have to go to Spain to sign legal documents. As she was not fit to do this, we didn't do anything further as our priority was to get her into residential care and to make sure she was being properly looked after.

I dealt with my Father's Estate in the UK as I was the Executor. All of my Father's UK Estate passed to my Mother, which I managed for her as her Deputy as authorised by the UK Court of Protection. 

Over the next couple of years my Mother's health deteriorated and we didn't think about the Spanish property and it was left empty. I had access to my Father's bank account (which I kept open following his death) and kept topping the funds up to pay the usual standing charges for water, electric, municipal charge. maintenance fees etc.

Unfortunately, whilst my Mother was in residential care, we had other family problems when my brother-in-law died and I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Parkinsons disease. My mother died in April 2012.

My Mother's estate passed to my brother, sister and me and again I dealt with the Estate as Executor. As the Spanish property was still in my Father's name, this was left out of my Mother's Estate and we concluded probate matters in the UK.

With my poor health, my specialist has advised that I should take the opportunity to make the most of my time and I am keen to get things in order. I don't want to leave my family trying to unravel this mess in the future.

I realise that I shouldn't have left this for so long and I will no doubt have some form of penalty, but as I mentioned, I want to deal with this now whilst I am still able.

Has anyone had anything similar happen, or perhaps know what may lie ahead for me. Is my best course of action to contact an English speaking Spanish solicitor to start getting everything sorted.

I have my Father's original Spanish Will and the Spanish Deeds for the property.

I have just opened a Spanish bank account and applied for a NIE as I would like to spend some time in Spain and this will enable me to pay the bills for the apartment. 

We have had notification from my Father's Spanish bank that they will be suspending his account as he hasn't submitted proof of non-residency, so I can no longer transfer funds to cover the bills

Apologies for the length of this post, I hope that you will be able to offer me some helpful advice.

Thank you in anticipation.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

David_J said:


> This is my first post on this forum, I have found it a very valuable source of information and would like to ask you for your thoughts on my situation. I have kept the following as brief as possible, but I didn't want to miss any information that may relevant.
> 
> My Mother and Father used to spend their winter holidays in Fuengirola and had their own apartment. They were non-resident and their main home was in the UK.
> 
> ...


I can give you little advice, but here is a link to a list of English speaking lawyers in Spain from the UK government
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spain-list-of-lawyers

I think you might need to get your father's death certificate translated and probably by a sworn translator but check first as you don't want to spend the money for nothing.

I do hope you can get the situation sorted out and that you'll be able to enjoy some time in Spain!


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## David_J (Apr 22, 2015)

Thank you very much for the list, that will be a great help. I will update this post as things progress, so that it may be a useful reference for anyone else in a similar situation. Thanks again for your reply, most appreciated.


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## Sunny Jim1 (Jan 20, 2015)

Hi David,
I was left in a similar position to yours. I was recommended to contact G Moran (english speaking lawyer) who turned out to be exceptionally helpful and sorted everything for me. If you would like to pm. me I can give you all the neccessary details.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Sunny Jim1 said:


> Hi David,
> I was left in a similar position to yours. I was recommended to contact G Moran (english speaking lawyer) who turned out to be exceptionally helpful and sorted everything for me. If you would like to pm. me I can give you all the neccessary details.



you can add a link to his website here, since it's a personal recommendation in response to a request


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

David_J said:


> Thank you very much for the list, that will be a great help. I will update this post as things progress, so that it may be a useful reference for anyone else in a similar situation. Thanks again for your reply, most appreciated.


that list might not be a definitive list, but at least you know that anyone on it is registered & legally allowed to practice law in Spain

if you choose someone who isn't on that list, please do check that they are - it might save a lot of heartache (& money) later


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## David_J (Apr 22, 2015)

Sunny Jim1 said:


> Hi David,
> I was left in a similar position to yours. I was recommended to contact G Moran (english speaking lawyer) who turned out to be exceptionally helpful and sorted everything for me. If you would like to pm. me I can give you all the neccessary details.


It would be great if you could post some details (an e.mail or phone no.) as I can't send PM's until I get up to 5 posts on the forum. One of the moderators has said that this would be OK as it is a personal recommendation rather than any form of advertising that would break the forum rules.

Thanks again for your help.


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## David_J (Apr 22, 2015)

xabiachica said:


> that list might not be a definitive list, but at least you know that anyone on it is registered & legally allowed to practice law in Spain
> 
> if you choose someone who isn't on that list, please do check that they are - it might save a lot of heartache (& money) later


Thank you. Certainly one of the key things that I have learned from reading this forum it is better to be safe than sorry and to double check everything particularly when instructing professional advice, engaging contractors and making major purchases in Spain. It is easy to be caught out in the UK if you don't make proper enquiries, the cultural and language differences certainly add to this when dealing with anything outside the UK.

Having such a helpful forum is a godsend and is an extremely valuable resource.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience across the forum, it is very much appreciated.


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## Sunny Jim1 (Jan 20, 2015)

Hi again David J,
You can contact Glyn Moran at : [email protected]
I can assure you of excellent service.


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## David_J (Apr 22, 2015)

Sunny Jim1 said:


> Hi again David J,
> You can contact Glyn Moran at ...... I can assure you of excellent service.


That's great, many thanks for the details, really appreciate your help. 

I will update this thread once I have made some progress in case it may be of use to others.


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