Help with Property abroad after Mother passing away

[Simon Bags]

Good Morning Everyone, hope all good?

I wonder if anyone can help. My Mother sadly passed away recently, and my Father, Brother & I are slowly getting things such as joint Bank Accounts, personal belongings etc sorted but there is one thing we're a bit lost on.

My Parents Wills are very simple, everything goes to the one still alive, last Parent to pass leaves it all to my Brother and I.

They own a property here in the UK, no Mortgage. They also own a property in Majorca, no Mortgage. Both their names are on the titles to both properties. Is there any real point to having my Mother's name removed from either property? I'm sure if needed this can be done quite simply for the property in the UK, but at the moment my Father is not in the best of places and really doesn't want to go travel to Majorca to sort out things that don't really need sorting, if that makes sense?

Does anyone have experience of who, how, why this should be handled as far as property overseas is concerned?

Any advice will be gratefully received.

Thank you for your time.

Simon.

[anonymous-user]

There must be plenty of English speaking solicitors in Spain who could advise on this, he may not even need to travel out there.

I should get it done now, rather than wait and have it cause problems later.

[Eric Mc]

Yes - you need to talk to a Spanish legal expert. There are quite a few in that part of Spain who deal with UK based property owners.

Your father may actually know one as I presume they must have had legal dealings in Spain over the years they have owned the property.

[ou sont les biscuits]

Another vote for talking to a Spanish lawyer. We have two wills, one which applies to our estate in England, and one which applies to our estate in Spain. In England it is easy to leave your estate to a surviving spouse, but you can't do that in Spain, as part of your estate - what the Spanish call la legítima - by law has to go your children. In our case it is a third, from memory. I can't check it as our lawyer has our wills. If your parents haven't made a will in Spain I'm not sure what happens, which is why you need to talk to a lawyer, but I'd be surprised if the rules relating to la legítima didn't apply though.

Note that irrespective of the names on the deeds your father will have the 'usofructo' - the right to enjoy the use of the property - whilst he lives.

Edited by ou sont les biscuits on Monday 1st May 12:16

Edited by ou sont les biscuits on Monday 1st May 12:17

[Simon Bags]

Morning. Thanks to everyone for their replies, I'll have a word with my Father and no doubt he'll start the search for a Solicitor over there.

Cheers, Simon.