Inheritance in Spain: How a Herencia Works, Step by Step (2026)

A Spanish herencia is a sequence, and knowing the order saves months: first the papers that prove who is called to inherit, then the decision to accept or renounce, then the division, and always, running in the background, a six-month tax clock that started on the day of death. This page walks the whole sequence, with the decisions that matter flagged at each step.

Information last verified on 23 July 2026. This page provides general legal information about Spanish law and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case.

Step 1: The two certificates

Everything starts with the certificado de defunción from the Registro Civil and the certificado de actos de última voluntad from the Ministerio de Justicia, which by rule cannot be requested until 15 días hábiles (working days) have passed since the death. The second one is the key: it states whether the deceased made a will and before which notario. In the ministry's own words, this document is needed «para la realización de cualquier acto sucesorio».

If there is a will, the heirs obtain an authorised copy from the authorising notario and act on it. If there is not, the succession is intestate and needs one more document first.

Step 2 (no will): the declaración de herederos

When there is no valid will, a notario establishes who the legal heirs are through the declaración de herederos abintestato: documentation of the family link, two witnesses, and a wait of twenty working days before the closing judgment. The order it applies comes from the Código Civil: descendants first, then ascendants, then the surviving spouse, then collaterals up to the fourth degree, and finally the State (arts. 930 a 958). A spouse separated legally or de facto at the death inherits nothing intestate (art. 945 CC).

Even with a will, remember the will's limit: the legítima reserves two thirds of the estate to children and descendants in the common regime, and different fractions in the foral territories.

Step 3: Accept, accept with inventory, or renounce

This is the most consequential decision of the whole process, because Spanish inheritance transmits debts as well as assets.

• Aceptación pura y simple: you take the estate unconditionally and become liable for its debts with your own present and future assets (art. 1003 CC). Acceptance can even be tacit, by acts that only an heir could lawfully do (art. 999 CC).
• Aceptación a beneficio de inventario (arts. 998 y 1023 CC): your liability for the estate's debts is limited to the inherited assets themselves, and your own property is never mixed with the estate to your prejudice. The price is a formal inventory procedure.
• Renuncia: a renunciation must be made before a notario in a public deed (art. 1008 CC) and is irrevocable (art. 997 CC). It must be total and unconditional (art. 990 CC). Co-heirs decide independently: some may accept and others renounce (art. 1007 CC).

Two timing rules protect the other players. No action can be brought against an heir to force the choice until nine days after the death (art. 1004 CC). After that, any interested party can have a notario formally require you to decide within 30 calendar days, and if you stay silent, the law treats you as having accepted pura y simplemente (art. 1005 CC), with the unlimited-liability consequence above. An indebted estate is not a problem you can ignore into disappearing.

Step 4: Inventory, partition and the deed

The heirs inventory the assets and debts, value them, and divide. In practice the division is documented in a notarial escritura de partición y adjudicación de herencia, which is what banks demand to release accounts and the Registro de la Propiedad demands to re-register property. Where all heirs agree, this is administrative work; where they do not, the partition is where Spanish successions go to litigate, especially over legítima invasions and property valuations.

Step 5: The taxes, on their own clock

The impuesto de sucesiones accrues on the day of death and the return is due within six months (art. 67 del Reglamento). One extension of six more months exists, but it must be requested within the first five months and carries interest from day one of the extension (art. 68). How much is actually payable depends heavily on the comunidad autónoma: spouses and children are close to exempt in much of Spain, and squarely taxed in parts of it.

Inherited real estate adds the plusvalía municipal, the local tax on urban land value increase, now calculable by an objective method or, at the taxpayer's request, by the real gain when that is lower. And note a detail with planning value: the value you declare for the ISD is the value later used for the plusvalía comparison.

Once the tax is settled and the deed signed, property is registered in the heirs' names, accounts are released, and the herencia is done.

This page is general legal information about Spanish law and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case. The controlling texts are the current versions in the BOE.