There is no better way to learn and update our knowledge than with life itself.

Very often, a lawyer´s knowledge updates as new cases get through the door of the office. This is what happened with uncle Jimmy´s case. Obviously, this is not his real name but it is a name that could perfectly apply to this case. A homage to an old good friend´s uncle and a literary licence that I took to refer to this case.

A few weeks ago I was contacted by the niece of the said uncle Jimmy. She was totally in the dark as to what to do with her uncle´s Spanish property since he passed away. She had received conflicted advice from different sources, including AI, and at the same time had some relatives who were taking justice in their own terms and decided to take possession of the Spanish property without any confirmed rights over it.

My client wanted to know who would inherit the Spanish assets in the absence of a Will. In the same way that a detective who starts to study a case does, we lawyers dealing with the administration of cross-border estates need to start by setting up the background and facts: when did he die?, where did he live at the time of his death? what was his nationality? was he married, in a civil partnership or single? did he make a Spanish Will? did he also make an English Will?

No advice can be given until we have received at least the above information. It emerged from my initial enquiries that uncle Jimmy died habitually resident in England and had no Spanish or English Will. He was not married but he was in a same sex civil partnership with a person that we will refer from now on as “the partner”. He had no children and his next of kin where his 3 siblings (one sister and two brothers), his niece and his 3 nephews.

Based on the above information, in the absence of a Will and since the deceased was living in England when he passed away, everything seemed to indicate that the sole beneficiary of his assets, including those located in Spain, was his partner. However, as if the above was not complicated enough, the partner died shortly after him.

The client´s aunty, Jimmy´s sister, considered that, since the partner had died, he never inherited the Spanish assets and therefore the Spanish property should go to the deceased´s siblings: herself and her two brothers. In her opinion, they were blood related so who is else should be entitled to the assets apart from them? To avoid any potential claims from the partner´s potential beneficiaries or from squatters potentially occupying the property (we do have a huge problem with squatters in Spain) the aunty took possession of the property and changed the locks. As simple as that.

My initial advice to the client was that the partner was the sole beneficiary of uncle Jimmy´s estate and then when he died, his rights over uncle Jimmy passed to his own beneficiaries i.e. his parents, as he had no children and his parents were still alive. My client could not understand why the partner´s beneficiaries could end up inheriting her uncle´s assets when they had no connection or kinship with him. Unfortunately, this is how law works. If uncle Jimmy had made a Will, ideally Spanish but an English one could have worked too, then he could have provided for his siblings, niece and nephews. However, he didn´t. In the absence of a Will, intestacy rules are very straightforward and direct. Unless a latter Will appeared, my preliminary opinion was that the partner´s beneficiaries would inherit uncle Jimmy´s Spanish assets.

This matter was just started a few weeks ago and I am curious to see how Jimmy´s in-laws will react when they learn that they have inherited all of Jimmy´s assets as well as their own son´s assets. Will they agree to take the Spanish property or would they feel morally unease and pass it to Jimmy´s children under a Deed of Variation? The truth is that we are still on time to change the beneficiaries of the Spanish assets but in order to that, the cooperation of the partner´s parents is needed.

Clearly a very interesting case that is yet to be progressed and continued.