EU Succession Regulation 650/2012 and Your Spanish Estate

The rule in plain words

Regulation (EU) No 650/2012, often called Brussels IV, applies to the estates of people who died on or after 17 August 2015. Before it, every country had its own conflict rules, and the same person could have one set of laws for the house in Spain, another for the bank account at home and a third for furniture somewhere else. The Regulation replaced that patchwork with one principle: a single law governs the whole estate, wherever the assets are.

By default that law is the law of the country where you had your habitual residence at the moment of death. Live in Spain, die in Spain, and Spanish succession law governs your estate, including assets you hold abroad. That is the point where many northern European families get a shock, because the Spanish rules on who inherits and how much can look very different from the ones they grew up with. We told one family's story about exactly that in our blog on making a will in Spain.

Habitual residence is not the same as your registered address

People often assume habitual residence simply means the address on the padrón or the country on the tax return. It does not. The Regulation looks at the overall picture of your life in the years before death: how long and how regularly you were in a country, where your family and social ties were, where you worked, where your main home was and where you intended to stay. A registration helps as evidence, but it does not decide the question.

This matters most for people with two homes. Someone who spends seven months in Spain, five in the Netherlands and keeps close ties in both is the kind of case where the answer is not obvious in advance. The Regulation accepts that, and nobody can promise you a certain outcome without knowing your whole situation. If your life really is split, that is a strong argument for settling the question in your will instead of leaving it to be argued over later.

The choice: the law of your nationality

The Regulation lets you opt out of the default. You can choose the law of the country whose nationality you hold, either at the time you make the choice or at the time of death. If you hold more than one nationality you can pick any of them. The choice covers the whole estate, not just the Spanish part, and it can be changed or revoked later.

Two details are easy to miss. First, you can only choose a nationality law, not any law you like. A Dutchman in Spain may choose Dutch law, a German may choose German law, and a Spanish resident with a British passport may choose the law of the United Kingdom. A foreigner cannot pick, say, a third country's law simply because it is convenient. Second, the Regulation applies to any country's law once it is chosen, including countries outside the EU, which is why the choice is also open to people from outside the union who live in Spain.

Why the choice has to be explicit

The choice must be made in a will or in a disposition of property on death, and it has to be expressed or clearly follow from the terms of the document. In practice you should not rely on the second route. A clause that says in plain words that you choose the law of your nationality to govern your whole succession leaves no room for doubt, and Spanish notaries are used to drafting it. A will that merely refers to terms from your home country law, without naming the choice, invites an argument at the worst possible moment.

There is also a timing point. If you never make the choice, the default stays in place and your habitual residence at death decides. Because people move, retire or sell up, the law that would apply today may not be the law that applies in twenty years. A deliberate choice gives you a fixed point that does not drift with your address.

What the Regulation covers and what it does not

It covers succession in the broad sense: who the heirs are, what share each receives, how the estate passes, whether a will is valid in substance and what happens if there is no will. It does not cover tax. Spanish inheritance tax depends on where the heir lives, where the assets are and which region applies, and the choice of succession law has no effect on it. Our overview of inheritance and gift tax in Spain and the comparison of inheritance tax by region explain that side.

It also does not decide the matrimonial property regime between spouses. For couples who married from 29 January 2019, a separate EU regulation handles that, and for older marriages national rules apply. The practical consequence is that the first step in an estate can be working out what belonged to the deceased in the first place, before the succession rules decide who gets it. And it does not replace the formalities of the Spanish Registro de la Propiedad, which still applies its own requirements when a property is registered in new names.

Spain is not one jurisdiction for this purpose

One extra complication belongs to Spain specifically. Spanish civil law is not uniform. Alongside the common regime in the Código Civil there are regional regimes in places such as Catalonia, Galicia, Aragón, the Basque Country, Navarra and the Balearic Islands. When the Regulation points to Spanish law, the question of which Spanish regime applies is then answered by internal rules. For a foreigner who lives in one region this is usually clear to a local notary, but it is not something to guess at. It is another reason the advice on this page comes with a caution: the exact outcome depends on your region.

The limits of the choice

Choosing your nationality law is powerful, but it is not a magic wand. Every court can refuse to apply a foreign law whose result is manifestly incompatible with its public policy, and Spanish authorities are no exception. In ordinary cases that safety valve is rarely used, but it exists. Heirs who feel they were unfairly excluded can also challenge a will, and the likelihood of a dispute is higher when the choice produces a result very different from what the Spanish rules would have given. We look at that tension in our article on the legítima.

It also helps to know that a few EU countries, notably Denmark and Ireland, did not take part in the Regulation. That does not change how Spanish offices apply it. It can matter if your estate has a connection with those countries, where local authorities may look at the situation differently, so cross border cases deserve a specialist.

Proving who the heirs are across borders

Heirs sometimes need to show their status in several countries at once. The Regulation created an optional European Certificate of Succession for that purpose. In Spain it is requested through a notary, and it is recognised in other participating states without further formalities. It is not compulsory, and for a straightforward Spanish estate the ordinary notarial documents are often enough. For an estate with accounts, property or investments in several countries, the certificate can save a lot of repeated paperwork.

Whichever route is used, foreign documents still follow the usual rules on apostilles and sworn translation, and an inherited home that the heirs later want to sell raises its own questions, which we cover in selling an inherited property in Spain.

What this means for you in practice

If you live in Spain or plan to, ask yourself one question: do I want Spanish succession law to govern my whole estate? If the answer is yes, you do not need to do anything special beyond making a proper will. If the answer is no, the choice has to be written into a will, drafted by someone who understands both your home country rules and the Spanish ones. If you are not sure, the sensible order is to learn what each system would produce for your family, and then decide.

As always, this article explains the principle and does not give advice for your personal case. Rules, regional regimes and court practice evolve, so confirm the details with a notary or a lawyer who works across both systems before you sign.