Mornin’ all! (it is in India anyway!) 😛

I’m just about to purchase a little property in Spain and am bringing my little “son” with me from India.  He is very severley disabled. When he reaches the age of consent in Spain (which I presume would be 18?, & of course if he lives that long) can I change over the ownership of the house and put his name down as owner?  If so, is it a simple enough thing to do? (what is simple in Spain!!)

I want him to be secure for the remainder of his life with no fear of ever being thrown out of his house and feel that perhaps just putting my feelings down in a Will might not be enough. 

Any thoughts on this would be helpful

thanks a bunch 😊

This can be a complicated area depending on residency, marital status and other family members. Under Spanish law children have an automatic right to be heirs to family property. However for non Spanish (even if they are residents) this can be contested and the law of the birth country and come into play.

An option for you might be to build into the escritura that you want it to pass to your son upon your demise.

I suggest you need to take legal advice to fully understand your options and decide what is best for you before completion time as changes afterwards to ownership can be costly and complicated.

There are no other family members except one sister of mine.  She would never contest this decision, of that I am 200% sure.  Marital status - I have been widowed for 21 years and will most likely remain that way (oh the pessimist that I am!). His country of birth of course is India.  I’ve no idea what our residency status will be by that time either - that’s nearly nine years hence - I shall be making a Will before we move however, and I will be putting it into that - but I wanted something a little more concrete than paper that can conveniently be lost, misplaced..whatever you want to call it.

I’m fully intending taking legal advice on this too Robi, but wnated to test the water to see if anyone else had done/was going to do this!  I do thank you most kindly for taking the time to answer me though - Tony is not my legal son - I found him 7 years ago and placed him in residential care - and each time I had to go for another visa I took him back there - the rest of the time he has lived with me.  I do have written permission to take him out of the country, keep him in India, adopt or whatever - but for all intents and purposes he is my son. India is very complicated and this whole thing has been far too complex for me to go into here, but there’s the story in a very tiny nutshell.

Hi Maureen,

Just a quick note on Spanish wills…...an official Spanish will (ie: signed in front of a notary) cannot be lost or mis-placed, as a copy is held in the official registry ( Ultimas Voluntades) in Madrid.
Obtaining a “Certificado de Ultimas Voluntades” ( a certificate detailing whether or not a person has left a Spanish will, and if so which notary signed it) is the first mandatory step I take when dealing with someones estate.

e-mail me if you have any further questions   .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Dun Marching