Spanish Wills & Lawyer no longer in business - questions.

Information and questions about the Law in Spain and Andalucia.
zanuck
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Spanish Wills & Lawyer no longer in business - questions.

Postby zanuck » Sat Apr 23, 2022 5:17 pm

When my wife and I bought a holiday home in 2004, we wrote two “mirror” wills (well our lawyer did) and we went with a translator from the lawyer’s office to a notary in Nerja where the wills were duly stamped and legalised.

I’ve started to prepare notes for my two adult children, guiding them on what to do after the deaths of both my wife and I, which hopefully won’t be any time soon, but one never knows…..

So I guess I have two questions in the context of the wills:
1. Is it of any importance at all that the lawyer appears to have gone out of business?
2. I have stamped “copia simple” versions of the wills, will these, along with death certificates, suffice in the event that the children decide to sell our house and to close our bank account and withdraw the funds, or indeed to transfer the ownership of the house into one or both of their names?



I did a Google search for our old lawyer who doesn’t seem to have filed any company accounts for years – possibly not since 2005 or 2008 depending upon which site I visit and nothing about his business address is returned in the search results. He opened an office in Torre del Mar in 2004 and wrote to tell me that our files would be transferred there from Nerja.

And that brings me to a subsequent question, more out of curiosity than anything else; what happens to all of the documents that a lawyer prepared throughout his business career when he closes the business – do they just get put into the paper recycling bin and disposed of?

Just as I was finishing typing this post, I thought I’d do one last Google search and added a couple of words to my search “Luis Viciana Ramos abogado, in Nerja” and I got some results, but it’s not possible to see if these are current details or not, they certainly have the address and phone number of his Nerja office in 2004

https://www.hotfrog.es/company/1122579384844288 I think this site is hoping that he will “claim” the page and pay to advertise on it.

https://www.justicia24.es/empresa-lvr-a ... erja-13194 similar story with this site.

There are a couple of rather disturbing results shown on the same Google results page, where his name has been used in the context of Timeshares and his name features twice in the Boletin Oficial de la Provincia de Malaga dated 6 September 2010 https://www.malaga.es/base/descargas/ho ... cod=228299 but I can’t figure out why that is and I’ve digressed enough already from my original reason for this post.

Manchesteral
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Re: Spanish Wills & Lawyer no longer in business - questions.

Postby Manchesteral » Sat Apr 23, 2022 6:13 pm

I suppose the most important question, in my view is, do you have copies of any or all of your transactions with this lawyer and most importantly do you have copies of the will and after death instructions ? I'm no expert but these are the things that would be uppermost in my mind !

zanuck
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Re: Spanish Wills & Lawyer no longer in business - questions.

Postby zanuck » Sat Apr 23, 2022 6:21 pm

Manchesteral wrote: Sat Apr 23, 2022 6:13 pm I suppose the most important question, in my view is, do you have copies of any or all of your transactions with this lawyer and most importantly do you have copies of the will and after death instructions ? I'm no expert but these are the things that would be uppermost in my mind !
Thanks for a fast reply Manchesteral, we sold that house in 2019 and used a gestor to handle the sale, we had nothing to do with the Nerja lawyer after the wills were created.
We subsequently bought another house using a different gestor - due to location and unfortunately she declines to answer my emails of phone calls, which I guess was part of my rationale for asking about our children just being able to use the copia simple versions.

When my father died in the UK, his three children were joint executors and although he told us who his solicitor was, I've no idea if he's still living, and I don't recall meeting him - I think we used a certified copy that Dad kept in his house, so I'm hoping the same practice will be do-able in Spain.

Capitan-Roberto
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Re: Spanish Wills & Lawyer no longer in business - questions.

Postby Capitan-Roberto » Sat Apr 23, 2022 8:42 pm

The lawyer should have registered the Will with the Will Registry in Madrid. Normal practice for Wills in Spain. With a death certificate, a Notary can apply to the registry for a copy of the Will.

zanuck
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Re: Spanish Wills & Lawyer no longer in business - questions.

Postby zanuck » Sat Apr 23, 2022 9:07 pm

Capitan-Roberto wrote: Sat Apr 23, 2022 8:42 pm The lawyer should have registered the Will with the Will Registry in Madrid. Normal practice for Wills in Spain. With a death certificate, a Notary can apply to the registry for a copy of the Will.
That rings a bell, I was pretty sure that when the wills were notarised in Nerja that I was told that the wills "would go to Madrid" or something similar - it was a long time ago now.

But I think Capitan-Roberto that you've answered the first two questions - no it doesn't matter if the lawyer has gone out of business and no, the copia simple won't suffice, but with that and the reference number on it, a Notary can do the biz.

Many thanks


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