Litigation

Welcome to our Litigation page.

Our litigation department like the rest of our firm is specialised in Spanish inheritance.

SPANISH INHERITANCE CLAIM

( Spanish inheritance claims made by u.k. and Irish nationals are normally related to the Spanish domestic Inheritance laws that make it obligatory to leave two-thirds of the estate to the children with only one-third going to the spouse). Court cases are therefore all to do with proving which legislation’s applicable to a given case and we are experts)

Has your father left you out of his Spanish will? We are experts at handling claims by children against deceased parent´s new spouse on the basis of the Spanish system of obligatory heirs.

If your father or mother has deceased leaving his estate in Spain to his new spouse leaving you out of his Spanish will , or if he did not make a Spanish will you may be able to claim two-thirds  of his/her estate.

What follows below is the question that leads to one of these cases.

Question: 

My father has deceased and left his entire estate in Spain to his second wife leaving myself and my two sisters with nothing. I have heard that I may have a claim. Is this correct?

Answer: 

Many people in the u.k. are not aware that Spanish Inheritance rules are very different from the ones in the u.k.

In the u.k. you can leave your estate to basically anyone with a lot of people leaving their estate to their spouse.
Spanish domestic Inheritance laws obligates the testators to leave at least 2/3 of their estate directly to their children.

Over the last 30 years it has generally been accepted that a will made by an English person by which they leave their Spanish assets to their spouse is accepted and probate has been allowed to sale through.

The fact of the matter is that even though this was accepted on the surface (at probate level) it has become more frequent for children to dispute probate using the Spanish courts on the basis that they considered it should have been Spanish law that governed how their parent could distribute the estate. The possibilities of the claim depended on various circumstances that can be discussed with barristers like ourselves in advance allowing for the cases to only be presented when there is a good chance of success. In any case the court case would be the last resource as a negotiated solution is always the initial intention.

A new European Directive has tried to put an end to the uncertainties. Directive 650/2012 came in to force on the 17th of 2015 . The new Directive will allow couples to leave everything to their spouse withoght the risk of a claim by the children in the future as long as they state specifically on the will (comforting to the directive) that they wish u.k law to apply to the distribution of their estate. The other side of the coin is that the directive says that if that clause is not in the will the law applicable will be the law of last residence making the claims much easier then in the past if the deceased was resident in Spain.

In a nutshell the new scenario regarding claims by children in relation to their parents estate is now:

Has your father or mother deceased in Spain before the 17th of August of 2015 and left you out of his/her Spanish will?

If we can prove that Spanish law was applicable to the distribution of your father/mothers estate (which will depend of various circumstances that we would need to discuss) you and any other of his children will be able to claim 2/3rds of your mother or fathers estate as before.

Has your mother or father deceased in Spain after the 17th of August of 2015 and left you out of his Spanish will ?
If the will does not establish clearly that he wished u.k. law to govern how his estate could be distributed then if we can prove he was a Spanish resident at the time of death then we have an excellent case but it is important to act quickly. If the clause was not in but your parent´s spouse inherited on the basis of declaring your parent was resident in the u.k. the only ground for a claim would be if we could prove that your parent was in reality resident in Spain. Speed is of an essence. The sooner you hire a solicitor to officially contact your parent´s spouse solicitor and the notary who will handle the probate the less change of them letting the case through .

Why choose Michael Davies to make the claim for you?

• Michael Davies has been handling Spanish inheritance cases for over 20 years .
• We offer a free assessment of your situation to establish if we have grounds for a case or not.
• We understand the difficult personal situations surrounding these cases but are strong believers in the children not being left out of there parents if Spanish law results applicable
• We are experts in everything surrounding Spanish inheritance cases
  because we have been dealing with probate cases all over Spain for over 20 years.
• We will sit down with you to discuss expectations and establish a best and worst case scenario. We will establish  timescales and fees with no obligation to yourself before we start on your case. We will back up our meeting with a proposal in writing
• We will always build the case with the intention of negotiating an out of court settlement before presenting to the courts.
• In many  cases we can offer a no win no fee .
• We do not provide a below the market quote for the work and then surprise our clients with fees for the extra items . ( where possible we provide a quote for all items from the beginning and if this is not possible we explain the variables ).
• We handle cases all over Spain with no extra costs.
• If your father or mother has left his/her Spanish estate to his/her partner and left you out you may have a claim .

Call us today on 950 472775 if you call from Spain or 0034 950472775 if you call from the u.k. If you prefer you can e-mail me directly on michaeldavies@daviessolicitors.com

 OTHER INHERITANCE CLAIMS

• Against the inheritance tax office. (based on the Sentence of the European Court of Justice of 3rd of September of 2014)
• Defend of spouse against children on the basis of an obligatory heirs claim. Our experience over the years handling cases by children fighting for their parents estate provides us with the knowledge to offer the best defence to the widow.

CLAIMS AGAINST FINANCIAL ADVISORS , BANKS AND INSURANCE COMPANIES

Both civil and criminal cases against financial companies , insurance companies and financial advisors : Has your loved one deceased leaving you as a beneficiary of life insurance that has resulted in you receiving substantially less than was originally invested .Have you been sold a complex financial product by a “financial advisor ” only to be told a couple of years later that the fund you have invested in is now illiquid or that  you have lost over half your funds (or a combination of both these circumstances).Have you been sold preferential shares  by a Spanish bank which have since become illiquid.

JOINT OWNERSHIP: HOW TO END IT.

If you own a property/ies jointly with other people and you have decided that you no longer wish to maintain the joint ownership, we can force the issue,  allowing you to either purchase the other share, they purchase your share, or the property sold and the moneys divided.
If you are paying all the bills, and the other half is not paying anything, we can sue for the debt, and you may be able to purchase their half very cheaply at auction. Our experience shows that as soon as the other party realises that we can indeed force the issue using the courts, they tend to agree to settle the case, very often in favourable conditions to our clients.
Typical scenario: A couple purchases a property in Spain in joint names. The relationship deteriorates. The economically weak partner will wish to sell and the other party claims that he/she will only pay a ridiculously low amount for the other half, and that he will not accept any different.
The necessity of money sometimes leads the weak partner to accept an unreasonable settlement due to the urgency for money. Please note also that even if one partner put in all the money what matters is what the title deed of purchase says.

DEPOSITS BACK ON OFF PLAN PURCHASES

IF THE DEVELOPER IS IN BREACH OF CONTRACT (does not complete on time, has problems with building licenses or license of first occupation, has built a property not in accordance with what was offered to you originally etc ) YOU CAN CLAIM YOUR MONEY BACK. The sooner the better, as it important to act before the builders assets disappear.
IF THE BUILDER HAS BREACHED THE SALES CONTRACT , AND YOU HAVE BANK GUARANTEES OR HE HAS ASSETS THIS IS A GOOD CASE.
We will look at your case and decide if it is worth it for you or not. We can not guarantee a result, but we will do our best for you. We will be realistic about your possibilities and will not push you into initiating a case if we do not think it is worth if for you . We DO charge for initial consultation on these matters.
Our fee for a one to two hour consultation to discuss claiming back your deposits on an OFF PLAN is 150 euros. If we consider your case is good, we will prepare a budget in writing (in general we charge in accordance with the guideline of recommended fees established by the law society). At that point their is no obligation to hire us , and is you wish to request a second opinion on your case , we have no problem and will be very happy to discuss with you any contradictory advice that you receive when requesting that second opinion.
If after our first meeting and receiving our budget you wish to have a further meeting to discuss any second opinion you may have requested, any points discussed at the first meeting or the budget, we will be happy to organise this for you. (their is NO CHARGE for this second meeting).

IMPORTANT POINTS TO CONSIDER WITH LITIGATION:START CLAIMING AS SOON AS POSSIBLE (TODAY).

(face the situation as soon as possible. Sit down with us and make a decision. It the decision is to claim the sooner the better).