With Victoria Wright What is probate and when is it required?

When

ROBATE is the judicial process whereby a Will is ‘proved’ in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased.ically’ your next of kin - Spanish rules run with the ‘Law of Legitim’, meaning that any direct descendants such as sons and daughters also have a first claim to the estate.

“Until now there were only four such buildings in all of Spain - two in Toledo, one in Segovia and one in Cordoba,” he said.

“This is an exceptional building that’s been part of Utrera and part of its inhabitants’ lives for 700 years.

“This building was born in the 1300s and has made it all the way to the 21st century.”

Visits

One of the key reasons for its survival was that the site was always in use for one purpose or another. The building could be opened for public visits in parallel with archaeologists continuing to excavate the site. The next phase of the project will look to see if there was a rabbi’s house nearby, or a religious school.

THE Prado Museum in Madrid is now opening its doors on a Saturday evening, as part of a new project called ‘The Prado at Night’. The public are able to visit a selection of different galleries inside the trove of artworks on the first Saturday of each month from 8.30pm to 11.30pm. The aim is to ‘connect more closely with all sectors of the public’, according to the museum. The project will also include musical events, and is being sponsored by Samsung. Entry will be free of charge from 8.30pm onward, until all of the available spaces are full. Access will end at 11pm. ‘The Prado at Night’ will run on the following dates: March 4; April 1; May 6; June 3; July 1; and August 5. The museum is the most-visited in Madrid, and racked up more than 2.4 million visitors in 2022.

If the deceased did not leave any Will, then the process of determining who the rightful inheritors are must be carried out.

In the UK your spouse is your next of kin, so on joint bank accounts and jointly owned properties then most of the time probate is not required.

However, in Spain, your spouse is NOT ‘automat-

If you want British Law to prevail over the inheritance you must first obtain a grant of probate for the estate but this can usually only be obtained if the deceased had assets in the UK at the time of passing, these were in their sole name and amounted to more than £10,000. The probate procedure can be lengthy with many forms to complete and submit.

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