last will certificate

[Unregistered]

Hi, I live in Zaragoza Spain. My 2 sisters live in the UK. My mother recently died and we are trying to sort out her estate. She had a bank account in Begur (costa brava) access to this is complicated. We have her Will and death certificate but the bank are also asking for a “last will certificate” and a letter from a notary in which the heirs accept their inheritance.

I asked the woman at the bank if she could explain a bit more about this, but I am not much the wiser with her reply below.

“The last will certificate is a document in which appear all the wills that your mother has done. When you accept the heritage you have to go to the notary and the document of this step is what we need also.”

Can anyone here elaborate on what we need to do here bearing in mind my 2 sisters live in the UK.

Many thanks in advance
Mark

[Marta]

Hello Mark,

I am sorry to hear about the loss of your mother. Regarding your question, you would need to go to your nearest notary and request a 'certificado de ultimas voluntades'. This will state if your mother left a will in Spain and if yes, in which notary. In order to request it you will need the original death certificate. If she passed away abroad, note that it will need to be apostilled and translated into Spanish.

[Unregistered]

Thank you Marta for your response.

It's likely this is all going to get horribly complicated...
My mother has a property and another shared property in spain, we were told several years ago by her UK lawyer to have a will made in Spain for her properties in Spain. A Notary in Zaragoza made a Spanish will but he said he couldn't make a will JUST for her Spanish property. It had to be for her ENTIRE estate. So we went ahead and made a will for her. We later found out that this will made her previous will (made in the UK) invalid. So we had to make ANOTHER will in the UK and then a further will with a Spanish notary in London stipulating that it ONLY applied to her Spanish property. So I guess we will have to present all 4 of these wills, no? (if we can find the earlier ones)

My mother died in England on 8th Jan 2015. Does that mean she died "abroad"?

Thanks again