How to sell an inherited house in Costa Blanca?

Six steps to sell an inherited house in Costa Blanca, from the gathering of the necessary paperwork to the closing of the sale, including all the formalities of title deeds and settling taxes.

The amount of inherited housing available for purchase has increased in the last year. This is according to the Fotocasa Research study “Analysis of inherited housing in Spain”. Specifically, 14.6% of homes for sale in 2022 came from an inheritance, while in 2021, this percentage was only 13.7%.

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Selling an inherited house in Costa Blanca, step-by-step

So, what formalities must be followed to sell an inherited property in Costa Blanca? Although in theory the sale of the inherited property can be treated like any other property sale, handling the formalities prior to the sale means that this type of transaction is not as easy to deal with as conventional sales and purchases.

Below we will explain step by step the formalities involved in selling an inherited house in Costa Blanca.

1. Gathering the necessary paperwork

In order to sell an inherited house in Costa Blanca, the first thing to do is to gather the obligatory documents to process the inheritance. By this, we are referring to:

• Death Certificate: this is usually provided by the funeral parlour itself. Otherwise, we must go to the Civil Registry Office.
• Certificate of last wills: this can be requested from the General Register of Last Wills 15 days after the decease. To request it, we must present the Death Certificate and a receipt certifying payment of the corresponding fee.
• An authorised copy of the will: if there is one.

2. Accepting the inheritance

The heirs must appear before a Notary to sign the Deed of acceptance of the inheritance. How to proceed at this point will depend on whether or not there is a will.

If there is a will

• Inventory of the deceased’s assets and liabilities: this includes details of any homes, bank account balances, vehicles, life insurance and debts of the deceased.
• Signing the Deed of partition/partition book: this contains the details of all the heirs, the inventory and the distribution of assets, as stipulated in the will.

If there is no will

If you are going to inherit a house in Costa Blanca and the deceased did not leave a will, the inheritance process can become more complicated and take a little longer. In this case, the Notary will have to determine who the heirs are according to the degree of kinship. From there, a Deed of partition will be drawn up for the heirs and the distribution of the assets in the corresponding proportion will be determined.

3. Settling taxes

The next step to sell an inherited home in Costa Blanca will be to pay the taxes corresponding to the process we are going to carry out. By this, we are referring to:

Inheritance and Gift Tax

• Inheritance and Gift Tax: this is a tax on wealth acquired by individuals through inheritance, bequests or gifts. In our post “How much will I have to pay if I inherit a home in the Valencia Region?” we explain how to calculate this tax. Likewise, we also have available the Hispania Homes Inheritance Guide where you will find answers to the most common questions about this tax.

• Municipal Capital Gains Tax: this taxes the increase in value that the property has experienced from the moment it was purchased until the present day. In our blog, you can also find interesting information on how to calculate the Municipal Capital Gains Tax in some of Costa Blanca’s most active municipalities for property transactions.

How to calculate the Municipal Capital Gains Tax in Teulada-Moraira

How to calculate the Municipal Capital Gains Tax in Jávea

How to calculate the Municipal Capital Gains Tax in Benitachell

4. Signing of the Deeds of Award

The Deeds of Award must be signed before a Notary, a procedure for which you must bring the Title Deeds of the property to be inherited. Once the Deeds of Award have been signed, we will be in a position to change the ownership of the property in the Land Registry.

5. Registering the property

Registering an inherited property in the Land Registry is not compulsory, even if you intend to proceed with a subsequent sale. However, it is a procedure that is highly recommended and valued by potential buyers interested in purchasing your property.

6. Selling the house

Once you have handled all the inheritance formalities and the property is in your name, you can list it on the market. To do this, our recommendation is that you always go to a specialised real estate agency in the area where your property is located.

Estate agents, in addition to assisting you in the handling of the necessary paperwork for the inheritance and subsequent sale, will also make use of their experience and marketing tools to help you achieve a sale in a shorter period of time and for a higher price.

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At Hispania Homes, we specialise in the management of properties in Moraira, Jávea, Benissa and Benitachell. If you have a property in one of these municipalities that you want to sell or rent or you are about to inherit a property and you would like more detailed information about the steps to follow to handle the inheritance and subsequent sale, you can contact us.