Who inherits without a will in Spain?

Under the Civil Code the spouse holds a usufruct, a right of use, over one third of the estate, and the children inherit the ownership. The children's reserved share is two thirds, within which the spouse takes the usufruct of one of the two thirds.

With ascendants (parents or grandparents) the spouse holds the usufruct of one half. With no descendants and no ascendants the spouse ranks third and inherits the estate.

Descendants; then ascendants; then, after the spouse, the siblings and their children; then relatives up to the fourth degree; then the state.

The official fact sheet does not describe unmarried partners. In several regions a registered or stable partner has rights by regional law, so the answer depends on where the person lived.

Children and descendants reserve two thirds of the estate, leaving one third free. Ascendants reserve half, or a third if there is a spouse.

In this EU country the Succession Regulation applies to people who die after 16 August 2015: the whole estate is generally governed by the law of the country where the person had their habitual residence at death, unless they chose the law of their nationality in a will. A foreigner living here, or a citizen living abroad, can therefore be governed by a different law than the one described on this page.

• Aragon, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Navarre, the Basque Country and Galicia have their own civil laws, which can differ a great deal from the Civil Code.

Spain belongs to the Civil law family. Succession law grows out of the legal tradition, so it helps to know how the system works.

Read the Spain legal-system profile in the Legal Families Atlas →
Who owns what in a marriage in Spain? →

• European e-Justice Portal: succession in Spain