A Spanish lawyer has warned against splitting inheritance equally among children or relatives.
Antonio Martinez, from Martinez Lafuente Abogados, said this week that blindly leaving everything to share between your loved ones can cause ‘chaos’.
From siblings arguing over a beach house to full-blown legal battles over cutlery, Martinez told Infobae that he has seen firsthand how unplanned inheritances can tear families apart.
According to Martinez, the most common mistake people make when writing a will is assuming equal shares means equal peace.
‘The best way to avoid conflict is to assign specific assets to each heir,’ he said.
‘Dividing everything into equal parts often means they’re forced to share homes or properties, and that’s where the fighting begins.’
The idea may seem simple, but it can prevent years of resentment and costly court disputes.
‘Siblings will lose all perspective and argue over anything, even a set of forks,’ he warned.
The ‘heir who won’t leave’
One situation Martinez calls ‘classic and always disastrous’ is the inherited family home left jointly to multiple children, especially when one of them is already living in it.
‘You end up with what we call the heredero okupa (squatter heir) – the heir who stays in the house and won’t budge,’ he explained.
‘Meanwhile, the others want to sell or divide the property. It almost always ends in court.’
The best-case scenario is that the resident heir buys the house from the others. If not, a judicial eviction is often the only path left.
Martinez added: ‘The longer the family waits, the worse it gets. If the person has been paying property taxes or has kids living there, removing them becomes much harder – legally and emotionally.’
With Spain’s property prices climbing and many families asset-rich but cash-poor, Martinez said donating a home in life is becoming increasingly common, but warned it has to be done carefully.
‘When parents give their main residence to a child but retain the right to live in it, the tax cost is very low,’ he said, ‘That’s why many opt to donate the nuda propiedad while keeping usufructo.’
However, this only makes sense with a primary residence. Donating second homes can be far more expensive than inheriting them due to income and municipal taxes.
‘For second properties, it’s almost always cheaper to pass them on through a will rather than a donation,’ he said.
