Renouncing an inheritance in Spain: why fifty-five thousand people a year say no, and how to do it right

A British widow in Corralejo learns that the flat her husband left her carries a mortgage, a personal loan and two years of unpaid community fees. A German engineer in Costa Adeje receives a letter from a notary: he has thirty days to say whether he accepts or refuses his father's estate in Spain. A Dutch couple discover that the aunt who named them in her will had guaranteed a nephew's business loan. Every year more than fifty-five thousand renunciations are signed before Spanish notaries in answer to situations like these, and most of the people signing do it without knowing that there was a third way, that the timing changes the tax, or that the children they meant to protect may not inherit at all. This piece sets out the numbers, the three choices the Civil Code gives an heir, how a renunciation is actually done — including from abroad — and the traps we see most often in the islands. Quotations are in Spanish with the reading in English.

Why fifty-five thousand people a year say no

The figures come from the notaries themselves, because in Spain a renunciation is a deed and the Consejo General del Notariado counts them. In 2007 there were 11,047; in 2012, 23,228; in 2015, 37,625; since 2021 the figure has stayed around 55,000 a year, and 2025 closed at 55,789. For 2023 the Notariado's data put the total at 56,108 against 354,255 inheritances processed — roughly one in six. The most populated regions lead in absolute numbers: Andalusia (10,692 in 2025), Catalonia (9,719), Madrid (5,886) and Valencia (5,604). In the Canary Islands the count was 2,045 in 2023, 2,123 in 2024 and 2,133 in 2025.

The reasons the notaries report are consistent: estates whose debts exceed their assets, family conflicts that make a shared estate unmanageable, and the costs of accepting — tax, notary, registry, the arrears of a property nobody wants. In the Canaries the tax is rarely the reason for close family: since September 2023 the regional rebate is 99.9 % of the inheritance-tax bill for spouses, descendants and ascendants and for the group-III relatives — siblings, nephews and nieces, uncles and aunts — and it extends to life-insurance sums added to the heir's share (Decreto Legislativo 1/2009, art. 24 ter). Our guide to inheritance in the Canary Islands explains the tax; this piece is about the decision that comes before it. One more number frames everything below: in 2025 only 1,811 people in the whole of Spain accepted an inheritance with the benefit of inventory — the tool that would have let many of the 55,789 keep what was worth keeping.

Three doors, not two

The Civil Code gives the person called to an inheritance three choices, and it insists that each is voluntary: «La aceptación y repudiación de la herencia son actos enteramente voluntarios y libres» — acceptance and repudiation are entirely voluntary and free acts (art. 988). You may accept purely and simply, accept with the benefit of inventory, or repudiate (art. 998).

The pure acceptance is the door most people walk through without noticing, and it is the dangerous one: «quedará el heredero responsable de todas las cargas de la herencia, no sólo con los bienes de ésta, sino también con los suyos propios» — the heir becomes liable for all the charges of the estate, not only with its assets but with their own (art. 1003). The benefit of inventory keeps the two estates apart: the heir pays the debts «hasta donde alcancen los bienes de la misma» — only up to the value of the estate's assets — keeps any claim they had against the deceased, and «no se confunden para ningún efecto, en daño del heredero, sus bienes particulares con los que pertenezcan a la herencia» — their own property is never merged with the estate's to their detriment (art. 1023). The renunciation closes the door entirely.

Three rules apply to all three choices. Whatever you choose takes effect from the death, not from the day you sign (art. 989). You cannot choose in part, for a term or on condition (art. 990) — you cannot keep the house and refuse the loan. And once made, the choice is irrevocable except for a defect of consent or the appearance of an unknown will (art. 997). Nor can you choose early: nobody may accept or repudiate «sin estar cierto de la muerte de la persona a quien haya de heredar y de su derecho a la herencia» — without being certain of the death and of their own right to inherit (art. 991), which in practice means the death certificate, the certificate of last wills and the will itself or the declaration of heirs.

How a renunciation is done: the notary, the timing, the cost

Since the Ley 15/2015 of 2 July the form is single and public: «La repudiación de la herencia deberá hacerse ante Notario en instrumento público» — the repudiation must be made before a notary in a public instrument (art. 1008). A letter to the other heirs, an e-mail to the bank, a signature on a private document — none of them is a renunciation. The notary will ask for the death certificate, the certificate of last wills, an authorised copy of the will or of the declaration of heirs, and your identity document; the deed is short and, in practice, the fee is modest — a few dozen euros to something over a hundred depending on copies and the notary.

There is no general deadline to decide, and there are two clocks that matter. Nothing can be demanded of you in the first days: «Hasta pasados nueve días después de la muerte … no podrá intentarse acción contra el heredero para que acepte o repudie» — until nine days after the death no action may be brought against the heir to make them accept or repudiate (art. 1004). After that, anyone with an interest — a creditor of the estate, a co-heir who wants to move on — can go to a notary, and the notary will notify you «que tiene un plazo de treinta días naturales para aceptar pura o simplemente, o a beneficio de inventario, o repudiar la herencia», with the warning that «si no manifestare su voluntad en dicho plazo se entenderá aceptada la herencia pura y simplemente» — thirty calendar days to accept purely, accept with the benefit of inventory or repudiate, failing which the inheritance is deemed accepted purely and simply (art. 1005). That notarial notice is the letter the engineer in Costa Adeje received, and silence is the worst possible answer to it. The second clock is fiscal and we come to it below: six months.

Each heir decides alone. When several are called, «podrán los unos aceptarla y los otros repudiarla», and each is equally free to accept purely or with the benefit of inventory (art. 1007). A brother's acceptance does not bind a sister, and a sister's renunciation does not free a brother.

Renouncing from abroad: the consulate, the power of attorney and the EU Regulation

Most of the people who renounce a Canary estate in our office do not live in Spain, and the form still has to be a Spanish public instrument. There are three routes. The Spanish consulates exercise notarial functions abroad, and the Civil Code names them expressly for the parallel declaration of the benefit of inventory: the heir who is «en país extranjero» may make it «ante el Agente diplomático o consular de España que esté habilitado para ejercer las funciones de Notario en el lugar del otorgamiento» — before the Spanish diplomatic or consular agent authorised to act as notary where the deed is signed (art. 1012). The second route is a power of attorney granted to someone in Spain — a relative, a lawyer — with the power to renounce stated expressly, because a general mandate «no comprende más que los actos de administración» and acts of strict ownership need an express one (art. 1713); our colleagues on Fuerteventura explain how a power of attorney is granted from abroad for Spanish property, and the same deed serves here.

The third route exists only for heirs living in another EU member state. The Succession Regulation (EU) 650/2012 lets an heir make «declarations concerning the acceptance or waiver of the succession» before the courts of the member state of their habitual residence, in the form that state provides (art. 13 and recital 32), and a waiver is valid as to form if it meets either the law governing the succession or the law of the state where the heir lives (art. 28). The Court of Justice confirmed it in 2022 in a case about two heirs in the Netherlands refusing an estate in Germany: a waiver made before the court of the heir's habitual residence «is regarded as valid as to form in the case where the formal requirements applicable before that court have been complied with, without it being necessary … for that declaration to meet the formal requirements of the law applicable to the succession» (C-617/20, 2 June 2022). The same judgment adds the practical duty: it is for the person who renounced to take the steps needed so that the court ruling on the succession becomes aware of a valid declaration. In a Spanish estate that role usually falls to a notary, not a court, and the declaration made abroad has to reach them translated and apostilled. For a British heir the Regulation's court route is not available, and the consulate or the power of attorney is the answer.

The acts that are already an acceptance

The other way to lose the choice is to make it without meaning to. Acceptance can be tacit: «Tácita es la que se hace por actos que suponen necesariamente la voluntad de aceptar, o que no habría derecho a ejecutar sino con la cualidad de heredero» — tacit acceptance is made by acts that necessarily imply the will to accept, or that one would have no right to perform except as heir (art. 999). The same article protects the ordinary things a family does after a death: «Los actos de mera conservación o administración provisional no implican la aceptación de la herencia, si con ellos no se ha tomado el título o la cualidad de heredero» — acts of mere conservation or provisional administration do not imply acceptance, as long as you have not taken the title or capacity of heir. In practice: paying the community fees so the flat is not sued, keeping the insurance alive, emptying a fridge are conservation; renting the flat out, selling the car, moving the deceased's savings into your own account or signing as heir at the bank are acceptance.

Article 1000 then lists three things the law treats as acceptance whatever you call them. The inheritance is deemed accepted «cuando el heredero vende, dona o cede su derecho a un extraño, a todos sus coherederos o a alguno de ellos» — when the heir sells, gives or assigns their right to a stranger or to any of the co-heirs; «cuando el heredero la renuncia, aunque sea gratuitamente, a beneficio de uno o más de sus coherederos» — when the heir renounces it, even for nothing, in favour of one or more of the co-heirs; and when the heir renounces for a price in favour of all the co-heirs. Only one renunciation is a true one: the gratuitous renunciation whose beneficiaries are exactly the people to whom the share would go anyway. «Renuncio a favor de mi hermana» is not a renunciation; it is an acceptance followed by a gift, with the two taxes that follow.

Two more rules bite the careless. Heirs «que hayan sustraído u ocultado algunos efectos de la herencia pierden la facultad de renunciarla» — heirs who have taken or hidden assets of the estate lose the power to renounce it and become pure heirs, whatever the criminal consequences (art. 1002). And a renunciation made to defeat your own creditors can be undone by them: «podrán éstos pedir al Juez que los autorice para aceptarla en nombre de aquél» — they may ask the court to authorise them to accept in the renouncer's name, for the amount of their claims only, the surplus going to whoever the Code calls next (art. 1001). A person in an insolvency process, or about to be, should read our piece on the second chance and debt relief in Spain before signing anything at a notary's.

Who inherits when you say no

This is where the intention «I renounce so that my children get it» most often fails. The renouncer transmits nothing: «el que renuncia a la herencia no transmiten ningún derecho a sus herederos» (art. 766). What happens next depends on whether there is a will.

Without a will, the share of the person who refuses «acrecerá siempre a los coherederos» — always accrues to the co-heirs of the same degree (arts. 922 and 981). If a father dies intestate leaving three children and one of them renounces, the two others take everything; the renouncer's own children receive nothing, because «no podrá representarse a una persona viva sino en los casos de desheredación o incapacidad» — a living person cannot be represented except in cases of disinheritance or incapacity (art. 929). Only when all the relatives of the nearest degree refuse does the next degree inherit, «por su propio derecho y sin que puedan representar al repudiante» — in their own right and not as representatives of the person who refused (art. 923). At the end of the chain stands the State (art. 956): by the figures reported in 2026, thirteen estates reached it in 2025.

With a will, the will decides. Spanish wills routinely contain a substitution clause — the testator may name substitutes for the heir «para el caso en que mueran antes que él, o no quieran, o no puedan aceptar la herencia» (art. 774) — and where the clause exists, the renouncer's descendants take the share as substitutes. Where it does not, the share accrues to the co-heirs named jointly without designated portions (art. 982), and where neither applies the intestate rules open for that share (art. 912.3.º). Reading the will before renouncing is not a formality; it tells you who receives what you refuse, and whether those people are minors.

Minors and adults under support measures change the mechanics. Parents «deberán recabar autorización judicial para repudiar la herencia o legado deferidos al hijo» — must obtain judicial authorisation to repudiate an inheritance or legacy left to a child; if the court refuses, «la herencia sólo podrá ser aceptada a beneficio de inventario» (art. 166). A curator with powers of representation needs the same authorisation to accept without the benefit of inventory or to repudiate (art. 287.5.º). So the grandparent's insolvent estate, renounced by the children, may land on the grandchildren under a substitution clause, and the grandchildren's parents will then be asking a court for permission to refuse it in turn.

The tax: renouncing costs nothing, unless you do it the wrong way or too late

Inheritance tax is due on «la adquisición de bienes y derechos por herencia» (Ley 29/1987, art. 3), it accrues on the day of death (art. 24) and the return is filed within six months of the death, extendable by another six on a request made in the first five months, with late-payment interest (Real Decreto 1629/1991, arts. 67 and 68). A person who renounces acquires nothing and pays nothing on the estate. The tax follows the assets to whoever takes them, with one anti-avoidance rule:

«En la repudiación o renuncia pura, simple y gratuita de la herencia o legado, los beneficiarios de la misma tributarán por la adquisición de la parte repudiada o renunciada, aplicando siempre el coeficiente que corresponda a la cuantía de su patrimonio preexistente. En cuanto al parentesco con el causante, se tendrá en cuenta el del renunciante o el del que repudia cuando tenga señalado uno superior al que correspondería al beneficiario» — in a pure, simple and gratuitous repudiation or renunciation, the beneficiaries are taxed on the renounced share, always with the coefficient of their own pre-existing wealth and, as to kinship, with the renouncer's coefficient whenever it is higher than their own (art. 28.1).

A renunciation can therefore never lower the bill below what the person first called would have paid. Two more paragraphs of the same article are the traps. «En los demás casos de renuncia en favor de persona determinada, se exigirá el impuesto al renunciante, sin perjuicio de lo que deba liquidarse, además, por la cesión o donación de la parte renunciada» — in every other case of renunciation in favour of a named person, the tax is charged to the renouncer, and gift or transfer tax is charged on top for the assignment (art. 28.2): the «renuncio a favor de» of the previous section, taxed twice. And «la repudiación o renuncia hecha después de prescrito el impuesto … se reputará a efectos fiscales como donación» — a renunciation made after the tax on the inheritance has prescribed is treated, for tax purposes, as a gift (art. 28.3). The tax prescribes four years after the day the six-month filing window closed (Ley 58/2003, arts. 66 and 67), so an estate left unsettled for four and a half years can no longer be renounced cleanly: whoever refuses it then is treated as having inherited and given it away.

The practical rule follows. If you intend to renounce, do it inside the six months, so that the people who take the share can file their own return in time; and if you are not sure yet, ask for the extension within the first five months rather than let the window close. Whether filing a return before deciding counts as an acceptance is a question the courts have answered mostly in the heir's favour — in practice they have treated paying a tax as a legal duty rather than an act of acceptance — but it is not a risk worth running: the deed of renunciation comes first, the tax paperwork second.

What a renunciation does not take from you

Refusing the estate does not refuse everything that arrives with a death, and the distinction matters most to widows and widowers.

• Life insurance. The sum insured belongs to the beneficiary by contract, not by succession. The Ley 50/1980 says it twice: «Los beneficiarios que sean herederos conservarán dicha condición aunque renuncien a la herencia» — beneficiaries who are heirs keep that status even if they renounce the inheritance (art. 85) — and the insurer must pay the beneficiary «aun contra las reclamaciones de los herederos legítimos y acreedores de cualquier clase del tomador del seguro» — even against the claims of the policyholder's heirs and creditors of any kind (art. 88). The exception is the policy with no beneficiary named: then the capital «formará parte del patrimonio del tomador» (art. 84) and it is inheritance like everything else. Insurance sums are still subject to inheritance tax in their own right (Ley 29/1987, art. 3.1.c) and to the same six-month return, with the Canary rebate for close family.
• The survivor's pension. It is a Social Security benefit paid to the surviving spouse or registered partner on the deceased's contributions; it is not part of the estate and a renunciation does not touch it.
• Your own half. For a couple married under the community-property regime, the survivor's half of the gananciales is theirs before any inheritance is opened; only the deceased's half is estate. A spouse who renounces keeps their half of the home, and can renounce the inheritance without renouncing the liquidation of the marriage.
• Nothing you guaranteed personally. A renunciation frees you from the deceased's debts as heir. It does not free you from a loan you co-signed or guaranteed while they were alive, which was always your own.

The middle road: the benefit of inventory, and why almost nobody uses it

Between accepting everything and refusing everything sits the option the Code lets every heir take «aunque el testador se lo haya prohibido» — even if the testator forbade it (art. 1010). The declaration is made before a notary (art. 1011), or before the consulate abroad (art. 1012), and it is worthless without «un inventario fiel y exacto de todos los bienes de la herencia» — a faithful and exact inventory of all the assets, made in the form and within the periods the Code sets (art. 1013). The periods are short. An heir who already holds the estate or part of it must ask the notary for the inventory «en el plazo de treinta días a contar desde aquél en que supiere ser tal heredero», with creditors and legatees summoned to attend (art. 1014); an heir who holds nothing counts the thirty days from the day after the thirty-day notice of article 1005 expires, or from the day they accept or act as heir (art. 1015); otherwise the option stays open while the action to claim the inheritance is not prescribed (art. 1016). The inventory «se principiará dentro de los treinta días siguientes a la citación … y concluirá dentro de otros sesenta», and the notary may extend it for cause up to one year (art. 1017). Miss the periods through fault or negligence and «se entenderá que acepta la herencia pura y simplemente» (art. 1018); knowingly leave an asset out, or sell estate assets before the debts are paid without the consent of everyone concerned, and the benefit is lost (art. 1024). Once creditors and legatees are paid, «quedará el heredero en el pleno goce del remanente» — the heir enjoys the remainder in full (art. 1032).

The same article 1010 gives a quieter option: the right to deliberate, an inventory before deciding, after which the heir has thirty days to accept, accept with the benefit or refuse (art. 1019). For an estate with a house, a mortgage and an unknown number of loans — the Corralejo widow's — this is usually the right tool: the inventory reveals whether anything is left, and the decision is taken on facts. That 1,811 people used the benefit in 2025 against 55,789 who renounced says less about the estates than about the advice they received.

What we do before you sign

We obtain the certificates and the will, list what the estate owns and owes — including the mortgage balance, the community arrears through the debt certificate and the bank's position — and tell you which of the three doors fits, with the deadlines on a calendar. Where the answer is a renunciation we draft the deed so that it is pure and simple, check who receives the share and whether they are minors, and place it inside the six months; where the answer is the benefit of inventory we run the notarial inventory to the day. For heirs abroad we prepare the power of attorney or the consular deed, and for heirs in another EU state we advise on the Regulation's route. Our inheritance lawyers in Costa Adeje and Corralejo handle the whole succession afterwards, our Spanish wills page explains how a will with a substitution clause and a choice of law avoids most of what this piece describes, and a first conversation starts from the contact page.

Common questions

Can I renounce the debts and keep the house?

No. Acceptance and repudiation cannot be made in part, for a term or on condition (Civil Code, art. 990); you take the estate whole or not at all. The tool for an estate with a valuable house and uncertain debts is the acceptance with the benefit of inventory: the debts are paid out of the estate's assets only, your own property is never touched, and what remains after the creditors is yours (arts. 1023 and 1032). It has to be declared before a notary and followed by a notarial inventory within the periods of articles 1014 to 1017.

Is there a deadline to renounce?

There is no general deadline, but there are two clocks. Any interested person may, from the tenth day after the death, have a notary notify you that you have thirty calendar days to accept or repudiate, and silence counts as a pure acceptance (arts. 1004 and 1005). And the inheritance-tax return is due within six months of the death, extendable by six more on a request made in the first five months (Real Decreto 1629/1991, arts. 67 and 68); a renunciation made after the tax has prescribed — four years after that window closes — is treated as a gift for tax purposes (Ley 29/1987, art. 28.3).

If I renounce, do my children inherit my share?

Not automatically. Without a will, your share accrues to the co-heirs of your own degree and your children do not represent you while you are alive (arts. 922, 929 and 981); only if every relative of that degree refuses does the next degree inherit in its own right (art. 923). With a will, a substitution clause sends your share to your descendants (art. 774) — and if they are minors, their other parent will need judicial authorisation to refuse it for them (art. 166). A renunciation «in favour of» your children is an acceptance followed by a gift, taxed twice (art. 1000 and Ley 29/1987, art. 28.2).

I live in the United Kingdom or Germany. Can I renounce without travelling to Spain?

Yes. A Spanish consulate can authorise the deed, or you can grant a power of attorney with an express power to renounce to someone in Spain. An heir habitually resident in another EU member state may also make the declaration before the courts of that state in its own form, which the Regulation (EU) 650/2012 and the Court of Justice (C-617/20, 2 June 2022) recognise as valid — the declaration then has to reach the Spanish notary settling the estate, translated and apostilled. A private letter or an e-mail is never a renunciation (art. 1008).

Do I lose my husband's life insurance if I renounce his estate?

No. Beneficiaries who are heirs keep the insurance even if they renounce the inheritance (Ley 50/1980, art. 85), and the insurer must pay them even against the estate's creditors (art. 88). Only a policy with no named beneficiary falls into the estate (art. 84). The survivor's pension and your own half of the community property are not part of the estate either.

This article is general information about the acceptance and repudiation of inheritances under the Spanish Civil Code as it stood on the date of publication, verified against the consolidated texts of the Civil Code, the Ley 29/1987 and its regulation, the Ley 58/2003, the Ley 50/1980, the Canary Decreto Legislativo 1/2009, the Regulation (EU) 650/2012 and the judgment cited, and against the Consejo General del Notariado's figures as published in 2026. It is not advice on your situation: the will, the debts and where the heirs live change the answer, and the statistics are revised as the Notariado publishes new quarters.