An inheritance with no known heir?

For cases where an owner has died and succession is unclear.

Spanish wills are private notarial documents. A notary won’t hand over a copy to just anyone asking, only to someone who can show a legal interest in the estate, which is exactly the wall most families and would-be heirs hit on their own. When there’s no will at all, a declaración de herederos abintestato has to be done before a notary, who notifies the local Colegio Notarial the same day and the Registro General de Actos de Última Voluntad within the week. The notary then has to publish a public notice and wait 20 business days before the declaration can be finalized.

Spanish intestate succession law reaches surprisingly far down the family tree, out to fourth-degree relatives: great-great-grandchildren, first cousins, great-great-grandparents. That’s why most “no will” cases do have a legal heir somewhere, just one nobody has found yet. Roughly €100 million in Spanish estates goes unclaimed every year for exactly this reason. If none is ever found, or every heir renounces, the property ultimately reverts to the Spanish State. We research through civil registries, historical records, and our own network to identify and locate heirs, beneficiaries, or legitimate successors.

It works both ways: families looking for a relative’s assets, and abandoned properties nobody has claimed.