Irish Times warns on overseas succession

Overseas property is easy to buy and weirdly hard to pass on. That is the real point here. A holiday apartment in Spain, a rental in France, an old bank account from years abroad — all of it can pull your estate into a second legal system after you die. The Irish Times piece published on May 12 says the common assumption is wrong: one home-country will does not automatically settle everything everywhere. ### Why does foreign property break the simple plan? Because succession is not just about your will. It is also about where the asset sits, which court or registry controls it, what tax authority wants filing, and whether local law recognizes the structure you set up at home. That is why a person can have a perfectly valid Irish will and still leave their family with delays or surprises once a Spanish property is involved. (irishtimes.com) ### Doesn’t EU law fix this? It helps, but it does not magically unify everything. The big framework is the EU Succession Regulation — Regulation 650/2012. It generally points succession toward the law of the deceased’s habitual residence, while also letting a person choose the law of their nationality in a will. But that still sits alongside local procedures, registries, and tax systems. In other words, one rule may decide which law applies, while another set of rules still decides how heirs prove title and pay tax. (irishtimes.com) ### Why does Spain keep coming up? Because Spain is a classic case for Irish and British families with second homes, and it is not one clean nationwide system. Spain has national succession rules, regional civil-law differences in some territories, and regional inheritance-tax differences that can materially change the bill. So “I own a place in Spain” is not one fact. It is really several facts — where in Spain, who inherits, what documents exist, and whether the estate planning was coordinated in advance. (eur-lex.europa.eu) ### What can override the will? Beneficiary designations are one obvious example. A pension, insurance policy, or jointly held asset may pass outside the will entirely. The other issue is forced-heirship or reserved-share rules in some systems, where part of an estate must go to certain relatives. Even where a foreign owner can often elect their national law under the EU framework, that election needs to be made clearly and matched with local execution steps. (vlolawfirm.com) If the paperwork is sloppy, the family gets the mess. ### So should people write two wills? Sometimes — but only if they are coordinated. That is the catch. A local will for Spanish assets can speed administration, but a badly drafted second will can accidentally revoke the first one or create contradictions. The practical advice in the Irish Times piece is to treat the estate plan as one system: wills, beneficiary forms, ownership structure, and local legal advice all need to line up. (eur-lex.europa.eu) ### What does that mean for heirs? Mostly time, paperwork, and tax risk. Spain’s administration guidance shows heirs may need formal filings and can use a European Certificate of Succession in some cases, but that still means documents, deadlines, and cross-border coordination. Families usually discover the problem late — when they are grieving and trying to unlock a property they assumed would transfer smoothly. (irishtimes.com) ### What is the bottom line? A foreign property is not just another line in the asset list. It is a legal tripwire. If you own real estate abroad, the safe assumption is that your estate plan is international whether you meant it to be or not — and it should be checked that way before your heirs find out the hard way. (irishtimes.com) (administracion.gob.es)