BEREAVEMENT

This month I discuss, in extremely general terms, key aspects of the Spanish bereavement process. It’s a truism but as ever the case, pays to plan ahead. Accordingly, if living in Spain it is sensible to think about and discuss your intentions with your nearest and dearest before it’s too late. Do you wish to be cremated or buried, do you want to be interned in Spain or scattered in UK etc? - simple decisions which affect the cost of one’s bereavement. As ever, I advise preparing a Spanish will for Spanish property and a UK will for UK property – it’s less stressful and less expensive. Thereafter, you may wish to discuss your wishes with a local funeral director (pompa fúnebre) as to whether you wish to be clothed in a particular way, whether you wish to be ‘laid out’, available for viewing prior to the funeral, arrangements for your funeral, which niche in the wall you wish to be interned in (prices vary) as well as the costs.

Should you wish to be returned to UK, the director will require your Spanish and UK death certificates, your passport details and will oversee you being embalmed and transported. Being buried or cremated in the UK increases the costs as embalming costs around 1,400 euros and transport between 1,000-2,500 euros. Another decision you may wish to make is whether you wish your body to be donated to medical science. If so, you need to contact your local hospital or doctor, complete the necessary forms and be duly registered. Similarly, should you find yourself in a vegetative state and wish the doctors to turn the machine off, you need to have previously registered with the Junta in Seville.

If you die in hospital, the hospital will oversee the general administrative process. The doctor will prepare a death certificate which needs to be formally issued by a Judge. If you die at home, the Municipal Police needs to be contacted, and who will contact a doctor and Forensic Judge (Juez Forense). Again, whereas the former signs the death certificate, the latter issues it and authorises the removal of the body. If the Judge or doctor doubts the cause of death, an autopsy will be ordered.

In order to oversee the tying up of loose ends, copies of one’s death certificate need be obtained from the Civil Registry. Generally speaking about ten or so copies suffice. For example, the Registry in Madrid requires one to search for one’s last will; the Department of Work and Pensions needs one if you received a state pension; the Paymaster General needs one if you received payment from the State or a UK company pension; the Inland Revenue, if you paid UK tax; the Probate Office, if you had a UK Will or owned UK property or assets; each bank with which you held an account, joint or otherwise, requires one; any insurance company with which you held a life policy and; your next of kin. Equally, although only obligatory to inform the UK Consul of death if intent on being returned to UK, I advise that it makes for tidier all-round management as if so informed, one’s death is formally registered and a UK death certificate can then be issued.

Myles Jackson is a bi-lingual, English lawyer who works for the Spanish law firm, Recursos y Gestión Quatro SL. Call Myles on 958 958 077 or write to him at mylesjackson@granadalaw.com.