How to sell an inherited house in Marbella: steps, deadlines and taxes

To sell an inherited house, the heirs must be registered as owners in the Land Registry (Registro de la Propiedad). That requires, in this order: a death certificate, a certificate of last wills, the will, a notarial deed of acceptance and allocation of the estate, payment of (or exemption from) Inheritance Tax and the municipal plusvalía, and registration. The sale cannot be signed before then.

The law gives you six months from the date of death to file Inheritance Tax and the plusvalía, extendable by another six if you ask in time. That is the tax clock. The real clock is a different one, and almost always longer. A breakdown of each step follows.

Which documents do you need to sell an inherited house?

Four documents are needed before the inheritance deed: a death certificate, a certificate of last wills, an authorised copy of the most recent will and, if there is no will, a declaration of heirs. The deed before a notary comes after that.

• Death certificate. Requested from the Civil Registry. It is issued immediately.
• Certificate of last wills. Requested from the Ministry of Justice, and it cannot be requested until fifteen working days after the death. It shows whether a will exists and before which notary the latest one was signed.
• Authorised copy of the will. Issued by the notary’s office where the will is held.
• Declaration of heirs on intestacy (abintestato). If there is no will, it is processed before a notary. It takes longer and requires proof of kinship through documents.
• Deed of acceptance and allocation of the estate. Signed by all the heirs before a notary. This is where the assets are divided and the value of the house is fixed, which matters later for tax.

For the deed you will also need the nota simple (the extract from the Land Registry), the latest IBI receipt (the local property tax) and, if the house has a mortgage, the outstanding balance.

Can you put the house on the market before the inheritance is registered?

You can start marketing it, but you cannot sign the sale until the heirs appear as owners in the Registry. A buyer with legal advice will not sign otherwise, and neither will their bank if there is a mortgage.

The sensible approach is to run both processes in parallel. While the estate is being settled, you can have the house valued, prepare its paperwork and receive offers. What you must do is tell the buyer from the start, and set in the deposit contract (contrato de arras) a deadline for the deed that leaves real margin. Promising a signing in two months when the Registry may take longer is the quickest way to lose a sale.

How long does it take from the death to the sale?

With the paperwork in order and the heirs in agreement, the process is measured in months, not weeks. Each step has its own timeframe, and the one that stretches most is almost always the one that depends on third parties: the Registry, an heir abroad or a disagreement.

Step	Legal or reference timeframe	What lengthens it
Certificate of last wills	Can be requested from 15 working days after the death	Deceased with wills in several countries
Authorised copy of the will	No legal deadline; days or a few weeks	Notary’s office in another city or country
Deed of acceptance and allocation	No legal deadline; weeks	Scattered heirs, signing by power of attorney, foreign documents
Inheritance Tax and plusvalía	6 months from the date of death, extendable by another 6 (the extension must be requested before the 5th month has passed)	Valuation of the house, disagreements with the tax authority
Registration in the Land Registry	Legal assessment period of 15 working days; in practice, longer if anything needs correcting	Defects in the documentation, which restart the clock
Sale, from deposit contract to deed	Whatever is agreed in the deposit contract	Buyer’s mortgage, cancellation of charges

Where it all usually stalls: in disagreements between heirs and in documents that come from outside Spain, not in the tax filing.

Which taxes do you pay when you inherit the house?

When you inherit you pay two taxes: Inheritance Tax (Impuesto de Sucesiones), which falls on the heir, and the municipal plusvalía, which taxes the transfer of the land. In Andalucía the first is close to zero for children, spouses, parents and grandchildren; for other heirs, it is not.

Inheritance Tax. Andalucía grants a 99% reduction on the tax due for groups I and II (descendants, spouse and ascendants). For siblings, nephews and nieces, uncles and aunts, and non-relatives there is no such reduction, and the national scale applies, running from 7.65% to 34%, multiplied by coefficients depending on kinship and the heir’s existing wealth. If you are the deceased’s brother or sister and the house is worth one million, that is not a small figure.

Even if the amount due comes out close to zero, the return must be filed. Without it, the Registry will not register the property. And which rules apply depends on where the deceased lived and where the heirs live: confirm it with a tax adviser before taking anything for granted.

Plusvalía municipal. This is the Tax on the Increase in Value of Urban Land (Impuesto sobre el Incremento de Valor de los Terrenos de Naturaleza Urbana). It is calculated on the cadastral value of the land and the number of years the deceased owned the property. Since 2021, whichever is lower of the coefficient-based calculation and the actual gain is applied. It is managed by the town hall where the house stands, and some offer reductions for inheritances between relatives. It is worth checking the town hall’s tax bylaw before counting on it.

Which taxes do you pay when you sell an inherited house?

When you sell, the heir pays IRPF (Spanish income tax) on the capital gain: the sale price minus the acquisition value, which is the value declared in the inheritance. If there is no gain, there is no tax. The municipal plusvalía is also paid again, for the period between the death and the sale.

That is why the value you put in the inheritance deed matters. An example with round numbers, for illustration only:

	Value declared in the inheritance: €900,000	Value declared in the inheritance: €600,000
Sale price	€950,000	€950,000
Gain (before expenses)	€50,000	€350,000
Approximate IRPF (savings income scale, resident)	€10,380	Over €80,000

The second column looks like a way to pay less on the inheritance, but all it achieves is to move the tax to the sale, and make it far larger. Hacienda also checks declared values against the Cadastre’s reference value. Declaring below market value does not save anything: it postpones the problem and multiplies it. A valuation as at the date of death, carried out by an accredited valuer, protects the heir at both moments.

From the gain you can deduct acquisition costs (including Inheritance Tax, if it was paid) and selling costs. The savings-income rates run from 19% to 30% depending on the band; check them with your adviser, because they change with the budget.

What if the heir lives outside Spain?

If the heir is not a tax resident, withholdings and additional formalities apply. The buyer withholds 3% of the price and pays it to the tax authority on account of the seller’s tax. The rate on the gain is 19% for residents of the EU and the EEA and 24% for everyone else, including the United Kingdom.

What consumes most time is the paperwork. A foreign will must be apostilled and accompanied by a sworn translation. If the deceased owned assets in another country, the succession may need to be settled there before the Spanish notary will accept the deed. Heirs who cannot travel sign by power of attorney, which must be granted before a notary or carry an apostille, and be reviewed by the notary who will sign the inheritance. Each of these pieces adds weeks, and all of them can be requested from day one instead of waiting for the notary to ask for them.

What happens if the heirs cannot agree?

Without unanimity, there is no sale. While the house belongs to several heirs jointly, any decision to sell requires the agreement of all of them. It is the most frequent reason an inheritance takes twice as long as planned.

The deadlocks tend to be one of three: one heir who wants to keep the house and cannot pay the others, another who wants to sell now, and another who does not reply. There are ways out:

• Purchase between heirs. One buys out the others’ shares at the valuation figure.
• Joint sale with the proceeds divided. The cleanest option if everyone accepts an independent valuation.
• Judicial division. If one refuses, any of them can ask the court to divide the co-owned property, which normally ends in an auction. It is the slowest route and the one that achieves the worst price.

If there is a usufruct, for example a widow with a lifetime usufruct and the children with the bare ownership, the usufructuary must also sign, and the buyer pays a lower price for as long as the usufruct lasts. In that case, the usual solution is for everyone to sell the full ownership together and divide the price according to the value of each right.

What should you check on the house before listing it?

Before listing it, four things should be checked: that the Registry reflects what has been built, that there are no debts, that an energy certificate exists and that the planning position is clear. If not, the buyer will find out and either lower the price or walk away.

• Registry versus reality. In houses more than thirty years old, extensions, enclosed porches or undeclared swimming pools are common. They show up in the nota simple and the Cadastre, and they are put right beforehand, not during the reservation.
• Debts. A certificate from the community of owners, IBI receipts and municipal charges up to date, and cancellation of any mortgage.
• Energy performance certificate. Mandatory to advertise and sell.
• Planning position. A house built without a licence, or partly outside the planning rules (fuera de ordenación), is sold differently and at a different price. It is better to know now.

The asking price also depends on the area more than it seems. A villa on the Golden Mile and a 1990s house in Nueva Andalucía do not have the same buyer or the same time to sell, and a house that needs a full renovation sells differently from one that is ready to move into.

When is it a bad idea to sell straight away?

Selling in a hurry is a bad idea when the haste comes from taxes or family pressure rather than from a decision made with figures. An inherited house with a low declared value, or with a renovation that could be done, usually nets more if you prepare it for a few months.

There are three cases in which we would rather you waited:

1. The declared value is low and the sale is immediate. The taxable gain comes out inflated. Review the valuation before signing the inheritance.
2. An heir wants to keep the house and can buy. A purchase between heirs with an independent valuation avoids the commissions and taxes of a sale to a third party.
3. The house is occupied or let. Selling with a tenant reduces the number of buyers and the price. If the lease ends soon, waiting usually pays off.

If, after reviewing it, selling is still the best course, the order of work is always the same: documents, inheritance, valuation, preparation, and going to market in parallel with the Registry. If you would like us to look at your case with the papers in front of us, start with the selling page. We will tell you what is missing, how long it may take and whether it makes sense to sell now or wait.