A singular judgement of the Provincial Court of La Coruña of 2 February 2021 sentenced a husband to return an inheritance bequeathed to him by his deceased wife because he had failed to comply with the condition imposed in her Will of not remarrying. Consequently, the husband was ordered to return the assets received as inheritance, declaring null and void any transfers he may have made and any registry entries.
The case in question is particularly strange since the husband had not actually remarried after his wife’s death but had cohabited with another woman for a long time, behaving socially as a couple with all the appearance of an actual marriage including sharing a home. On his second partner’s death, the defendant even described himself as her husband on her gravestone.
Consequently, the court declared the first wife’s two brothers as her heirs, annulling all the property transfers that the husband had made from the inheritance he had received from her.
It is a common occurrence that someone sells a property and a few months later receives a large bill for this tax. Sometimes, the amount of this tax is retained by the buyers and withheld for them to make the payment later, especially in those cases where the seller is a non-resident of Spain. Now, a recent Supreme Court ruling 1689/2020 of 9 December has declared this municipal tax null and void when the tax due wholly matches the increase in value of the land.
Suspension of evictions and other repossession procedures