04 Jun 2011 10:46 PM:
Perhaps further clarification is needed. To legally walk away, we would have to go through a process of renouncing our rights as "legitimos" before the court. Because my father was a Spanish citizen at the time of his death, had no will and was married under a regime of separation of goods (properties in his and her names are considered "privado" and not "granancial" or common to the marriage), the property goes to the "legitimos" (bloodline heirs). Without an offical act of renouncing those rights, we are responsible for taxes and maintenance of those properties.
Under these circumstances, the widow has usofructo rights. In other words, she cannot be thrown out of her home (what is assumed to be the marital home) and has the right to reside there for the rest of her life. She is under usofructo required to pay taxes/rent while enjoying the use of said property but any major maintenance repairs are the responsibilty of the owners of the property (los legitimos).
She has 3 options with her usofructo rights: exercise them (including paying rent and taxes); take the monetary value of her right after liquidating all assets; or use the monetary value of her rights and apply it against the purchase of her home. Through years of on and off-again negotiations, she indicated that she wanted to monetise her usofructo rights to buy the Madrid property. We were fine with that.
That's when she started a series of stalling tactics everytime we were ready to sign an agreement last year. Our legal choices are to continue attempts at finalizing an agreement, go to court or renounce our rights to the estate. I'm just trying to figure out what to advise our lawyer as next steps while reconciling difference of opinions among siblings.
Thread:
My Inheritance Nightmare!
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