What does a widow or widower inherit in Catalonia?

Without a will

• If the deceased had children or grandchildren, the surviving spouse has the usufruct of the whole estate, without having to provide any security. The children are the owners, but the surviving spouse lives in the house and collects the rents and the interest. The surviving spouse does not lose the usufruct even if they remarry or live with someone else.
• Within a year of the death, the surviving spouse can exchange that usufruct for outright ownership of a quarter of the estate plus the usufruct of the family home. The heirs choose whether to pay that quarter in assets or in money. If the surviving spouse has expressly accepted the usufruct of everything before then, it can no longer be exchanged.
• If there were no children or grandchildren, the surviving spouse inherits everything. The deceased's parents can claim from the surviving spouse their forced share, a quarter of the value of the estate.
• The surviving spouse inherits nothing if the couple were separated, even if only de facto, or if a claim for separation, divorce or annulment was pending, unless they had reconciled.

This applies if the estate is governed by Catalan law, although in the case of the surviving spouse the law governing the marriage also counts. Under the Spanish Civil Code (“Código Civil”), whether or not there is a will, the surviving spouse has a share of the estate in usufruct. It is a third if there are children or grandchildren, half if there are parents or grandparents and two thirds if there are none of these. Without a will and without those relatives, the surviving spouse inherits everything. An unmarried partner does not inherit without a will.

With a will

The surviving spouse receives what the will leaves them, which may be the whole estate, the usufruct or a legacy. If their own assets and what they receive are not enough to meet their needs, they can claim the widow's quarter from the heirs, up to a quarter of the estate, within three years of the death.

What the surviving spouse is always entitled to

If the couple were not separated, the surviving spouse also has these rights, whether or not there is a will:

• The surviving spouse keeps the clothes, furniture and household items, without these counting towards their share of the estate. Jewellery, works of art and objects of great value are not included.
• During the year after the death, the surviving spouse can go on living in the home and be maintained at the expense of the estate, in line with the couple's standard of living. This is the year of widowhood (“año de viudedad”). The surviving spouse does not have this right if they are already the usufructuary of the whole estate and loses it if, during that year, they remarry or start living with someone else.

If the couple were married under separation of property and the surviving spouse worked for the household much more than the other, they can also claim compensation. It is only due if the deceased's assets increased more than the surviving spouse's during the marriage. And only for the part not covered by what they receive from the estate.

Under Catalan law, a partner in a “pareja estable”, a Catalan stable partnership, has the same rights as a spouse. A couple qualifies as such if they have lived together for more than two years in a row, have had a child in common or have formalised the relationship before a notary. If the deceased spent more days in Catalonia than in any other autonomous community over the last five years, both the surviving spouse and the partner are entitled to a 99 % tax credit under the “impuesto de sucesiones”, the Spanish inheritance tax, so they normally pay very little.