Inheriting a flat between several siblings in Sueca: how to organise and sell well

Inheriting a flat among several is one of the situations that creates most blockages in the Sueca and Valencia property market. Each year we see cases where a flat sits closed for years because siblings can’t agree. Other times everything goes well and it closes in six months without surprises.

The difference, almost always, lies in how the heirs organise themselves at the start.

The starting point: accepting the inheritance

Before doing anything with the flat, three legal steps:

1. Death certificate and Last Will Registry: indicates whether there’s a will.
2. Accepting the inheritance before notary: with or without a will, in public deed.
3. Settlement of Inheritance Tax and Municipal Capital Gains: 6 months from death, extendable by 6 more.

Until the inheritance is accepted and registered in heirs’ names, the flat cannot be sold. A frequent mistake is trying to sign deposit contracts before everything is formalised.

Legal regime of the inherited flat: shared ownership

If the inheritance doesn’t allocate the flat to one person, all heirs are co-owners in pro indivís. Each has a percentage share (50% if two siblings, 33.3% if three, etc.).

Three practical implications:

• To sell the whole flat, unanimity is required.
• To let it, civil regime requires majority (better unanimity to avoid conflicts).
• Any heir can sell their share to a third party without others’ permission (but the buyer only owns that share, not the whole flat — rarely interesting).

The three real options with an inherited flat

An honest conversation between heirs at the start saves many months of tension. Three options:

Option 1 — Sell collectively

The most common. Sold to a third party, proceeds split by share. Works well if all align on price and timing.

Option 2 — One sibling keeps the flat

Done via extinction of co-ownership: one sibling buys out the others. Important tax advantage: taxed as AJD (1.5% in Valencia), not as Transfer (10%). In Sueca, this option is regularly used when one local sibling wants to keep the house and others living elsewhere prefer cash.

Option 3 — Let and keep the property

Works if heirs align in keeping it as investment. Income split by share, expenses too. Problem: hard to maintain agreement long-term (one needs cash, another doesn’t want to let, etc.).

Specific tax in the Valencian Community

On inheriting

• Inheritance Tax: 99% allowance for direct descendants, spouses and ascendants. Typical: very little paid.
• Municipal capital gains: depends on cadastral land value and years since last transfer. For an average Sueca home: €200-2,000.

When later selling

• Income Tax on capital gain: 19-26% by bracket, on the difference between sale price and inheritance-declared value (adjusted for expenses and improvements).
• Municipal capital gains: paid by seller (or each heir for their share).

Important tax trick: the value declared in the inheritance is the base for future Income Tax. Declaring it too low “to pay less inheritance” backfires when selling, because the gain will be higher. A realistic and documented value is best.

Typical mistakes with several siblings

1. Not discussing until the last moment. When a real buyer makes an offer, discovering one sibling won’t sell is the worst possible situation.
2. Assuming everyone shares the same goal. One needs the money, another sees it as inalienable family heritage, another lives away and wants to close fast.
3. Making decisions without prior tax advice. The options (sell vs extinction vs let) have very different tax costs.
4. Not signing written agreements. If siblings talk but don’t document, in six months they can change their mind.

Practical recommendation

Before doing anything with the inherited flat:

1. Heirs meet and put on the table what each wants.
2. Get an honest valuation (free).
3. Get a comparative tax analysis: sell now vs extinction vs let.
4. Document the agreement reached, even informally.

At INSA we accompany several inheritances between siblings each year in Sueca and comarca. The human side is sometimes more complicated than the property side. What’s clear: talking early with data on the table avoids 90% of blockages.