A relative passes away in Sydney, Melbourne or Perth, and among what they leave behind is a flat on the Costa Blanca or an account opened years ago at a Spanish bank. The heirs, settled in Australia, find that the Spanish notary asks for a document that has a very specific name in their country, and a legalisation process with one feature worth knowing from the start.
This guide explains what proves an Australian executor's authority, what documents the Spanish notary will ask for, and why the apostille, here, always goes through the same place regardless of which state handled the estate.
Proving who's authorised: the Grant of Probate
When someone dies in Australia holding assets in their name, the estate goes through the Supreme Court of the state or territory where they resided — New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory or the Australian Capital Territory. The court validates the will (or applies the rules for intestate succession) and issues the Grant of Probate: the document that formally recognises the will as valid and confirms the executor's authority to gather the estate, sell property and deal with banks, insurers and superannuation funds.
Without that Grant, no Australian institution releases significant assets to the executor — and a Spanish notary won't either. It's the document the Spanish notary relies on to accept the estate: the will alone isn't enough, Spain needs to see that an Australian court has confirmed the executor's powers.
The Australian documents the Spanish notary will ask for
For an estate touching Spain, the notarial file usually needs:
- The will, or proof of intestate succession.
- The Grant of Probate (or Letters of Administration, if there's no will), proving the executor's authority.
- The death certificate, issued by the relevant state's Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
- Where applicable, any court order or inventory affecting the Spanish assets.
The apostille: a single authority, regardless of the state
Here's the feature that simplifies the process compared with other countries of similar structure. In Canada or the United States, which body apostilles a document depends on the province or state that issued it. Not in Australia: the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is the country's only apostilling authority, whether the Grant of Probate was issued by the Supreme Court of New South Wales or the one in Western Australia. Within Australia, this is handled at DFAT passport offices in each capital; if the executor already lives abroad, at the relevant Australian embassy or consulate.
There's no need to track down a different body for each piece of the file — everything goes through DFAT.
Apostille and sworn translation: two separate requirements
The apostille certifies that the Australian document is authentic; the sworn translation makes it usable before the Spanish notary and land registry. They're cumulative — an apostilled but untranslated document gets rejected, and vice versa — and the order matters: apostille first, translation second, because the apostille itself also gets translated.
It has to be a sworn translation signed by a translator accredited by the MAEC. A certified translation done in Australia, even by a NAATI-accredited translator, has no value before the Spanish administration.
What doesn't apply: the European Certificate of Succession
Heirs coming from an EU country can sometimes use the European Certificate of Succession (EU Regulation 650/2012) to prove their status in member states. This isn't available for an Australian estate: Australia isn't an EU member state and the certificate is a purely intra-EU instrument. The Australian Grant of Probate is what serves the equivalent function here.
That said, which law actually governs the estate and how it's taxed in Spain is a substantive question that depends on the deceased's habitual residence and where the assets are located. That's a matter for a Spanish notary or lawyer; treat this guide as a map of the paperwork, not legal or tax advice.
The same logic applies to inheritances from other common-law countries: see our sister guides on inheriting from Canada, American estates with assets in Spain and British estates with assets in Spain.
→ Request my sworn translation
At Textualia we translate the Australian succession file — will, Grant of Probate, death certificate — from English into Spanish, signed by a translator accredited by the MAEC. We review the file before starting: if a document arrives without an apostille, we tell you before the clock starts running.