Claiming the reserved share (legítima)

What the reserved share is under Catalan law

The Catalan legítima works very differently from the Spanish common regime, and confusing the two is the most common error.

Here it is a monetary claim, not a share of ownership. The claimant is not a co-owner of the estate: they are a creditor of the heir for a given sum. This lets the heir pay in cash and keep the assets intact — particularly valuable where the estate is a business or the family home.

The amount is one quarter of the value of the estate, divided among all entitled claimants: children and their descendants, or failing them, the parents.

How it is calculated

Start with the value of the assets at death, deduct debts and the costs of final illness and burial, then add back the value of gifts made by the deceased in the ten years before death.

That add-back is decisive. It is what stops an estate being emptied during lifetime to leave a child with nothing, and it is why many claims that looked hopeless succeed.

The deadline: ten years

The claim lapses ten years after the death. It is a generous period, but do not run it down: the longer you wait, the harder it becomes to rebuild the inventory, trace assets and obtain bank records, which are only kept for a limited number of years.