Is it easy to disinherit someone? Legal grounds and requirements for disinheritance

Updated on 27 September 2026. The Civil Code has not changed on this subject. What is new is a series of Supreme Court judgments from 2025 and 2026 (865/2025, 503/2026, 507/2026 and 624/2026) that clarify when psychological abuse and a lack of relationship allow disinheritance. We have also corrected how we explained some of the grounds and clarified what happens to the disinherited person's children.

Talking about inheritance is usually associated with passing family wealth from one generation to the next. However, not every family lives in harmony. Sometimes a relationship breaks down, or an heir behaves so badly, that a delicate question arises: can I leave a child out of my estate?

The short answer is that it is possible, but difficult. The Spanish Civil Code (Código Civil) only allows disinheritance (desheredación) in a closed list of cases, because it reserves a minimum share of the estate, the forced share (legítima), for certain relatives known as forced heirs (herederos forzosos). Here you will see what the law requires, which grounds it accepts, how the courts interpret them today and what you can do if there is no ground, under the common civil law (Derecho civil común) that applies in Madrid. At the end we look at what changes if you are a foreign national or Catalan law applies.

What disinheritance is and what the forced share protects

Disinheritance is a clause in a will by which you deprive a forced heir of their forced share on a ground expressly provided for by law (arts. 813 and 848 of the Civil Code, CC).

The forced heirs are (art. 807 CC):

• Children and descendants.
• Failing them, parents and ascendants.
• The surviving spouse, in the manner laid down by the Code itself.

Where there are children, the estate is divided into three thirds (art. 808 CC):

• Strict forced share (one third): divided equally among all the children.
• Improvement third (tercio de mejora): you can allocate it to one or more children or descendants, grandchildren included.
• Freely disposable third (tercio de libre disposición): you can leave it to whoever you wish.

A surviving spouse who was not separated also has a life interest (usufruct) in the improvement third (art. 834 CC). If there are no descendants, the parents' forced share is half the estate, or one third if they inherit alongside the surviving spouse (art. 809 CC).

What you can do without disinheriting

If there is no legal ground, you can reduce a child to their strict forced share and leave the improvement third to your other children or descendants and the freely disposable third to whoever you wish, without having to justify anything. For example, with three children and an estate of €300,000, the strict forced share totals €100,000, so each child is entitled to at least about €33,333.

What does not work is emptying your estate during your lifetime to get round the forced share: gifts count towards calculating it and can be reduced if they encroach on it (arts. 636 and 818 CC). We explain this in how lifetime gifts affect the forced share.

Requirements for a valid disinheritance

1. A ground provided for by law

Only the grounds listed by law are valid (art. 848 CC). A poor relationship, family arguments or personal differences are not enough on their own. If the ground relied on is not in the law, the disinheritance is unjust.

2. It must be done in a will

Disinheritance can only be made in a will (art. 849 CC). A letter, a private document or what you have told your family will not do. Any valid will is enough, but the safest option is a notarial will (testamento notarial): the notary advises you on the wording and the will is registered, so it cannot be lost.

3. State the ground, ideally with facts

The will must state the legal ground on which it is based (art. 849 CC). An exhaustive account is not needed, but do not just cite an article: in judgment 865/2025 of the Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo, STS) the will merely invoked art. 853.2 CC, and the heirs only alleged psychological abuse later, during the court case, which counted against them. Briefly describe what has happened and since when.

4. Identify the disinherited person beyond doubt

Give their full name or a reference that leaves no room for doubt, as the Code requires when naming heirs (art. 772 CC).

5. The ground must exist when you make the will

Only facts prior to the disinheritance count. In STS 624/2026, the Supreme Court ruled out that failing to attend the wake or the funeral could serve as a ground, because those facts came after the will and after the death.

6. The burden of proof falls on your heirs

If the disinherited person denies the ground, it is the heirs who must prove that it is true (art. 850 CC). You will no longer be there to explain, so it is wise to have the evidence ready.

Grounds for disinheriting children and descendants

Article 853 CC sets out two grounds of its own and refers to several of the grounds of unworthiness to inherit (indignidad) in art. 756 CC:

Some important points:

• Maintenance (alimentos) is not just food. In the legal sense it covers everything essential for subsistence, housing, clothing and medical care (art. 142 CC), in proportion to what the child can give and what the parent needs (art. 146 CC). For it to be a ground, the parent must have needed it and the child, being able to provide it, must have refused.
• A serious penalty (pena grave) includes, among others, imprisonment for more than five years (art. 33.2 of the Criminal Code, Código Penal). A complaint that was shelved, or the mere opening of criminal proceedings, is not enough: there must be a conviction for making a false report.
• Convictions for attempting to kill or for violence. A final conviction for attempting to kill the father or mother (or their spouse or partner, descendants or ascendants), or a conviction carrying a serious penalty for causing them injury or for habitually using physical or psychological violence within the family, is a ground of unworthiness (art. 756.1 CC). A conviction for habitual violence (art. 173.2 of the Criminal Code, an offence against moral integrity) also falls within art. 756.2 in the table. Assaults without a conviction may amount to mistreatment by deed if they can be proved.
• Unworthiness is not always enough. It excludes by operation of law, but ceases to have effect if you already knew of the ground when making your will or later forgive it in a public document (art. 757 CC). If you make a will after the conviction, do not simply stay silent: deal with it expressly, usually by disinheriting the child on the relevant legal ground and describing the facts.

Psychological abuse: what the Supreme Court says today

For decades, "mistreatment by deed" (maltrato de obra) was understood as physical assault. STS 258/2014 of 3 June changed that approach: psychological abuse, as conduct that harms the victim's mental health, falls within mistreatment by deed. STS 59/2015 of 30 January confirmed it.

Since then the Supreme Court has been setting limits, and in 2025 and 2026 it has refined them:

• STS 556/2023 of 19 April (ECLI:ES:TS:2023:1676): a mere lack of relationship, even though the daughter was already an adult when her parents separated, does not allow psychological abuse to be inferred without evidence. Proving it was for the heir, who offered no evidence at all (art. 850 CC).
• STS 802/2024 (ECLI:ES:TS:2024:3300): sets aside the disinheritance of a daughter whom her father abandoned when she was seven.
• STS 865/2025 of 2 June: no ground. The estrangement began with the parents' separation, when two of the children were minors, and there was no evidence that the father tried to keep the bond alive.
• STS 503/2026 of 7 April: sets aside the disinheritance. The conflict of the divorce spilled over onto the children while they were minors, and it was the father, as the adult, who was better placed to repair the relationship.
• STS 624/2026 of 21 April: sets aside the disinheritance. The estrangement was not attributable to the son alone, there was no evidence of efforts by the father, and facts after the death do not count.
• STS 507/2026 of 7 April: upholds the disinheritance because the appeal did not challenge the facts found proved by the Audiencia Provincial (Provincial Court): the children went some twelve years without visiting their father, even while he was living in a care home, and this caused him psychological harm. Nor did they argue that they had tried to make contact or that it was the father who avoided it.

These judgments point to cumulative requirements:

• Serious and continued conduct by the child (abandonment, contempt, humiliation), not a mere cooling of relations.
• Conduct attributable exclusively to the child, blameworthy and unjustified, to which the testator did not contribute. If the estrangement began in childhood or with a high-conflict divorce, it is very unlikely to succeed.
• Real psychological harm to the testator, who experienced it as abuse.
• Facts that pre-date the will and can be proved.

Can you disinherit someone for lack of a relationship?

Under the Civil Code, a lack of relationship is not in itself a ground for disinheritance. It only works if it amounts to psychological abuse meeting the requirements above, and the burden of proving it falls on the heirs. Catalonia is different, as you will see below.

Disinheriting parents or a spouse

• Parents (art. 854 CC): in addition to the grounds in art. 756.1, 2, 3, 5 and 6, having lost parental authority (patria potestad) for the reasons in art. 170 CC, having refused maintenance to their children without legitimate reason, or one parent having attempted to kill the other without later reconciliation.
• Spouse (art. 855 CC): in addition to those in art. 756.2, 3, 5 and 6, serious or repeated breach of marital duties, incurring a ground for loss of parental authority, refusing maintenance to the children or to the other spouse, or attempting to kill the testator without reconciliation.

If you are legally or de facto separated, your spouse no longer has a forced share (art. 834 CC), so there is no need to disinherit them.

Disinheritance and unworthiness are not the same

Unworthiness (art. 756 CC) excludes someone from the inheritance by operation of law, without the need for a will, and also applies where there is none. It ceases to have effect if the testator knew of the ground when making the will or later forgave it in a public document (art. 757 CC), and the action to have it declared lapses five years after the unworthy person takes possession of the inheritance (art. 762 CC). Where the deceased had a disability, anyone entitled to inherit who failed to give them the care owed, meaning maintenance under arts. 142 and 146 CC, is also unworthy (art. 756.7 CC). Disinheritance, by contrast, requires a will and a stated ground.

What happens to the disinherited person's children

Disinheriting a child does not exclude that child's own children: "the children or descendants of the disinherited person shall take their place and retain the rights of forced heirs with respect to the forced share" (art. 857 CC). It is one of the few cases in which a living person is represented (art. 929 CC). The same applies to unworthiness (art. 761 CC). The grandchildren receive the forced share, not whatever their parent would have received on top of it.

What happens if the disinherited person challenges it

After the death, the disinherited person may deny the ground and sue the heirs. Since 3 April 2025, before filing the claim they must attempt an appropriate dispute resolution method (medio adecuado de solución de controversias, MASC): negotiation between lawyers, mediation or conciliation, among others (art. 5 of Organic Law 1/2025, Ley Orgánica 1/2025). If there is no agreement, the matter is decided in declaratory proceedings (juicio declarativo), in Madrid before the Civil Section of the Tribunal de Instancia (the new first-instance court).

If the judge finds the disinheritance unjust, the appointment of heirs is set aside to the extent that it harms the disinherited person, but legacies, improvements and other provisions remain valid in so far as they do not affect their forced share (art. 851 CC). In practice, the disinherited person recovers their forced share, not necessarily everything they would have received without that clause.

Is there a time limit to challenge? The Civil Code does not set a specific one, and the Supreme Court has not settled the point for disinheritance. STS 533/2026 of 9 April notes that the case law applies a five-year time bar (plazo de caducidad), running from the death, to actions to top up the forced share and to reduce gifts or legacies that encroach on it, and applies it also to an action against a clause that burdens the forced share, but it expressly leaves other situations aside. As the period that applies to disinheritance is open to debate, the prudent course is to act as soon as possible. In Catalonia the law sets four years (art. 451-20 of the Catalan Civil Code). Requesting the prior negotiation suspends the time bar (art. 7 of Organic Law 1/2025).

Reconciliation

A later reconciliation between the offender and the offended person removes the right to disinherit and cancels any disinheritance already made (art. 856 CC). If you are reconciled, the safest option is to make a new will to avoid disputes over whether there was a reconciliation.

How to prepare a disinheritance properly

1. Check that there is a legal ground and, in the case of psychological abuse, that the responsibility lies solely with the child.
2. Gather evidence during your lifetime: unanswered messages and letters, medical or psychological reports on how it affects you, court judgments and people who can give evidence. You can also have matters recorded before a notary.
3. Make a notarial will stating the legal ground, the specific facts and the identity of the disinherited person.
4. Plan for the disinheritance failing: if you leave the improvement third to your other children or descendants and the freely disposable third to whoever you wish, the child will normally only recover their part of the strict forced share.
5. Review your will if the relationship changes.

The most common mistakes are claiming "psychological abuse" because of a lack of contact without analysing who is responsible, citing only the article without describing facts, not keeping evidence and believing that disinheriting a child also excludes that child's children.

Foreign nationals, Catalonia and other territories with their own civil law

If you are a foreign national or live outside Spain, the law governing your succession is set by Regulation (EU) No 650/2012, which applies to deaths on or after 17 August 2015 (art. 83): as a rule, the law of the country where you are habitually resident when you die (art. 21), although you can choose in your will the law of your nationality (art. 22), which may have no forced heirship. In that case, you may not need to disinherit anyone at all.

Where Spanish law applies to a Spanish national, their regional civil status (vecindad civil) decides which Spanish civil law governs (arts. 14 and 16 CC). Aragon, Navarre, the Basque Country, Galicia, the Balearic Islands and Catalonia have their own inheritance rules. In Catalonia, Book IV of the Catalan Civil Code:

• Accepts as a ground a manifest and continued absence of family relationship where it is due to a cause attributable exclusively to the forced heir (art. 451-17.2.e).
• Sets the forced share at one quarter of the estate, calculated under its own rules and shared among the children (arts. 451-3 and 451-5).
• Allows disinheritance in a will, codicil or succession agreement, naming the person, and it cannot be partial or conditional (art. 451-18).
• Places on the heir the burden of proving the ground and on the disinherited person that of proving reconciliation, and sets a four-year time bar (art. 451-20).

The fact that the disinherited person's descendants keep the forced share is not a Catalan peculiarity (art. 451-3): it also happens under the common civil law (art. 857 CC).

Are you considering it?

Every case depends on specific facts and on how they can be proved. If you are thinking of disinheriting someone, or you have been disinherited and want to know whether a challenge makes sense, you can book a consultation and we will review your situation. If the death has already occurred, our guide Inheritance: first steps and deadlines will help you put the formalities in order.

Legislation and sources

• Civil Code (arts. 14, 16, 142, 146, 756–762, 772, 807–857 and 929)
• Criminal Code (art. 33: serious penalties; art. 173.2: habitual violence)
• Organic Law 1/2025 of 2 January on measures concerning the efficiency of the Public Justice Service (arts. 5 and 7)
• Law 10/2008 of 10 July on Book Four of the Catalan Civil Code, on succession (arts. 451-3, 451-5 and 451-17 to 451-20)
• Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 of 4 July 2012 on succession matters (arts. 21, 22 and 83)
• CGPJ: press release on the Supreme Court judgment of 3 June 2014 (psychological abuse)
• Supreme Court, First Chamber: summary of judgments including STS 865/2025
• Supreme Court, First Chamber: summary of judgments including STS 503/2026, 507/2026 and 533/2026
• Supreme Court, First Chamber: summary of judgments including STS 624/2026