Your client’s Spanish matter, handled in the Canary Islands. The English side stays with your firm.
A client dies leaving an apartment in Tenerife, another buys a villa in Lanzarote, a third cannot regain possession of a let property in Gran Canaria. The Spanish side of each matter needs a Spanish lawyer. We can act for UK firms and their clients anywhere in the Canary Islands, from our office in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and report in English. The English law work stays with your firm.
- Spanish law only: we do not compete for English law work
- Written quote before any work starts
- No referral fees in either direction
Tell us what you need in the Canaries
Just an outline for now. Before you send documents or confidential details, we will ask for the parties’ names to run a conflict check.
What we handle for UK firms
The matters that reach a private client, property or family team in England and Wales and end up needing someone on the ground in the islands.
Estates with a Canary Islands property
The Spanish side of the estate. We check title and charges at the Land Registry, obtain the certificate from the Spanish General Register of Wills and prepare the deed of acceptance of inheritance, which the beneficiaries can sign in person or under a power of attorney. We then deal with the Spanish inheritance tax return and the municipal capital gains tax (plusvalía), register the property in the beneficiaries’ names and, if they wish, handle the sale.
Inheritance for non-residents →Spanish wills for your clients
A Spanish will limited to the client’s assets in Spain, drafted with your firm so that neither will revokes or contradicts the other. Where it suits the client, it can include a choice of the law of their nationality, which under Article 22 of Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 governs the whole succession, not only the Spanish assets. Your client signs it in person before a Spanish notary; we can arrange the appointment for a stay in the islands.
Buying and selling property
Independent conveyancing for buyers: due diligence, the service charge position with the community of owners, the deposit contract (arras), completion before the notary, taxes and registration. For non-resident sellers: the 3% the buyer withholds and pays to the Spanish tax authorities on account of the seller’s tax, and the seller’s Spanish capital gains position.
Property purchase package →Rentals and holiday lets
Holiday lets under the Canary Islands holiday rental law (Ley 6/2025, in its current wording), long-term lets, rent arrears and possession claims in the Canary Islands courts (Tribunal de Instancia), and rental management for owners who live in the UK.
Rental management →English judgments and debts in the Canaries
Recognition and enforcement in Spain of an English judgment against a debtor with assets in the islands, asset searches at the Land Registry and debt claims in the Canary Islands courts. Court proceedings in Spain also need a court agent (procurador), whose fees are a disbursement.
Family matters with Spanish assets
The Spanish steps of a financial remedy order or settlement involving property in the Canaries: valuation, transfer of title, taxes and registration, and recognition of the English order in Spain where it is needed.
Divorce with Spanish assets →Residency and visas
NIE numbers, non-lucrative and digital nomad visas, residence cards and the 90/180-day rule for clients who split their time between the UK and the islands.
Immigration →Debt relief for clients living in the Canaries
Spain’s Second Chance Law: the procedure through which an individual resident in the islands can apply to be released from debts they cannot pay.
Second Chance Law →Two ways of working together
We agree which one applies, in writing, before we start.
You instruct us as your Spanish correspondent
- We report to you in English. You remain your client’s main point of contact, although we deal with the client directly for identity checks and signatures.
- A written quote for each matter before we start, with third-party costs shown separately.
- We agree in writing at the outset who is responsible for our fees, and we usually ask for money on account.
Your client instructs us directly
- Your client signs our engagement letter, in English, and pays us directly.
- With your client’s consent, we copy your firm in at each stage.
- If the client needs English law advice, we suggest that they take it to your firm.
Our commitments to your firm
- In our work with UK firms we do not pay or accept referral fees or commissions, in either direction.
- A conflict check, using only the names of the parties, before we receive any other information about your client.
- A written quote before any work starts: a fixed fee where the work can be defined in advance, otherwise an estimate and the basis of charging.
- Reports in plain English, with the Spanish documents attached.
- We identify every client ourselves and carry out the further checks Spanish anti-money laundering law requires in the matters it covers.
- A first reply from Lázaro Héctor Amable Méndez personally, normally within two working days.
Why a lawyer in the Canary Islands
The Canary Islands have their own tax rules within Spain. Indirect tax is IGIC, not VAT, and the general rate of transfer tax on resale property is 6.5%, with lower rates for some main homes. The islands also set their own inheritance tax rules, including a 99.9% reduction in the tax payable by beneficiaries in tax groups I to III: spouses, descendants and ascendants, and also siblings, nephews, nieces, uncles, aunts and relatives by marriage in the direct line (Article 24 ter of Canary Islands Legislative Decree 1/2009). Beneficiaries resident in the UK file their return with the Spanish State Tax Agency (AEAT), not with the Canary Islands Tax Agency. Whether they can apply the Canary Islands rules, and so this reduction, depends on where the deceased lived and where the Spanish assets are; we confirm it for each estate before filing. Holiday lets in the islands are governed by a Canary Islands law (Ley 6/2025) with its own rules.
Two other parts of the practice help in property matters. The firm manages communities of owners, so service charge arrears, special levies and the minutes of owners’ meetings are familiar ground, which matters when the property is an apartment in a resort complex. And Lázaro is appointed by the Spanish courts as an insolvency administrator (administrador concursal), so Spanish insolvency procedure is part of his daily work.
Who you will be working with
ALY Abogados is the practice of Lázaro Héctor Amable Méndez, a Spanish lawyer (abogado) registered with the Las Palmas Bar (Ilustre Colegio de la Abogacía de Las Palmas, ICALPA) under no. 5231. The lawyer you speak to is the lawyer who does the work and signs every report. The office is at Hoya del Enamorado, 18, Local 1, 35019 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.
Besides legal practice, the firm manages communities of owners and rental properties (administración de fincas), and Lázaro is appointed by the Spanish courts as an insolvency administrator (administrador concursal). Before we accept any matter we check for conflicts of interest across all three activities. If there is a conflict, for example because we manage the community of owners that is claiming service charges from your client, or Lázaro holds an appointment in an insolvency in which your client is a party, we tell you that we cannot act in that matter, without giving details of the other matter, and we do not act for your client in it.
We are bound by Spanish professional secrecy and by the Spanish rules of professional conduct for lawyers: the Estatuto General de la Abogacía Española (Royal Decree 135/2021, published at boe.es) and the Código Deontológico de la Abogacía Española (published at abogacia.es). Personal data we send to your firm in the UK relies on the European Commission’s adequacy decision for the United Kingdom, renewed by Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2025/2574 of 19 December 2025; transfers from your firm to us are a matter for UK data protection law.
How we write and check our published content: editorial policy.
Before you instruct us
Do you pay or accept referral fees?
No. In our work with UK law firms and their clients we do not pay or accept referral fees, commissions or any other payment or benefit for introductions, in either direction. Each firm charges only for its own work. If a client of ours needs English law advice, the client chooses the solicitor; any suggestion we make is free and carries no obligation.
Who is the client: our firm or our client?
Either. You can instruct us as your Spanish correspondent, in which case we report to you and agree with you in writing who is responsible for our fees, or your client can instruct us directly under our own engagement letter. We agree which arrangement applies before we start. In both cases we identify the client ourselves.
How do you charge?
We quote in euros, in writing, before any work starts: a fixed fee where the work can be defined in advance, otherwise an estimate and the basis of charging. Notary, Land Registry, court agent (procurador), sworn translation and official fees are disbursements: we list them in the quote and pass them on at cost. Where Canary Islands indirect tax (IGIC) applies to our fees, the quote says so. We usually ask for money on account.
In what language do you work?
We write to your firm and to your client in English. Deeds, tax returns and court documents are in Spanish; we send an English summary of each one. Confidential documents travel through a secure channel that we agree with you, never through the enquiry form.
Does the client have to travel to Spain?
Usually not. Most steps (NIE, acceptance of inheritance, purchase or sale, tax filings) can be completed under a Spanish power of attorney signed before a notary public in the UK and apostilled, or at a Spanish consulate. We prepare the power in Spanish and English and check the draft with the Spanish notary before it is signed. A Spanish will is the exception: it has to be signed in person before a Spanish notary.
Is an English grant of probate enough to deal with a property in the Canary Islands?
No. The Spanish notary, the tax office and the Land Registry each need Spanish formalities: proof of death and of the will, the Spanish certificate of last wills, a deed of acceptance of inheritance and the Spanish inheritance tax return. Foreign documents need an apostille and a sworn translation; we tell you which documents need them and arrange the sworn translations in Spain.
Which islands do you cover?
All of them. The office is in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Work on Tenerife, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and the smaller islands is mostly done remotely or by power of attorney, with a notary convenient for the client and the Land Registry where each property is registered. Court hearings outside Gran Canaria may require travel, which we include in the quote.
What should we send first?
A short outline of what is needed in Spain, without names or other details that identify your client. When we reply, we will ask for the names of the parties for the conflict check and agree a secure channel for them. Once the check is clear we will ask for the documents, quote in writing and agree how we will work together.
General information, not legal advice. Tax rates and rules cited are those in force in the Canary Islands in 2026 and may change. Every matter depends on its own facts and no outcome can be guaranteed.
Prefer to talk first?
Call or email the lawyer directly. Use the form above for a written enquiry.
Lázaro Héctor Amable Méndez · Las Palmas Bar (ICALPA) no. 5231