Manuela Marimon died on July 16, 2019. She was 98 years old and was the owner of. Marimon died without children and the businesswoman’s last wish was that the cannelloni and lasagna factory that had been in operation for more than 60 years would be inherited by the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital. The health center rejected the inheritance and, in 2023, the Generalitat was declared the universal heir of Marimon’s assets. At 10:00 a.m. on February 25, the Ripollet cannelloni and lasagna factory will go up for auction. Meanwhile, at FADAIC – now managed by the Catalan administration – a dozen workers continue cooking pasta. The starting price of the company is 228,306 euros and the future buyer must commit to maintaining jobs for at least one year. It is the second time that Marimon’s inheritance has come up for auction (in July, the only bidder did not meet the requirements of the specifications). The case of FADAIC is peculiar but not unique. The Generalitat is currently searching for the heirs of 771 deceased Catalans who died without leaving a will. If the heirs do not appear, the assets of these dead people will end up in the coffers of the Catalan administration.
Why do some inheritances end up in the hands of the Generalitat? EL PAÍS has contacted the main officials of the Catalan administration who are in charge of searching, investigating and inheriting these properties. “There are times when someone dies and leaves an estate to the Generalitat, sometimes conditioning it to a destiny. These are the so-called testated inheritances,” Ferreras introduces.
This Girona native founded a sock industry and expanded the business to international markets, bought land in Venezuela and amassed a fortune until he died in 1997 at the age of 91. He had no descendants, but he left all his money, 42 million dollars, to the Generalitat on the condition that it financed English studies for young students from the Selva region. Since 2006, the foundation that bears his name has paid 1,585 scholarships to young people to learn the language that Riera i Gubau had so much trouble speaking.
In the Department of Economy, 15 officials work daily in the search for other types of inheritances, intestate inheritances. Those that occur when the deceased dies without having drawn up a will and without anyone receiving his or her assets. “The Generalitat will inherit the assets of these people as long as no relatives up to the fourth degree of consanguinity appear, that is, up to uncles or cousins,” warns Ferreras. The deputy director general of Inheritances of the Generalitat, Natalia Muixí, highlights that the administration, in these types of procedures, “never acts ex officio and always does so at the request of a party.” Muixí clarifies: “We find out that a deceased person may not have heirs because the citizens, the property administrators, the town councils, the courts tell us so… because the Ibis, the community receipts, stop being paid…”. Upon learning of the death of a person and suspicions that there are no heirs (“it usually takes years for this information to reach the Generalitat”), the administration begins preliminary actions by collecting information such as the death certificate, last wills…
“We verify if there is someone who has more right to inherit than us. The Generalitat does not want to keep anything that has an owner,” highlights the deputy director. The administration searches, sometimes with the help of the Mossos or other police forces, to see if there are priority heirs and once they have not been found, publications are made in the BOE and the DOGC to completely rule out beneficiaries. “The period from when we begin processing until the Generalitat rules out heirs and accepts the inheritance usually exceeds two years. Before 2015, a judicial resolution was mandatory, but a decree was approved so that the Generalitat, with all procedural guarantees, can incorporate the assets without going through the court,” warns the general director of Heritage, highlighting that, always, any decision can be challenged judicially.
The general subdirectorate of Inheritances currently processes 1,037 files, of which 897 are in the investigation phase. Of these, the Generalitat has many suspicions that she may be the heir of 771 deceased persons, whose identity has been published on the website of the Department of Economy. This December, the real estate stock of the Catalan administration from intestate inheritances was 259 real estate properties, of which 163 are urban properties and 96 rural properties.
What are inherited assets used for? The general director of Heritage is clear: “The Generalitat does not keep any assets. Either they are destined for protection apartments through an agreement that we have signed with the Habitat Agency of Catalonia or, if they cannot be used for housing, they are auctioned and the net liquid obtained is used for welfare, social or cultural purposes as established by law.” For the money to reach that end, it is supervised by the Inheritance Board (dependent on the Ministry of Economy) which is in charge of managing the assets. The departments of Economy, Culture, Social Rights, Health, Justice and the Habitatge Agency are represented on this board. There are also members of the Association and the Federation of Municipalities of Catalonia. These municipal entities ensure that the distribution of aid from the auctions falls, as a priority, in favor of entities or projects in the last town where the deceased resided.
From 2017 to today, 78 apartments transformed into social housing have been obtained from intestate inheritances. “Since 1984, until today, we have obtained 44 million euros from the assets auctioned by inheritances. 17.8 million euros from 2027 to today,” Ferreras clarifies.
The Generalitat has inherited everything from industrial warehouses, parking lots, flour mills, apartments to factories such as the cannelloni factory in Ripollet or Vapor Ros in Terrassa. One of the most peculiar cases that Ferrera and Muixí remember is that of the mysterious ones in 2002 (nine months apart) without leaving behind their eight hotels and a multitude of apartments, garages and premises in Sant Feliu de Guixols (Baix Empordà). In 2026, it is planned to auction the last assets of the Anllós that are still in the hands of the Generalitat.
