Margen
A bank account with no movements can turn 20 and stop being yours. It gets no cake; it gets article 18 of Spain's Law 33/2003, the statute governing public property. If you keep old passbooks, this is a good moment to check which ones are still alive.
1. Understand what starts the clock.
The Law on the Property of Public Administrations covers abandoned balances and deposits held at financial institutions. They pass to the central State administration once twenty years go by without the holder taking any step that amounts to exercising ownership. Note the distinction: it does not say twenty years without automatic movements, it says twenty years without you doing anything. Calling it "my old account" at family lunches does not count.
2. The bank has to warn you first.
The institution cannot simply hand the balance over. Order EHA/3291/2008 requires it to notify you by registered post, at the address on its records and at least three months before the deadline falls due, and then to report the deposit to the Ministry of Finance. The practical problem is one of house moves: a letter sent to the flat where you lived three homes ago can complete its whole journey without finding you.
3. Take a family inventory.
Look for passbooks, deposit certificates, letters from the bank and old tax returns. Ask about accounts opened in the children's names, payslips from far-off jobs, savings belonging to relatives who have died. Note down the institution, the branch and the holder. Do not post photographs of those papers: they carry more than enough data to turn archaeology into fishing for fraudsters.
4. Contact the institution and leave a trail.
Ask in writing for the account's status and what documents they need to identify you. If you are an heir, you will have to prove it before you can touch the money. A vague enquiry at the counter is not always an act of ownership: formalise the request and keep the reply. And if the bank no longer exists under that name, find out which institution absorbed its business.
5. Close what is useless.
If you recover an account with twelve euros and no purpose, taking out the balance does not end the relationship. Ask for it to be cancelled and keep the receipt, or the zombie account will start walking again, this time fed on charges.
One last thing, in case it consoles you: article 18 itself sends that money to programmes for improving the educational conditions of people with disabilities. Your forgotten passbook does not fatten the deficit, it pays for adapted classrooms. Even so, open it yourself first and decide for yourself whose donation the next one is.