Family mediation for families in Spain

Spain is home to one of the largest British communities in Europe, and separations there have a shape of their own.

Spain holds one of the largest British populations outside the UK, and separations there have a particular shape: a house bought together in the sun, one person wanting to stay and the other wanting to come home, and children who have grown up bilingual and are settled in a Spanish school.

Those are not primarily legal questions. They are questions about what each person can afford, where the children will actually be happier, and how two households will work several hours apart. Mediation is built for exactly that kind of decision.

Situations we are asked about

• One parent returning to England while the other stays in Spain, and working out how the children move between them.
• A jointly owned Spanish property that neither can buy out and neither wants to sell in a hurry.
• Pensions and savings split between the two countries, with different tax treatment in each.
• School terms and Spanish public holidays that do not line up with the English calendar.

Money and property in two countries

Spanish property and pensions can be discussed in mediation, and often the practical question – who lives there, who pays the mortgage, when it is sold – matters more day to day than the legal one. How it is owned, and how any agreement would be given effect in Spain, needs advice from a Spanish lawyer as well as an English one.

If a child is taken or kept without agreement

Spain ratified the 1980 Child Abduction Convention in 1987 and the 1996 Child Protection Convention in 2010, and both operate between Spain and the United Kingdom. In practice that means there is an established route if a child is wrongfully removed or kept in either direction, and a framework for recognising decisions about children across the two countries.

This is a summary, not advice, and the exceptions and detail matter enormously. Our guide to the Hague Conventions explains how they work. If a child has already been taken or is not being returned, take specialist legal advice immediately – mediation must never delay that.

School years and holidays

Spanish schools break for roughly ten weeks in the summer, from late June to early September, which is far longer than the English six. That single difference reshapes most arrangements: the long Spanish summer can absorb a substantial block with the English parent, while English half terms in October and February often fall in ordinary Spanish term time.

Travel, distance and contact

Flights are short, frequent and cheap outside peak weeks, which makes regular contact genuinely realistic rather than aspirational. Booking early matters more than anything else in keeping costs down, and it is worth writing into a plan who books, by when, and who pays.

Language and timing

Mediation is held in English. Interpreters are arranged for Spanish where they are needed, and written information can be provided in Spanish. Much of this site can also be read and listened to in six other languages.

Spain is currently 1 hour ahead of the UK, so sessions are arranged for a time that works in both places. Appointment times are agreed with each of you beforehand.

How this would work

Everything is held online. Each of you meets the mediator separately first – that is the MIAM, and it is where suitability is assessed, including whether an English mediator is right for your situation at all. After that, joint sessions are arranged at a time that works in both countries, or as shuttle sessions where being in the same call is not right.

A MIAM matters only if a case in England and Wales is possible; a MIAM certificate carries no weight before a foreign court. Mediation cannot decide which country has authority, cannot give legal advice, and what you agree is not enforceable until a lawyer makes it so – so independent advice, usually in both countries, runs alongside.

Where there has been abuse or controlling behaviour, mediation may not be suitable at all: see domestic abuse and mediation.

Fees: a MIAM is £125 per person and joint sessions £180 per person – full fees. The Government voucher and Legal Aid have eligibility rules most families living abroad will not meet; it is checked individually, never assumed.

Ask for a free 15-minute chat

Not sure an English mediator is the right choice? That is what the free chat is for. If a mediator in your own country would serve you better, we will say so.

Questions we are asked

Sources

• HCCH – status table, 1980 Child Abduction Convention
• HCCH – status table, 1996 Child Protection Convention
• GOV.UK – international parental child abduction

Treaty status and official guidance checked on 27 September 2026.