Settling an Inheritance

 

Have you been appointed as an heir, either by a last will and testament or by law? If so, you may be wondering what you will have to do.

In principle you have three possibilities as an heir:

  1. You accept the inheritance unconditionally, this means that you accept the assets and also pay all debts of the estate, even when there are more debts than benefits.
2. You accept the estate under the privilege of inventory. This means that you accept the inheritance and you will pay all debts from the inheritance. If the inheritance appears to be negative (after deduction of all costs), you cannot be held privately liable. In the case of multiple heirs, and should one heir accept the inheritance under this condition, the entire inheritance must be settled under this condition.
3. You do not want anything to do with the inheritance and reject it. Note that this can have consequences for your children. They will then become the heir in your place.

As long as you do not yet know what you want with the inheritance, or if you doubt whether the inheritance has a positive balance, then take no actions except for those which cannot be postponed. You may, for example, carry out maintenance on the property, but do not divide any rental income among the heirs.

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