How to settle an estate and end co-ownership?

What are the stages of a succession

A person's succession opens upon death; beforehand, there is no right to inheritance (if the deceased leaves nothing and never gave anything during their lifetime, there will therefore be nothing to share).

In order, you must first search for the heirs, determine whether or not a will exists, compose the estate (i.e., determine the assets that will be taken into account for the liquidation of the estate: this will be the assets existing on the day of death but also the assets given during the deceased's lifetime), file the inheritance tax return with the tax authorities (and pay the due taxes), then proceed with the distribution of assets among the different heirs.

These operations must be carried out, as regards the inheritance tax return, in principle within six months of the death to avoid any tax penalty, and the division can be carried out a few months after the death or years after it if there are disputes between the heirs.

Determination of heirs during an inheritance

Determining the heirs is one of the first operations to be carried out as part of settling an estate. One of the first steps is to consult the central register of last wills to find out whether the deceased left any dispositions upon death, i.e., a will or a gift between spouses (commonly called a gift to the surviving spouse).

It will also be necessary to check whether the deceased had children from one or more unions, as they are beneficiaries of the reserved portion, i.e., the share of the estate that the Civil Code grants them as of right.

If there are no descendants or surviving spouse, the estate will then be devolved to parents, siblings, or even persons with a more distant family relationship. Your lawyer specialized in estate settlement can help you determine who the heirs are.

Inheritance: Accepting or Renouncing the Inheritance

Sometimes the true financial situation of the deceased is unknown: one might then think that the debts could exceed the assets of the estate.

The heir therefore has several choices: either accept outright the succession (in which case the heir will be required to pay all the debts of the succession even if they exceed the estate assets, meaning the heir's personal assets will be used to settle the debts), or renounce the succession (the heir will then receive nothing but will not be troubled for the payment of the liabilities), or accept the succession up to the net assets (in which case an inventory is drawn up by the notary in charge of settling the succession and the heir accepting up to the net assets will only be required to pay the debts up to the amount of the estate assets: in this scenario, the heir therefore takes no risk regarding their personal assets).

It is very important to be assisted in such procedures because an option regarding an estate can have extremely significant repercussions on one's own assets. The assistance of a lawyer practicing inheritance law is therefore strongly recommended.

Inventory of the estate assets

The inventory of assets will be mandatory

in the event that one of the heirs proceeds with an acceptance to the extent of the net assets.
Failing that, the banks will be asked to disclose the amount of funds existing on the date of death, and the existence of real estate assets will be investigated.

As for movable property, one may use an inventory drawn up by a notary assisted by an auctioneer. This inventory of household furniture can be useful if the heirs intend not to opt for the 5% flat-rate furniture deduction of the value of other assets in the context of the inheritance tax return.

Liquidation of the estate

The liquidation of an estate is the operation by which the rights, in value, of each heir are determined.

This operation can prove to be quite technical legally because it will be necessary to apply rules relating to the revaluation of gifts received during the deceased's lifetime, or even possibly calculate the sums that must be returned to the estate (this is called a reduction indemnity).

Liquidation necessarily precedes the operations of attribution, and therefore of sharing, of the estate.

Inheritances