Inheritance and probate
Experts in estate planning
To dispose of an inherited asset you need two procedures, not one. First probate, which establishes who the heirs are: with no will it is applied for at the Civil Registry and takes between a few weeks and a couple of months; with a will it goes to court and requires a lawyer. Then the special inheritance registration at the Real Estate Registrar, the step almost everyone forgets and without which the property cannot be sold or mortgaged.
Securing the future of your family's assets requires a solid legal strategy. Our law firm provides comprehensive advice on estate planning to protect your assets and ensure a smooth transmission to your loved ones.
We advise you on wealth structuring, the drafting of wills and, when the time comes, we take charge of swiftly processing the effective possession and partition agreements, minimizing the tax burden and preventing conflicts.
Probate and the step almost everyone forgets
Obtaining the probate resolution does not transfer the property to you. That document establishes who the heirs are, but the property remains registered in the deceased's name at the Registrar. Only with the special inheritance registration do the heirs become able to sell, mortgage or divide the asset.
It is the most frequent and the most expensive mistake: families who completed probate years ago, filed the paper away, and discover at the moment of selling that legally they cannot. You can review the steps and the costs in our guide to probate.
When the procedure gets complicated
Three situations turn a simple procedure into a long one. The first is the chained inheritance: the grandfather died, his son never completed probate, and today the grandchildren have to resolve two successions one after the other. The second is the heir who cannot be found or who refuses to sign. The third is the property that also lacks a registered title or has buildings without final approval.
None of these is a dead end. When an heir objects, the law provides for partition proceedings, where their signature is no longer necessary because the partition judge supplies it. When the title is missing, the succession has to be combined with a regularization. What matters is diagnosing which of these scenarios is yours before starting.
Putting the estate in order while alive
The other half of our work happens before death, and it is the half that prevents the most conflict. Transferring a property to a child during your lifetime is possible without leaving yourself unprotected: a lifetime usufruct allows you to give away bare ownership while keeping the use and enjoyment of the property for as long as you live.
The three usual routes, usufruct, gift and sale, carry different tax costs and different risks, and which one suits depends on the case. We compare them in detail in our article on transferring the family home to your children during your lifetime.
Debts, taxes and timing
Heirs are liable for the deceased's debts up to the value of what they receive, unless they accept the inheritance under benefit of inventory, a mechanism worth assessing where there are significant liabilities. Inheritance tax has exempt brackets and reductions depending on the degree of kinship, and its calculation depends on the appraised value of the assets.
There is no fatal deadline for completing probate, but putting it off has a cost: interest on the tax keeps running, heirs age or die adding further successions, and the property stays frozen in the meantime.
How we handle a succession
We start with a title study of the property, which reveals whether there are earlier successions pending, encumbrances or differences in area. With that diagnosis we define the route: Civil Registry or courts, whether partition is called for, and whether regularization or rectification is needed first.
We then handle probate, the filing with the Internal Revenue Service and the registration at the Registrar, which is where the work really ends. We hand you back the property registered in the heirs' names and in a condition to be sold.
- Preventive advice and wealth structuring
- Drafting and legal validation of wills
- Processing of effective possessions and partitions