Suffering the loss of a loved one is one of the most difficult moments in life, to which is added that, after this hard ordeal, there is still an aspect that is often tricky to handle: inheritance, especially when there are disagreements between the heirs or the deceased has left debts. In the latter case, haste when accepting the will can be expensive.
When a “poisoned” inheritance is received, in which the amount of the deceased’s obligations is greater than that of his assets, the heir must be clear that its acceptance will imply having to face the debts of the deceased person. Therefore, assets are inherited, but also expenses. A circumstance that experts warn can put your own assets at risk, even end up in an embargo.
To avoid this, more and more citizens repudiate inheritances. Last year, for example, 40,349 people in Spain with the right to receive one renounced it, according to data recorded up to September by the General Council of Notaries. The figure represents almost 16% of the people who did agree to inherit, 259,729.
“Economic circumstances such as the increase in the cost of living and the crisis of the pandemic and that of 2008 make people borrow more and, when they die, the remainder that remains is often a debt,” explains Toni Galve, legal director of Repair your debt. Another assumption is when the person who accumulates unpaid bills is the heir and, to prevent the deceased’s assets from being seized, he decides to renounce the inheritance for the benefit of his children.
Be that as it may, it is essential before accepting a will to analyze the situation of the assets to be inherited. Otherwise, you run the risk of ending up losing money. “A lady had to pay the debts of the murderer of her daughter. This man killed his wife, who had made a will in favor of his mother, who inherited and had to pay the mortgage on the apartment that he had inherited from his daughter and the mortgage of the murderer, who was in jail,” explained the expert lawyer. in successions Alejandro Ebrat in this interview (podcast) as an example of how rushing when accepting a will can cause unfair situations.
For this reason, it is always recommended to accept the inheritance “for the benefit of inventory”, a legal figure that will avoid having to respond with personal assets to the debts contracted by the testator. In this way, from the inventory of the inherited goods, the expenses that the deceased left pending payment, such as taxes, credit card installments and mortgages, will be deducted. “We were given a case that a lady inherited two blocks of flats that were mortgaged and occupied,” Ebrat said. Despite the fact that there was more equity than debt, it was very difficult to sell under these conditions and the heiress “could not pay”. In the end, after selling off and paying off the outstanding debts, of the 40 floors that she inherited, she was left with one or two.
On other occasions, the assets have a value greater than the debts, but the expenses involved in the inheritance procedures -notary, agency, change of ownership and inheritance tax- can eat up the benefits to be obtained.
For all these reasons, it is essential to investigate what assets and rights the deceased possessed. “For example, information is collected from banks on whether he had pension plans and accounts, as well as from property registries to find out if there are properties in his name and if they have encumbrances,” explains Galve. Some procedures that can be entrusted to the notary and through which it can be known if the deceased person had debts, “especially if they are linked to embargoes”. “The debt status will also appear or if she was the beneficiary of any Social Security rights,” he clarifies. Likewise, it is important that when opening a will at the notary, in addition to analyzing the assets, rights and charges -if they exist- it is also verified if the deceased person appears in any file of defaulters.
