What you need to consider as part of a community of heirs

If you do not inherit a property alone, but together with your siblings or the children of your deceased spouse, then you form a community of heirs.

In contrast to a sole inheritance, where you as the legal successor can decide freely and alone on all property matters, as a co-heir you must coordinate with the others. In practice, this often leads to problems and disputes. The more people who belong to a community of heirs and the more they live in different cities or countries, the more complicated coordination often becomes. This is because important decisions affecting the property must be unanimous. For example, if the property is to be sold. This is a fundamental change to the inheritance.

In other areas, such as the management of a rented apartment or house, majority decisions are sufficient. In urgent cases, such as the repair of a leaking roof or a minor renovation after a burst water pipe, each individual co-owner may decide. This is because, according to the law, every co-owner is obliged to participate in the "proper management" of the property.

The income from the property, i.e. the rental income, is allocated according to the inheritance shares of the individual person, the income of the respective co-heir.

A community of heirs can also dissolve. This process is called "complete dissolution". The co-heirs can agree to divide the estate among themselves. For example, one co-heir could receive 80,000 euros, another could receive two cars worth a total of 80,000 euros from the estate and a third could receive the inherited condominium, which is also worth 80,000 euros. If you want to determine the value of the property in this case, you should use an independent expert to determine it.

Although there are numerous free valuation calculators on the Internet, these should only be used for a rough initial assessment of the property value. No contracts should be concluded on the basis of them.

In addition, a community of heirs ends when the penultimate member of the community leaves through death or due to a transfer of inheritance. The remaining person then becomes the sole heir.

You don't know what to do with your inheritance as a community of heirs? We will be happy to advise you.

Photo: RichLegg