If you do not inherit a property alone, but together with your siblings or the children of your deceased spouse, you form a community of heirs.
In contrast to a sole inheritance, where you as the legal successor can decide alone and freely on all property matters, as a co-heir you have to coordinate with the others. In practice, this often leads to problems and disputes. The more persons belong to a community of heirs and they live in different cities or countries, the more complicated the coordination often becomes. This is because unanimity is required for important decisions affecting the property. For example, if the property is to be sold. This is a fundamental change to the inheritance.
In other areas, such as managing a rented flat or house, majority decisions are sufficient. In urgent cases, such as repairing a leaking roof or a small renovation after a burst water pipe, each individual co-owner may decide. This is because, according to the law, each co-owner is obliged to cooperate in the "proper administration" 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". In this way, 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 for this case, you should resort to an independent appraiser to determine it.
Although numerous free valuation calculators can be found on the internet, these should only be used for a rough initial estimate of the property value. No contracts should be concluded on their basis.
Furthermore, a community of heirs ends if the penultimate member of the community leaves by death or due to a transfer of an inheritance share. Then the remaining person becomes the sole heir.
You do not know how to proceed with the inheritance as a community of heirs? We will be happy to advise you.
Photo: RichLegg
