House sale with a community of heirs

When a person dies, the succession is determined by law or, if the testator is one testament built according to his last will. In his will, the testator can also designate a person as heir who is not called to inheritance under the law. Together, all heirs form the community of heirs. If your estate includes a house, you must understand your rights. This is how you protect your rights and prevent unfounded expectations.

A private house sale is only possible jointly

• The testator can exclude the dispute on the estate for a maximum of 30 years or make it dependent on compliance with a notice period by means of a death disposition. The community of heirs could not sell the house during this period. The testator can also make the dispute dependent on the death of a certain person, for example his spouse.
instagram viewer
• However, if all parties agree, you can disregard this order of the testator and still bring about the house sale.
• Note that in a community of heirs the individual co-heir cannot act alone, but always depends on the consent of the other co-heirs.
• If the estate includes land, condominiums or heritable building rights, you as a co-heir and any other co-heir can also request that the aim of the sale be discussed.


Dissolving a community of heirs - what you should pay attention to

A community of heirs is a community of fate. The parties involved are ...

• An agreement comes out on a hands-free sale does not come about, you can apply to the local court for the division auction. There are no reasons for a co-heir to prevent the proceedings. As the applicant, you take on the role of the debtor. The application can of course also be submitted jointly by all co-heirs. It is necessary that the community of heirs is entered in the land register as the owner or at least the proof of inheritance is unequivocally kept.
• The order of the procedure takes place on simple application, an enforcement order is not required. As with the general auction procedure for the purpose of foreclosure, any interested party can bid and increase, regardless of whether they are co-heirs or outsiders.

A divided community of heirs diminishes any inheritance

• The purpose of the auction is to convert real property that cannot actually be divided into divisible money. With the knockdown, the proceeds, after deduction of the procedural costs and the amounts required to redeem existing burdens, take the place of the estate. Then you still have to come to an agreement with your co-heirs about the distribution of the money. If everyone is equally entitled to inheritance, everyone receives the same share.
• The auction does not cause the dispute, it only prepares it.
• Often, however, the mere threat of an auction or the submission of an application leads to an agreement the heirs on the division or a private sale because they run the risk of an auction below value shy away. As a rule, you will always achieve a higher revenue with a private sale and save the procedural costs of a judicial division procedure. You also appear to a prospective buyer as a community that can negotiate better than when you are at odds with one another.
• Another and easier way to deal with the community of heirs is to sell the house to a co-heir. The contract requires notarial certification. This path is then indicated if you want to keep your parental home in family ownership and a co-heir or you are ready to take over the house yourself.
• To ensure that every co-heir is served equally, it is usually necessary to have the market value of the house determined by an expert report. This will prevent disputes about the value of the house and prevent everyone in the community of heirs from going their own way.