What are the rules for inheriting? - No will

Verified 08 octobre 2024 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

Your situation

  • The deceased did not make a will
  • The deceased had no children
  • The deceased was married
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Prioritization of heirs

When the deceased did not will, it is the law which designates its heirs and prioritize them. We're talking about legal devolution.

The heirs are classified in the following order, in the absence of a surviving spouse:

  1. Children and their families descendants (no distinction should be made between them, regardless of the relationship between the parents)
  2. The parents, brothers and sisters and their descendants
  3. The ascendants other than parents
  4. The collateral other than siblings and descendants of the latter

Each of these four categories constitutes an order of heirs that excludes the following. It is the heirs closest in degree of kinship who inherit and exclude others.

However, the rule of representation allows the descendants of a deceased heir to collect his share of the inheritance.

Special place of the spouse

The surviving spouse inherits in all cases. However, its share in the estate varies according to the following situations:

Please note

the husband also benefits from special right in his dwelling.

Tableau - Spouse or former spouse: right to inheritance

Marital status in relation to the deceased

Right to the estate of the deceased

Spouse

Yes

Spouse separated from body

Yes, except where the spouses waive their inheritance rights in their separation agreement

Ex-husband

No

Inheritance shares are allocated differently depending on whether the deceased had children or not.

The rules of inheritance differ depending on whether the parents of the deceased are alive or deceased.

Tableau - Estate of a child-free married deceased

Living parents

Inheritance of parents

Inheritance of the spouse

2

Half of the estate in full ownership is 1/4 each in full ownership

Half of the estate in full ownership

1

1/4 of the estate in full ownership

3/4 of the estate in full ownership

None

Nothing

The entire estate

Warning  

The spouse's share of the inheritance may be different if the deceased has made a gift to the last living.

Parents have a right of return, that is, the right to take back the property they had given to their children before their death. The value of these assets is set off against the inheritance rights of the father and mother.

FYI  

If the parents are deceased, the surviving spouse does not inherit the property that the deceased received from his or her ascendants by inheritance or gift. It is the deceased's brothers and sisters who inherit it.

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