After the death of a loved one, it is necessary to settle their estate. This is a long and delicate task often entrusted to the notary. This will entail the division of the property and debts of the deceased between his heirs.
The estate of the deceased consists of assets and liabilities. When sharing, it is therefore necessary to liquidate the liabilities before proceeding with this operation. The use of a notary is essential in the presence of real estate. When the patrimony of the deceased only includes movable property, the heirs are thus free to carry out the liquidation and distribution operations themselves. Explanations
The liquidation of a succession can be carried out by passing through four main stages.
The first is the establishment of the notarial deed. The role of the notary is to draw up the list of persons called upon to collect the estate and their respective rights. For this purpose, the relatives of the deceased must provide several documents allowing the identification of the members of the family of the deceased person concerned by the succession. The family record book, birth certificates, marriage certificates and contracts or the divorce decree are thus required. It is also possible that the deceased designated one or more people to collect his estate by writing a will or via a donation. At the same time, the notary will consult the Central File of Dispositions of Last Wills (FCDDV) which centralizes information relating to the existence and place of deposit of wills received by notaries.
The second step necessary for the liquidation of an estate is for the notary to draw up a complete balance sheet of the estate of the deceased. He must therefore list all the property he owned and in particular his bank accounts, securities, movable and immovable property. The notary must also draw up a list of the liabilities of the missing person including pecuniary debts or not. He will need various documents:title deeds, bank statements and savings books, invoices in particular. Once he has carried out this assessment, the notary draws up a simple statement of assets or has an inventory drawn up, depending on the case.
During the third step, the notary is responsible for completing the mortgage and tax formalities related to the death. More concretely, it draws up and publishes a real estate certificate for buildings with the Land Registry Service. In addition, he drafts a declaration of succession including the settlement of inheritance rights. These must be paid within six months of the death to the tax office of the place of residence of the deceased person. Deferred or split payment is possible.
Finally, the last step is to share the asset. The heirs can refuse to share, they will then be in joint ownership. Joint ownership can be particularly financially restrictive, the heirs have the possibility at any time to request the division of the property. However, it is not possible to force an heir to remain in joint ownership. Any successor who requests sharing can therefore cause it via a sharing action. The partition can then be amicable if all the heirs agree, judicial if one of them goes to court. In the event of persistent disagreement on the composition of the lots or their evaluation, it will be necessary to appear before a judge, which will also lead to longer delays and additional costs.
The presence of a minor child or a protected adult among the heirs generally requires the meeting of the family council, the consultation of the guardianship judge or the obtaining of their authorization, which can take several months. In addition, certain assets such as a goodwill, a farm or a company, induce special procedures and sometimes even the appointment of an expert or a judicial administrator. Another particular formality:the use of a genealogist to search for an unknown heir or legatee. This leads to an investigation whose duration is unpredictable.
Other factors can directly impact the liquidation of an estate such as:disagreement between the heirs, the presence of significant assets or debts, the presence of foreign heirs or heirs located abroad. All of these factors influence file processing times.
The cost of settling an estate varies widely. The notary evaluates it after having obtained the essential information and in particular the amount of the assets and liabilities of the deceased. Several costs are related to the succession. First of all, there are taxes due to the State, which correspond to inheritance tax, stamp duty and value added tax. To this are added the disbursements which include the cost of the mandatory documents requested by the notary and the contribution of real estate security in the event of the transfer of real estate. Finally, we must not forget the remuneration of the notary, the amount of which is set by the State. The courts, except in a few special cases, provide that these costs must be paid by the heirs up to the amount of their rights in the succession.
Good to know: since 2007, an heir can claim an estate for only 10 years compared to 30 years previously. The deadline for exercising this inheritance option is four months. After this period, if the heir has not made a decision, a creditor, a co-heir or the State which would inherit if the heir renounces may oblige him to decide. If the successor accepts the assets, this means that he will receive his share of the inheritance and pay the debts within the limits of the deceased's assets. His personal assets cannot therefore be seized by creditors. The declaration of acceptance must be made at the registry of the High Court of the last domicile of the deceased before being published in the Official Bulletin of Civil and Commercial Announcements (BODACC). In the event of the discovery of an unforeseen liability, the court may authorize the heir to reconsider his acceptance.
