What does it mean to repudiate the inheritance?

A few days ago, all the media reported the case of a woman who, at more than 70 years old, could soon be evicted because she had accepted the inheritance of her daughter, who had already died, presumably at the hands of of her husband and without descendants. What they did not tell this lady when she went to read the will is that by accepting the inheritance she places herself in the same place as the deceased person, so she not only accepts the assets and patrimony of the deceased, but also If there are debts, they are also dealt with.

So and now, when it was discovered that the deceased had debts, not only contracted by her, but also by her ex-partner, since the marital regime they had opted for was community property.

What to do when we are heirs ?

Therefore, when we are called to read an inheritance we have two options:

–         Accept the inheritance just as that lady did, taking into account that not only will we receive the heritage, but that in the event of there being creditors for debts incurred by the deceased, we will have to face them with our present and future assets .

– Or what is known as repudiating the inheritance or, what is the same, renouncing it.

The repudiation of the inheritance is an express and voluntary act of the heir rejecting the inheritance to which he is entitled. Now, certain issues that the legislation establishes must be taken into account.

Among them, the most important is that repudiation as well as acceptance are entirely voluntary and free acts and, on the other hand, that both one and the other must be done en bloc, that is, they cannot be done in part, on a term basis or conditionally, as the regulations indicate. But these two aspects mentioned are not the only ones to take into account; there are other characteristics such as the following:

– The effects of resignation are retroactive to the time of death.

– For the act of repudiation to be effective , the existence of some formal issues is necessary, which are not required for simple acceptance.

– Resignation does not make it impossible to accept the improvement or receive the legacies.

–         It cannot be waived if it causes harm to a third party.

– Or it cannot be waived if there has been some previous act by which it is understood that it has been tacitly accepted and the ways to do so are through a notarial act or by submitting a writing to the competent court.