One of the things I often have to explain to sellers who decide to put a property resulting from an inheritance on the market is the regularization of the "legal" position of their property prior to the sale. In this article I will explain what tacit acceptance of inheritance means and why it is mandatory to do so if you have not transcribed the inheritance before.
Different types of succession: legitimate or testamentary?
Inheritances in Italy are of 2 types, legitimate inheritances, which are regulated by law whereby, legitimate heirs are entitled to a legally established share divided equally of the entire estate, and testamentary inheritances, where the deceased has established the division of the estate by will. Usually, a will is left in "safekeeping" by a notary public who, at the time of the death of the person who has asked to guard it, summons the heirs and opens the will to read the will of the "de cuius" (this is the name given to the deceased in the succession).
In either case, once the inheritance has been accepted, the names and various tax information with the relative shares of the new owners of the various assets must be reported to the Internal Revenue Service.
How to make the declaration of inheritance
A declaration of inheritance is a document that is filled out by a tax professional (accountant, Caf, or offices that provide tax assistance) and is reported to the IRS so that taxes can be collected from the new owners of the property. What many people believe is that, having made this declaration, everything is in order to carry out the sale of a property. Especially when it comes to testamentary successions, which are carried out by the notary public, heirs have the belief that everything is all right and they can go straight to the sale.
There is actually a legal problem that arises when the declaration of inheritance is made in the IRS.
What the notary is needed in the case of succession
There is no worse thing to report to a seller a few days before the deed than: "you have to spend 500/600 € at the notary when you sell the house".
Yet, it is a necessary cost to incur if one has not inquired beforehand about how to communicate succession. What people do not know is that reporting to the IRS does not automatically turn you into an owner from a "legal" point of view, but only from a tax point of view. The registry that a notary public consults to verify whether ownership of a property is actually yours is the land registry. There, in fact, all transfers of ownership and the various events of the properties are noted.
This will require tacit acceptance of the inheritance, i.e., official notification to the conservatorship that the inheritance has been accepted by the heirs and they are now the new titleholders, if not done first.
What is tacit acceptance of inheritance?
For succession law:
Acceptance is tacit when the person called to the estate performs an act that necessarily presupposes his or her willingness to accept and that he or she would not have the right to do but in the capacity of heir
article 476 civil code
These acts include, of course, the sale of property received by inheritance. This is precisely why tacit acceptance is made and specified in the very deed of sale drawn up by the notary. The costs that the notary charges the heir are the taxes that must be paid to the registrar to transcribe the acceptance and a portion as compensation for the work performed.
Generally, the costs to be incurred for tacit acceptance of inheritance range from €500 to €600
