How to find out if your relative had debts abroad? Do they threaten you when you inherit?<

In the article Is it possible to find out after the death of a life partner if and where he had debts? We addressed the question of how after the death of a loved one, such as a husband, wife or family, you will find out when settling the inheritance whether the deceased had any debts.

There are not many options. You can check the documents after the deceased, if you have the opportunity or if he has entrusted you with his / her obligations during his / her lifetime. But if you have no choice, you will not look for debts and possible loans. De facto, the heir is not able to find out whether the bequeather left the debts and, if so, in what amount, lawyer Bohumila Vodičková Krpcová told Měšec.cz at the time.

The article dealt with the situation when you find out the debts of the deceased in the Czech Republic. Of course, the deceased could also have paid debts abroad. But how do you find them? And do they possibly have any effect on the inheritance?

You won't find out for yourself, but you can protect yourself

As in the case of debts incurred in the Czech Republic, even those incurred abroad are the fact that you will probably not find anything yourself. You can try it, of course, and you may be lucky, but it's more likely that you won't know about it yourself.

But that doesn't mean you have no way of dealing with the situation or preparing for debts to arise over time. It is recommended that you take the following two steps so that your potential debts do not surprise you in the future:

1 - exercise the right to reserve the inventory of the estate, 2 - exercise the requirement to find a debt by the court.

You pay debts only up to the amount of the inheritance

The reservation of the inventory is defined by the Civil Code. You can claim it within one month of the court informing you of this possibility. You can either make the reservation orally or send it to the court in writing.

The moment you make a reservation of the census of the estate, you are protected from having to pay debts higher than a possible inheritance. If the heir has entered a reservation of the census, he pays the debts of the testator only up to the amount of the acquired inheritance, said attorney JUDr. Šárka Kincelová, partner and executive of the law firm Šárka Kincelová.

Conversely, if you don't make a reservation, inheritance can be more expensive. If the heir has not entered the reservation of the inventory, he pays the debts of the testator in full, which means even beyond the price of the acquired inheritance, adds Šárka Kincelová.

Multiple heirs can share the debt

If there are more heirs, it is a joint debt at such a time. The creditor, ie the person to whom your deceased relative owed money, has a legal right to want to repay the debt in full from any heir. However, if you repay the entire debt, you have a so-called recourse claim against other heirs.

This means that you have paid more than your share of the debt and you have the right to claim compensation from co-heirs. So that each of them will pay you what he had to pay according to his share of the debt, adds Šárka Kincelová.

§ 1876 of the Civil Code

(1) If a creditor invokes more than one of the co-debtors against one of the co-debtors, this co-debtor shall notify the others and give them the opportunity to raise their objections to the claim. He has the right to demand that they meet the debt according to the shares that accrue to them, or that they otherwise dispose of it to this extent.

(2) If a co-debtor has settled more than his share, he shall be entitled to compensation from other co-debtors. If one of the co-debtors is unable to meet, its share will be allocated proportionally to all others.

Ask the court to find the debts

In addition to enforcing a court inventory reservation in court, you should ask the court to find a debt. But be careful. This right can be exercised only by the heir who exercised the right to reserve the inventory of the estate, which is an important condition, says Šárka Kincelová. Therefore, if this right is exercised by anyone else, it will not be taken into account.

The person who has entered the reservation of the census must therefore also apply this requirement. Everything else will be arranged by the court. He shall invite the testator's creditors to notify and substantiate their claims within a reasonable time. The term is 3 months. The court will summon them by a resolution, which it will publish by decree and publish it on the official notice board of the court which has jurisdiction over the inheritance proceedings. That is, according to the residence of the deceased.

So the next 3 months will be to wait if someone applies to claim a debt. Then the summons expires and the inheritance proceedings take place.

Three possible results

In principle, there can be 3 situations.

First - no one has responded to the call. Therefore, no debts will be resolved within the inheritance proceedings and you and other heirs will share the property after the deceased relative.

Second - some creditors have signed up, so your deceased relative owed somewhere, whether you knew about it or not. But the debt was not higher than the amount of the inheritance. Everything has settled and you live happily ever after.

Third - more creditors signed up. Your deceased relative had a number of debts, and these exceeded the value of the inheritance. However, as heirs, you have asserted an inventory reservation and a court debt claim. If the creditors claim their debts and it is found that the estate is over-indebted, the estate is liquidated or the creditors can accept the over-indebted estate to settle their claims, informs Šárka Kincelová.

And when, after years, a foreign creditor comes?

One may then be aroused by the thought of what if your deceased relative had debts abroad. For example, some people trade across borders, others have lived there for years and have ties there, so there is a real risk that they could have debts there.

Then it can really happen that even after years, a creditor who only found out that his debtor has died. And so he wants to pay his debt to the heirs.

And then again, the inventory reservation may come in handy. A creditor who does not register within the time limit at the request of the court for notification and substantiated claims for the deceased does not have the right to pay the claim against the heir, if the estate is exhausted by paying the reported claims, informs Šárka Kincelová. This new creditor did not meet the then 3-month period.

In addition, if only some debt subsequently arises after the final termination of the estate, the court will not hear the inheritance afterwards. Whether the previous inheritance proceedings turned out to be any of the previous 3 variants. Additional proceedings on the division of the estate are permissible only if some asset - property, or even liability - debt appears, adds Šárka Kincelová.

It is different when the property appears

However, if the property also appears, the situation is different. If both the debt and the assets appeared, the estate would not be exhausted in such a case and another claim could be claimed by the creditor. However, if you dispute it, it is disregarded and the creditor would have to go to court. However, the limitation period also plays a role, and in the case of claiming a time-barred claim, it is possible to successfully defend against the limitation period.

The limitation period in this case is three years.

Therefore, if only new debts appear after the conclusion of the inheritance proceedings, the inheritance proceedings will not be renewed at all. If debts and property appear, but 3 years have passed since the inheritance proceedings, you have the right to file a limitation period objection in court and you have a great chance of succeeding. In this case, only the property will be distributed.

The biggest trap? "He wouldn't owe anywhere"

It is recommended to take the above steps even if you think that the deceased had no debts, or at least you do not know of any. This way you can insure yourself against unexpected debts in the future.

The big mistake is that many survivors are not interested in any debts and the risks involved. Heirs often do not apply the proviso to the census of the estate and the search for debt by the court. There are several reasons: the effort to save on notary fees, the beliefs of the heirs that the testator did not make debts, says Šárka Kincelová.

By not following these steps, however, you run the risk of having to pay your over-indebted inheritance, for which you may not even have the money.

None of the above steps means that the debt acquired by the heir by the decision on the division of the estate will not have to be paid by the heir who did not refuse the inheritance. The heir will have to meet the acquired debt, but he will ensure that the above steps do not fulfill more than he acquired in the inheritance, concludes Šárka Kincelová.