Hi not sure where this is best posted? Hope this will find its way to right people.
My swiss father died in 2018 his will stated that he wanted to leave everything, money and property (in his name only) to my stepmum in Usufruct.
He also requested that we ( my sibling and I, his biological children) wait until she died to inherit a 3rd of the estate along with my stepbrother ( my step mum’s son not my dad’s) We agreed to his wishes.
I am swiss my but have not lived in Switzerland since I was a child and have no idea about Swiss law. Could my step mum, who has the same wishes attached to her Will, change her mind and her Will effectively leaving us with no inheritance?
There is also a property that belonged to my grand parents and supposedly has passed to our ownership via my dad. It is still in his name ownership has not been legally changed to us.
We have nothing from my dad’s solicitor to state that we own the property having never received a certificate d’heritage after his death. Is this illegal? should we have received a Certificate? Would the certificate state that we are legal owners?
All a bit confused Swiss inheritance laws are pretty complicated
Oooh sorry didn’t expect this to end up in welcome and intros.
Hello first of all and thank you for adding me to the Forum. I am having a few historical inheritance issues and have a few questions. Thank you in advance for any replies.
There should be a notariat involved who writes the document.
" The document issued by the Swiss notariat (or district court) that formally lists the recognized inheritors is called the Certificate of Inheritance (in German: Erbschein, French: certificat d’héritier, Italian: certificato di erede)"
From your brief description, your father’s will did not comply with Swiss law which lays down percentages children must inherit
Under Swiss law there are percentages that should be given to children, wife, etc. this seems unusual coming from the UK where there are no such hard restrictions.
However, if all agree to waive their rights, then it can go in a different way. If it all went to the wife, then there would have been something you signed and this document is key i.e. did you sign away just the usufruct or everything.
If just the usufruct, then you technically did inherit the bare ownership already. If you signed away the bare ownership too, then you might want to check, but I think the widow could change her mind as if you all waived, she inherited everything.
I would check carefully what you have signed. If you waived everything, presumably this also included the grandparent’s property.
See my response in the other topic, but I’ll repeat it for free here:
Without dismissing the wonderful advice given on this forum … IMNSHO just get a serious lawyer, ideally one in the legal jurisdiction where your father legally bequeathed.
Honestly don’t quite understand why this is even a question, but here you go: Goofy’s paralegal advice for free.
You live abroad. You have seen the will. You know more than us.
Leaving the usurfuit of the house to the wife is very common. It means that she has exclusive use and you cannot do anything about it, but part of the house is already in your name. When she dies the usurfuit is canceled and you have full ownership. Note at this time you become also responsible for costs, tax returns etc. If your mom has a share in the house on her own (eg if before death the house was 50% hers, or the part she inherited herself from your dad), she is free to do whatever she wants. But for the part you already inherited no.
A notary or layer at around 400 chf per hour can get all the documents and advise… If you do not already have all the info, how could we know what happened ? At a minimum, as an owner you can order an extract of ownership from the canton for a small cost, this would show who is the legal owners and what percentage and who has any usufruit etc.
My advice would be to establish relationship with the other children, as when she dies you will all be co-owning a home with bills, maintenance, admin to pay, so you should all be aware of the amounts and have already a plan or discussion with them what you wish to do with the house in the long term.
The first question is what type of economic arrangement the marriage was concluded under. The default is “Errungenschaftsbeteiligung”, meaning what’s earned during the marriage is owned jointly but each spouse keeps sole ownership of whatever they brought into the marriage. Inheritances fall under the latter because the title to the inheritance was established by the heir’s birth, even if inheritance occurs after marriage (possibly relevant for the grandparents’ property). This post assumes that this applies to the father’s marriage.
It’s common to have what’s called an “Ehe- und Erbvertrag”. In this the couple usually regulates that the surviving spouse gets usufruct for life of what used to be the joint household including house or apartment. The latter is usually the main motivation for the contract. It looks like this applies here as well, it would be very unusual to do this via a testament but OP might not know and thus confuse this with a testament.
In all cases, death with multiple heirs of jointly inherited goods immediately and automatically establishes what’s called an “Erbgemeinschaft” (EG, company of heirs?). Each heir has a share in that company proportional to ownership, each member has veto power regardless of share size. From what you write OP, you and your sibling and the stepmother are members. The stepbrother however isn’t part of the EG because he has neither a mandatory share in the inheritance as he isn’t adopted nor does the testament assign him a share. This EG owns the property and deals with the upkeep including during the usufruct (subject to regulations in the testament), it can’t be dissolved unless the property is sold (which also requires consent of all parties). Upon the stepmother’s death, by default her share in the EG is inherited by the stepbrother. The EG also owns the grandparents’ real estate (unless it has been sold).
The first thing to do is to contact the notary who handled the inheritance case in order to establish the facts. You don’t need a lawyer for this but you might need one later on, especially if there’s uncertainty or dispute about who owns what, who’s responsible (and has to pay for) any property’s maintenance and upkeep, likewise who currently uses (and thus should pay rent for) the grandparents’ property, etc.
As far as far as I understand it we signed to agree to a usufruit for the whole estate. Which is to be divided by 3. Me, my sibling and step sibling when my step mum passes away.
They certainly do so that lawyer is wrong.
A friend has just received said certificate in Geneva. It took almost two years to be issued as things rarely move quickly here but she got it eventually.