How to avoid a Court claim
What to do when a hereditary succession with no Will also includes real estate assets or the deceased has left ownership of the same property to several people?
This is called as Property Community of Heirs as each heir becomes co-owner of a fraction of the property.
It often happens that each heir/co-owner may have different interests and goals for the said property. For example, one of the heirs would use it as a personal home and the other(s) to rent/sell it. However, any of these options needs to be agreed with the other heirs/co-owners to be implemented. For this reason, it is convenient to sell the property or to buy the shares from the other heirs/co-owners.
Unfortunately, this solution is not always feasible. Indeed, conflicts may arise between the co-heirs such as, for example, the lack of agreement on the sale price, or on the terms and conditions of sale.
Therefore, in order to protect the interest of the individual heir/co-owner to use liberally the right acquired by succession, Italian legal system recognises the right for each of the participants in the communion to request its dissolution (art. 1111 of the civil code). Specifically, each heir/co-owner can, even without the consent of the others, apply to the Court of the place where the jointly-owned property is located requesting the property to be sold to obtain the proceeds within the limit of their own quota; alternatively, after obtaining a consistent value of the asset, any heir can request and obtain the purchase of all the other shares.
However, before starting a judicial phase, the Italian law provided for the obligation to start the mediation procedure – alternative dispute resolution – as a condition of admissibility of the Court claim.
So, today it is possible to define the dissolution of the Property Community directly with an authorised mediator before whom the parties, in the event of a successful property sale or transfer of shares of an heir in favor of another, will be able to enjoy a great tax opportunity: the exemption from paying taxes and fees up to the threshold of €.50,000.00 which – in most cases – could allow a total exemption from taxes.
The Italian Lawyer offers assistance to Italians and foreigners in all phases of this delicate process, from the resolution of issues related to hereditary succession to the problems arising from co-ownership that arise between the heirs.
Furthermore, we offer assistance both in the mediation activity allowing the parties to overcome the difficulties related to the division of the inheritance, and in the eventual judgment in Court.
Please contact The Italian Lawyer for further information and clarifications, sending your request to info@theitalianlawyer.com