Registration of certificate of inheritance

Note: See Paragraph 82 of Regulation EU No. 650/2012, which states that Articles 1 and 2 of Protocol no. 21 on the position of the United Kingdom and Ireland in respect of the area of freedom, security and justice annexed to the Treaty on European Union and to the Treaty on the Functioning on the European Union, those Member States are not taking part in the adoption of this Regulation and are not bound by it or subject to the Regulation. This is, however, without prejudice to the possibility for the United Kingdom and Ireland of declaring their intention of accepting this Regulation after its adoption in accordance with Article 4 of the said Protocol.

Ireland is therefore not currently bound by the Regulation.

1. To what extent could the Certificate be registered in your Land Registry? Is this Certificate enough for the registration of ownership (or other rights in rem) in the name of the heirs (or legatees)? Otherwise, which other additional documents or complementary requirements would be needed?

In order to effect any registration, an application must comply with Land Registration Rules and Forms. In matters of succession, the application currently must be accompanied by a Grant of Probate issued by an Irish court, which vests in the personal representative/executor the power to deal with the estate. If the regulation were to extend to Ireland and a Succession Certificate is to have the same effect in Irish law as Grant of Probate, changes in legislation i.e. to Land Registration Rules would be required in order to allow for the acceptance of the certificate. In the Irish Registration system, the Land Registry is not entitled to look behind the Grant of Probate and the person in whose favour it issues has the power to deal with the estate of the deceased including registered land. He/she then administers the estate in accordance with the law under the Succession Act, 1965 and makes the appropriate application to update the register.

• Do you request official translations of European Certificates of Succession that are drawn up in a foreign language? Is the registration of a multilingual deed possible?
  N/A

2. In particular: for the purposes of registration, if the interested parties have complied with a Certificate of Inheritance adequately, will sharing out or distribution of estate deeds be also necessary?

If a certificate is accepted in Irish law, in order to effect registration in line with the terms of the certificate of inheritance, an application would need to be made to update the register in the appropriate Land Registry transmission form which are used specifically for the purpose of registration where the registered owner is deceased.

3. In the event that the Certificate cannot be used for purposes of registration at all in your LR system, please let’s know the legal reasons.

As stated above- Ireland is not adopting the Regulation.

4. May the Certificate be rejected by your registration authorities in the event of inadequate completion, mistakes or inaccuracies?

As per above

• Do you control whether the authority, who issued the Certificate, is indeed competent to do so? Imagine you receive a request for the registration of a European Certificate of Succession that is drawn up by a foreigner claiming to be a notary in the Netherlands. Do you actively control whether this person is actually a notary in the Netherland and if so, how do you control this?
  N/A
• A foreign ‘court’ has drawn up a European Certificate of Succession and submitted a request for registration to your organization. As the Certificate does not comply with your national registration requirements, you have to reject the application. In practical terms, how and in which language do you contact the ‘court’?
  N/A
  
• Does your answer to the preceding question change when it is not the issuing authority but the heir himself who submits the request for registration?
  N/A
  

5. For the certificate to be effective for the distribution of the estate and its registration, should this document be issued by national notaries or other practitioners or could it be issued by foreign notaries?

As per above