Registration of certificate of inheritance

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?

• 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?
  Yes. Translation is not requested when an official European Certificate of Succession form is used.

Registration of multilingual deeds is possible.

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?

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.

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

Answer questions 1 -4:

The legislator of 1929 introduced in our Region the certificate of inheritance. It is  an official certificate of the right of inheritance issued by the Tribunal.

The proceeding starts with an application by the hers/legacee addressed to the competent Tribunal. The nature of the proceeding is of voluntary jurisdiction.

It states the identity of the heir and his respective share in the estate  as well as any limitations to the heir’s power of disposition over the estate.

It is presumed that the person identified as heir in the certificate of inheritance has the right of inheritance stated therein and is not subject to limitations other than those stated. The law protects those who acquire a property from the person named as heir in the certificate of inheritance in good faith.

They obtain title even though the transferor is not the true heir, unless they had knowledge of the inaccuracy of the certificate.

Having short described our system of successions, it is clearly to notice how many points in common it presents with the European Certificate of Succession.

The Certificate shall be issued in the Member State whose court have jurisdiction or by another authority which, under national law, has competence to deal with matters of succession ( art. 64). In our system it is the Tribunal’s competence.

The certificate shall be issued upon application by any person referred to in art. 63.

The persons indicated are the same referred to in our system.

In both cases the certificate states the status of heir or legatee and their respective shares of the estate.

The issuing authority, in our system as well as in the case of the European Certificate, shall verify the information and the documents provided by the applicant…..

LR law provides also the possibility of rectification, modification and withdrawal of the certificate as well as it is provided by art. 71 of  the Regulation.

The effects of the Certificate listed in art. 69 of the Regulation: paragraph 2 and 3 well synthesize what above described explaining the Italian certificate. The effects of both certificates are the same regarding the two profiles: the legitimation of heirs and the protection of third parties acting on the basis of the information contained in the certificate.

This said, we think that the scope of the European Certificate in systems like ours will not be to take place of internal documents used for similar purposes but to represent a valid mean to regulate cross-border successions.

No other document is necessary in our system to register.

• 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?
  No, we don’t verify the authority competence.
• 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’?
  In italian
• 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?
  No

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?

Art 69 of the Regulation provides that the Certificate shall constitute a valid document for the recording of succession property in the relevant register of a Member State.

Following the opinion of some jurist (Padovini) the Italian certificate would be replaced, when issued, by the European Certificate. No legalization or other similar formality shall be required.