Registration of certificate of inheritance
The Regulation EU No 650/2012 envisages that the Certificate of Inheritance should constitute a valid document for the recording of succession property in a register of a Member State (recital 18). Following previous approaches, ELRN has found diversity in the LR systems. It was found that this Certificate may be enough itself for registration, or may be enough together with additional requirements or deeds, or not enable it at all.
Impact of the Certificate for the purposes of registration in different LR systems:
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?
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?
- 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?
- 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’?
- 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?
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?
According to the Regulation (UE) No 650/2012 “in order to avoid duplication of documents, the registration authorities should accept such documents drawn up in another Member State by the competent authorities whose circulation is provided for by this Regulation”
