Family home excluded
The new rules regulate special, urgent processes for the sale of properties that are part of an undivided inheritance, in cases where there is no agreement between heirs regarding a sale.

The legislation stipulates that the new regime applies "to all open and undivided inheritances" on the date the legislation comes into force.

At the suggestion of the PSD (Social Democratic Party), which saw several amendment proposals approved in committee, the family home is excluded from the special process for the sale of properties, "except with the express consent" of the widow or widower, with this guarantee also being extended to de facto unions.

Inheritances "in a state of insolvency" are also not covered by the special sale process, and not only, as foreseen in the Government's original proposal, situations with an "indivision agreement" or in which "the right to partition" could not be exercised.

Executor and Head of Household
The legislation creates the figure of an executor with powers of partition, which allows for the centralization in a third party of "powers of administration, liquidation and partition of the inheritance," with the aim of making the succession process faster by removing from the heirs the impetus for partition and the definition of the terms of the partition, as explained by the Government in the introduction to the law.

Another novelty is the entrustment of the administration of the inheritance and the functions of head of household "to any other person," provided that the decision is taken by "simple majority" among the heirs, except "when the head of household is the surviving spouse, and without prejudice to cases where there is an executor with powers of partition."

Alongside the legislation from the executive branch, in general, Parliament had also approved in early June a project from the Liberal Initiative to establish this possibility of defining the head of household by majority of the parties to the inheritance – a measure that was formally adopted in committee by the PSD.

Also at the proposal of the PSD (Social Democratic Party), the final version authorizes the government to define the regime for the figure of the executor, "in particular, the eligibility and exercise of the office".

The legislation also stipulates that the right to share the inheritance cannot be exercised if there is consent for post-mortem insemination during "the three years following the opening of the succession or until the complete and live birth of the unborn child, while the insemination procedures permitted under the law are pending".

Source: Lusa
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