A renunciation of inheritance can have unintended consequences, as a decision by the Federal Court of Justice on March 22, 2023, shows (Case No. IV ZB 12/22). This could have been avoided with a will.
Decedents should carefully plan the transfer of their assets and not leave it to the statutory order of succession. With a will or inheritance contract, it can be ensured that the estate ends up with the heirs who are intended to inherit. This can also spare the relatives trouble, according to the law firm MTR Legal Rechtsanwälte, which advises its national and international clients on inheritance law as well.
In the case before the BGH, the decedent had not created a will. Therefore, his estate was inherited by his wife and their joint children as statutory heirs. There was no dispute among the heirs—on the contrary, the children agreed that the mother should become the sole owner of the apartment. Therefore, they renounced their inheritance and assumed that this would make the mother the sole heir.
The renunciation of inheritance by the children was surely well-intentioned, but it backfired. The mother did not become the sole heir as a result. Instead, the renunciation meant that the siblings of the decedent became heirs, replacing the children, due to the statutory order of succession.
One son tried to correct this mistake by contesting his renunciation of inheritance. He based his contestation on the mistake that he believed his mother would become the sole heir through his renunciation. However, the contestation was not successful.
The BGH decided that contesting the renunciation of inheritance due to a mistake was not possible. The BGH argued that contestation is only possible due to a mistake in the content. Such a mistake is present if the actual heir was mistaken about the legal consequences of their renunciation. But that was not the case here, as the son lost his status as heir as intended. He was only mistaken about the indirect consequence of who would become the heir in his place. This was not sufficient for a contestation due to a mistake in the content, according to the BGH.
Experienced attorneys at MTR Legal provide advice on wills, inheritance contracts, and other questions of inheritance law.
