Many people believe that when a father or mother passes away, heirs can sell the land immediately. However, in reality, even though inheritance rights pass to the heirs, the land cannot be transferred or sold if the registration of inheritance transfer has not yet taken place.
Section 1599 of the Civil and Commercial Code (CCC) stipulates that when a person dies, their estate passes to the heirs immediately, and Section 1600 defines the property, rights, and duties of the deceased as the estate.
However, if the title deed remains under the deceased’s name, heirs cannot sell, gift, mortgage, or transfer ownership because the transfer of immovable property must be registered with the competent official according to Section 456 of the CCC. Therefore, the registration of inheritance transfer must be processed first.
Example: Mr. A enters into an agreement to sell land belonging to his deceased mother to Mr. B and accepts a deposit, but the title deed remains in the mother’s name. On the date of transfer, Mr. A cannot transfer ownership because he has not registered the inheritance transfer. Thus, the inheritance transfer must be completed first before ownership can be transferred to Mr. B in accordance with Section 456 of the CCC.
Supreme Court Judgment No. 2504/2543 (2000) laid down that the rights of an heir arise from the moment the estate owner dies, while registering the inheritance transfer is the step that allows full exercise of rights over the property.
Another point that many people wonder about is: Within how many years must the inheritance transfer be completed? The answer is that the law does not set a mandatory timeframe for registering the inheritance transfer. However, completing the process early helps reduce problems involving multi-generational heirs, lost documents, and future disputes.
