The death of a family father in November 2024 gave rise to an inheritance dispute between his two children, heirs to equal parts of a home in Honfleur, Normandy. The property, valued at 400 thousand euros, became the epicenter of a conflict that threatens to end in court.
An inheritance that separates instead of uniting
The house in question is 200 square meters and a land of 450, and became the joint property of the two brothers, one resident in Paris and the other in Lyon. Since the opening of the inheritance, the relationship between them has deteriorated, to the point that they have “barely contact,” he said to the French newspaper Le Figaro to the notary Nathalie Couzigou-SUhas, spokesman for the Chamber of Notaries of Paris.
The brother who lives in Paris continued to attend the housing on weekends and during the summer, without notifying the other copapriter. The problem is that you want to keep the house, but you have no financial means to buy the part of your brother.
Accusation of misuse of the property
Lyon’s brother decided to visit the house without notice and found the other to enjoy the property. He felt injured and required financial compensation for the exclusive use of the property. He ordered 500 euros a month or 4,000 euros for eight months of use.
However, French legislation gives you no reason. The law provides for the possibility of claiming a kind of “income” only when one copapritaria prevents access to the other, as would be the case of exchange of locks. As both had the keys, the court would consider that there was no violation of rights.
SELECTION STAME
The house was put for sale by 450 thousand euros, price defined by the Parisian brother, accused by the other of inflating the value to make the transaction difficult. The latter says he accepts 410 thousand euros and is more interested in ending the process, according to the same source.
Negotiations, according to notary, are “advancing very slowly” and admits that if there is no agreement, the dispute could go to court. In this scenario, there is a risk that a judicial assessment sets a price below the market, which would result in a loss for both.
How the sharing of a inherited house works
In France, as in Portugal, when an inheritance includes real estate, they should be shared between the heirs, in this particular case the two children. In the absence of a will, the Portuguese Civil Code, in its article 2101, defines equal quotas: two brothers are each with 50%, three heirs with 33.33%, and so on. Each quota corresponds to the so -called prohibition, that is, an undivided fraction of the property.
Until the fate of the good is not resolved, none of the copopriers can act alone to sell or substantially alter the property, always being necessary the consent of all, the.
What if the inheritance were in Portugal?
In Portugal, similar situations are resolved through the figure of the action of division of common thing. If the heirs do not reach agreement, anyone can ask the court to order the judicial sale of the property, being the amount determined by proportionally to the quotas of each heir. As in France, this mechanism can lead to the final price to be lower than the market, representing losses to all involved.
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