The proposal aims to unblock the impasses caused by conflicts between heirs and allow more houses to enter the housing market.
The government will approve this Thursday, in the Council of Ministers, a set of new rules aimed at accelerate the resolution of conflicts in undivided inheritances and putting more homes on the housing market. The measure aims to facilitate the sale of inherited properties when heirs cannot reach an agreement.
According to the , the executive intends to create a special process that allow a single heir to trigger the sale of properties belonging to undivided inheritances, whether urban or rural. Currently, all it takes is the opposition of an heir to block the sharing process, which has led to thousands of houses remaining unused and off the market.
The new proposal establishes that, after two years of accepting the inheritance, if disagreement between the heirs persists, Any of them may legally request the alienation of one or more inheritance assets. The objective is to create a quick mechanism that allows prolonged impasses to be overcome.
In the foreseen process, the heir who initiates the request must submit an appraisal of the property. The other heirs will be able to present additional evaluations, and based on these estimates, a base sales price will be defined. The type of sale will be decided by a judge, and may include, for example, an electronic auction. The heirs themselves will also have the possibility of matching the value offered and keeping the property.
If any of the heirs opposes the sale, will have 30 days after notification court to present opposition. In this case, it will be up to the court to decide. Even when the sale goes ahead, the amount obtained will be integrated into the inheritance and subsequently distributed among the heirs according to their respective shares, ensuring that there are no sales made without the knowledge of the parties.
The initiative comes in the context of the housing crisis and long-standing criticism from homeowners’ associations, which point to undivided inheritances as one of the causes of many vacant properties. It is estimated that there are around 300 thousand empty houses in Portugal.
The Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Miguel Pinto Luz, had already defended the need to resolve this problem, referring to the “immorality” of having unused buildings in cities due to conflicts between dozens or hundreds of heirs.
