Application of Certificate of Inheritance

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An inheritance certificate confers you as the heir to banks, authorities, courts, etc. It is generally necessary, if the testator has not left a notarial disposition of property by death, in which he has named the heirs by name. In the application of certificate of inheritance, which is drafted by the notary, you assure under oath that the information given there about the legal inheritance conditions of the testator represents the truth.

Checklist

For the meeting regarding the application of certificate of inheritance, you must expect the following questions from the notary and submit the following documents:

Questions

  1. What nationality(nationalities) did the testator possess?
  2. When and at which location did the testator die, what was his last place of residence?
  3. Did the testator leave behind dispositions of property upon death (testaments, inheritance contracts)?
  4. Was the testator married, widowed, divorced, single or living in a partnership, in the case of marriage or civil union, in which state of matrimonial property regime (joint ownership of the increase in capital value of assets, separation of property, community of property) did he live?
  5. Full name, date of birth and address of the surviving spouse/civil partner and the surviving children? If the testator had neither spouse/civil partner nor children, full name, date of birth and address for his next of kin?
  6. Full name, date of birth and date of death of the spouse/civil partner and the children, which the testator has survived?
  7. Did the testator have illegitimate or adoptive children?
  8. Does property belong to the estate? Where is it located?
  9. How high is the pure value of the estate (market value of the assets, less debts)?

Documents

  1. Family register, if not included: testator’s death certificate and predeceased persons, marriage certificate, if married at the time of death, birth certificates of the heirs,
  2. Divorce decree, if divorced at the time of death,
  3. Testator’s last will and testaments and inheritance contracts, possibly with the opening record of the probate court,
  4. Testator’s matrimonial contracts.

Costs

Notary fees cannot be levied or negotiated at the will of the notary; they are strictly regulated by law. Decisive is the Court and Notary Fees Act that applies throughout federal territory. Therefore, the same fees are always charged by each notary for the same notarial activity.

The notarization fees are based on the so-called commercial value, in the case of an application of a certificate of inheritance according to the testator’s net worth (market value of all estate objects less debts). This includes the consultation and creation of the draft as well as changes. In addition, there are usually some additional small expenses for copies, postage and telephone as well as the statutory value-added tax. If the notary takes on additional responsibilities in connection with the application for the certificate of inheritance (requesting of personal certificates, rectification of land charge registries and the like), then additional charges will apply:

Examples:

Net worth: € 100.000,00   Net notary costs ca. € 280,00
  € 200.000,00   € 440,00