Required Materials for Inheriting Property in China
Time:2024-07-27 15:41:38Source:Click:次
This article discusses the materials required for heirs to complete the inheritance process when the deceased did not leave a valid will, and statutory inheritance applies. If there is a valid will, the inheritance should follow the terms of the will. Issues related to inheritance by will shall be discussed separately.
1. Death Certificate
First and foremost, the prerequisite for inheritance is the death of the decedent, thus the decedent’s identity proof and death certificate must be provided. In practice, the most common inheritance cases involve children inheriting their parents' estate. In some situations, overseas heirs might not be present at the time of their parents' death, and other heirs or relatives handle the posthumous affairs. The heirs themselves might not possess the parents' death certificate. In such cases, obtaining the death certificate is necessary.
Forms of death certificates include a hospital-issued death certificate, a cremation certificate from the crematorium, or relevant documents from the local police station where the household registration was canceled. If other heirs or relatives possessing these documents are uncooperative, one might need to retrieve them personally or through a lawyer from the hospital where the parent was admitted, the crematorium, or the police station where the household registration was canceled.
If the decedent died abroad, the corresponding death certificate must be notarized and authenticated in the country of death (this might require consular or Hague Apostille certification, depending on the situation), and accompanied by a Chinese translation for use within China.
2. Proof of Kinship
For statutory inheritance, the basis is the existence of a specific kinship, such as the parent-child relationship, entitling the heir to inherit the estate. Therefore, the heir must provide proof of kinship. The specific documents required depend on the relationship between the heir and the decedent. For instance, the parent-child relationship can be proven through a birth certificate, household registration book, or notarized documents. A marriage certificate can prove a spousal relationship.
In cases of inheriting from parents, it's often necessary to prove the death of each of the parents' own parents (i.e., the paternal and maternal grandparents predeceased the parents). This is because, under Chinese inheritance laws, parents, spouses, and children are classified as first-order heirs. Such regulations often create complications for children inheriting their parents' estate. In many cases, due to the long time lapse since the grandparents' deaths, obtaining their death certificates can be challenging. If the parents were public servants or worked within a state-owned organization, their personnel records might contain useful information. Additionally, visiting the hometown's residents' or village committee might help in obtaining some documentary evidence. It's even possible to gather evidence from the grandparents' tombstones or other memorial sites.
Moreover, for immigrants who have obtained foreign nationality, especially those whose names changed in spelling upon naturalization, proving their identity as heirs might require additional steps. This might involve obtaining a notarized certificate confirming the identity of the same person.
3. Proof of Inherited Property
The third category of documents needed for statutory inheritance pertains to the type and value of the inherited property, commonly including bank deposits, real estate, vehicles, and company shares etc.
For bank deposits left by the decedent, the heir can take the decedent’s death certificate and proof of kinship to the relevant bank to inquire about the balance of the deposits or the balance of non-deposit financial assets issued or managed by the banking institution.
For real estate, the property ownership certificate serves as proof of ownership. If the heir cannot obtain the property certificate (for example, if it is withheld by other heirs or lost), they can take the death certificate and proof of kinship to the real estate registration and transaction center in the property’s location to query the decedent’s property records.
For non-market housing (central government unit allocated housing), additional procedures must be completed at the property rights unit to enable market transactions. However, some of thoese housing cannot be traded on the market; under current legal policies, heirs only obtain the right to use such property, not to sell or monetize it.
For more inquiries, you may contact David Gao, Attorney at Law
· Tel: 86-13611158067
· Email: gaohexin@163.com
