The intestate inheritance
Inheritance Law is that part of Civil Law, which regulates the fate of the property relationships of a natural person for the time after his death. Many times the heir himself takes care before his death to regulate his own property relations for the time after his death, drawing up a testament, private, public or secret. But since, as is perfectly natural, most people do not see or do not want to see the possibility of their death as visible, it is observed in practice that there are many who die indisposed in the sense of the Law, i.e. without having left some will, which regulates to which persons their property will fall. At other times, there is indeed a will of the inheritor, but in it the fate of only a part of his property is regulated, either because only this part wanted to be "left" at that moment by the inheritor, or because after the existing will was drawn up, the inheritor acquired and other property, the fate of which he did not regulate with a newer will. So what happens in all the above cases and how are property relations regulated in cases of no will?
It is precisely in these cases that the provisions of intestate succession apply, i.e. the provisions that regulate to which persons and at what percentage the property of the inheritor will be transferred, if the inheritor has not taken care to define it himself. With the establishment of intestate succession, the protection of the family of the inheritor is sought, as the property is essentially "divided" among the family with a certain degree of priority. On the other hand, however, the establishment of intestate succession also serves the security of transactions, as together with the assets of the property, the liabilities, i.e. the debts of the inheritor, are transferred, and thus each lender is not at risk of losing money, which may the deceased owed him, since surely someone will inherit the deceased.
Our Law of Inheritance has regulated intestate succession by establishing six "classes", which consist of the relatives of the decedent and which inherit in order of priority, which means that if an heir is found from the first class, he will not inherit none of the second class and so on Next we will examine exactly which relatives are called in each class and how exactly this system of classes works in intestate succession.
In the first class, the descendants of the inheritor inherit, i.e. his children and grandchildren, and the spouse of the inheritor, if any. These relatives, if any, inherit the entire property of the deceased, to the exclusion of any other relatives in the following ranks. So for example, if A died intestate and had a wife B and children C and D, then the wife will inherit 1/4 of the estate and the remainder will be inherited by children C and D, who will each inherit 3 /8 of the property. If, in the same example, child D had predeceased A but had his own children E and Z, then E and Z would inherit the share that would have belonged to their parent, i.e. 3/8 of the property, i.e. from 3/ 16 each. The wife, as we have seen, inherits 1/4 of the property and this only happens when she inherits in the first class, i.e. if there are descendants of the inheritee. Otherwise, the wife's rate is increased, as we will examine below.
If now the inheritor has no descendants, then the second class is called, i.e. the parents and siblings of the inheritor, who inherit equally and together with them the wife also inherits, who in this case does not get 1/4 of the inheritance but 1/2. So for example if A died intestate and had a wife B, parents C and D and a brother E, then the wife will inherit 1/2 of the property and the rest will be inherited by C, D and E, who will inherit the each of 1/6 of the property. If of course in the same example there was no spouse then C, D and E would share the entire inheritance and therefore each would receive 1/3 of the property.
In the current case where there are no relatives even from the second class, then the third class is invited to the inheritance succession, i.e. the grandparents of the inheritee and together with them the wife inherits 1/2 of the property. So for example if A died intestate and had a spouse B, grandfather C and grandmother D, then the inheritance shares will be structured as follows. Wife B will inherit 1/2 of the property, and B and C will inherit the rest, i.e. they will share 1/4 each.
In the fourth grade, which rarely happens to be called to class
hereditary succession, in the absence of other relatives, the inheritor's great-grandparents and possibly the wife, if any, inherit in 1/2 of the inheritance. So if A died intestate and had a wife B and a great-grandfather C then the wife will inherit 1/2 of the property and the great-grandfather the remaining 1/2. If the deceased also had a great-grandmother D then C and D would share the 1/2 of the property and each would receive 1/4.
Now if the inheritor had no relatives but had only a wife, then the fifth class is called to the succession, i.e. only the wife, who will receive the entire inheritance. The wife, as has already been realized, participates in the succession in every case and the only thing that differs is the percentage of her participation in the inheritance. If he inherits with descendants, i.e. children or grandchildren, he gets 1/4 of the property, if he inherits with other relatives, he gets 1/2 of the property, and if there are none of the above-mentioned relatives, then he gets the whole inheritance.
So all the cases were mentioned, in which there are relatives or even a wife, to inherit. But what happens in the event that the inheritor had no relatives or was married? And this case is regulated by the provisions of intestate succession, which explicitly state that in these cases the sixth class, to which the State belongs, is called to inherit. This provision guarantees the security of transactions, because in any case the inheritance cannot remain "orphaned", but goes to the State, which cannot in any case renounce the inheritance, as any natural person can certainly do is called to inherit.
We have examined above in general terms the basic rules, based on which the intestate succession operates. By quoting the relevant examples for each case, I hope that it became even more understandable the way in which, based on the Law, the property of each heir is distributed in the absence of a will. In fact, Inheritance Law is one of the most complex and difficult to understand parts of our Civil Law, but in any case, knowledge and understanding of inheritance provisions is very useful for the average person, as the change brought about by the death of a person in property relations , is particularly important.
Alexandros G. Tsapelis, Lawyer