With the inheritance, the estate of the deceased is divided by shares and not by assets. So very frequently it happens that the properties find themselves in co-ownership between several heirs, each of whom with a share of the property equal to the hereditary share. The decisions and use of the house in sharing they can therefore be rather difficult, but the law provides for means of protection to ensure that every heir can exercise his right. The co-heir occupying the inherited house in fact it faces unpleasant consequences, here’s what is the procedure to defend yourself.
Does the co-heir who occupies the inherited house have to pay the rent?
The first remedy to implement in the event that one of the owner-heirs refuses to let others use the house is to ask him to pay some sort of rent. This type of procedure was granted by the Cassation court, in particular by the sentence n. 2.423 of 9 February 2015. In particular, the co-heir who occupies the house is obliged to pay the other heirs aemployment allowancebut only in the event that he has denied them the enjoyment of the property.
In other words, if one of the co-heirs occupies the inherited house and makes exclusive use of it, nothing is granted to them if the others do not request to use the property. In the opposite case, however, in which the request of the co-heirs is denied, they can claim the employment allowance. In this case it is therefore necessary to make a formal request and in case of further refusal to go before the judge citing judgment the co-heir. The occupancy allowance essentially acts like the rent, but its amount must by law be equal to two-thirds of the rent applied to similar properties in the same urban area. This type of indemnity, in fact, serves as a remedy to equalize the conditions of co-heirs.
How to use the co-inherited house
The occupation allowance represents only one of the possible remedies to allow all the heirs to enjoy the inherited property. The possible alternatives are:
- Enjoyment in turn.
- The rent.
- The sale.
- The division.
Il enjoyment in turn of the inherited house can be chosen jointly by the heirs, who will have to establish the periods of time available for each of them. As a rule, this solution can be difficult to implement and not particularly convenient, unless it is a holiday apartment, for example.
The most useful choice to favor the rights of all co-heirs is instead the division, which can occur by nature, i.e. by materially dividing the house and separating the spaces, or by the money raised from the sale. At the same time, co-heirs can also rent the house and divide the rent. The division, moreover, can be the result of the agreement or the consequence of the judicial procedure. The latter can be initiated by any of the heirs, regardless of the share of the property, in order to obtain enjoyment of the house and its fruits.
What to do if the co-heir refuses to leave the house
If the co-heir who occupied the house does not let others use it, it is not possible push him away forced, as part owner. Even in the event that he were to change the keys and the lock, he would not commit an offence, unless the other co-heirs lived in the building. The best guess is that the co-heir in question buy shares of the others, but in case of refusal, the sale of the entire house will be inevitable. Considering that the co-heir wants to enjoy the property exclusively, it is very probable that he opposes the sale, which is why the only solution is the procedure judicialwith the disadvantage that the price of the property could be devalued.
