On November 15, 2023, the provisions adopted in July this year introducing important changes to the rules of inheritance will enter into force. They included the Civil Code as well as the Code of Civil Procedure. The legislator justified these changes with the desire to increase the efficiency of inheritance proceedings. These amendments can be divided into three areas.
I. Change in the provisions regarding consent to reject inheritance on behalf of a minor.
According to the current regulations, in order to reject an inheritance on behalf of a minor, parents needed to obtain the prior consent of the guardianship court. Such a regulation, although it significantly protected the minor’s property interests, led to an increase in the number of cases pending before guardianship courts.
A huge opportunity for improvement is the introduction of the possibility of applying for such a permit before the inheritance court, instead of before the guardianship court. Thanks to this, it will no longer be necessary to initiate separate proceedings to obtain consent, because such consent will be granted by the inheritance court (Article 6401 of the Code of Civil Procedure added).
The key change is to allow parents to reject the inheritance on behalf of a minor without the need to obtain the court’s consent, in the event that the child was appointed to the inheritance due to the parents’ previous rejection of the inheritance. For this right to be valid, the action must be performed jointly by both parents, or by one parent with the consent of the other. (Art. 101 §4 KRO)
II. Extension of the grounds for declaring someone unworthy of inheritance.
The legislator, in addition to the previously sent recognition of unworthy of inheritance, i.e. situations where the heir:
- he intentionally committed a serious crime against the testator;
- by deception or threat, induced the testator to prepare or revoke a will or in the same way prevented him from performing one of these acts;
- intentionally concealed or destroyed the testator’s will, forged or forged his will, or knowingly used a forged or forged will of another person
- persistently evaded the performance of the maintenance obligation towards the testator specified in the amount specified in a court decision, a settlement concluded before a court or other authority or another agreement;
- persistently evaded the obligation to take care of the testator, in particular resulting from parental authority, care, acting as a foster parent, the marital obligation of mutual assistance or the obligation of mutual respect and support of the parent and the child.
III. Limitation of the circle of inheritors
In the absence of descendants, spouse, parents, siblings and descendants of siblings, according to Polish law, the testator’s grandparents inherit.
The legislator limits the circle of heirs in the event of the death of one of the grandparents. After the death of one of the grandparents, his allocation will only be available to his children and grandchildren (and not to all his descendants, as before). In the absence of children and grandchildren, his share will fall in equal parts to the other grandparents.