Heir liability

By accepting an inheritance, you as heir enter into the debt position of the testator. In principle, you are also liable with your own assets for the debts of the testator.

However, you can limit your liability to the estate by opening insolvency proceedings or by administering the estate . The prerequisite for this is an application.

Through the respective procedure, a separation of the assets takes place in your favor. They are only liable for the testator's debts with the inheritance, but are then no longer entitled to dispose of the inheritance.

A further possibility of restriction arises from the so-called plea of poverty of the heir. The prerequisite is that the value of the estate is too low to cover the costs of insolvency proceedings.

However, you may lose this limitation of liability if you do not comply with your obligation to draw up an inventory (drawing up a list of all assets and assets) in due time.

For estate insolvency proceedings: Local court as insolvency court

For the administration of the estate: probate court at the district court

The court responsible for your place and your request can be found in the "Directory of Places and Courts", which is maintained jointly by the Federation and the Länder.

§§ 1967 et seq. of the German Civil Code (BGB)