One, Case Review:

Mr. Wang's parents passed away in 2011 and 2021 respectively, leaving behind three sons, including Mr. Wang. Both of Mr. Wang's brothers have been living in Hong Kong for a long time. Mr. Wang's mother left a will before her death, bequeathing a property worth tens of millions of yuan located in Pingshan District, Shenzhen, to one of her grandsons.

In 2021, after the elder passed away, Mr. Wang went to the Shenzhen Real Estate Registration Center with the will to transfer the property, only to find out from the staff at the center that it was very difficult to transfer the property through the will because the designated heir was a Hong Kong resident, and the heir currently living in Hong Kong stated that he had no need to inherit the遗产. In 2022, Mr. Wang sought help from a law firm in Huizhou, but due to the lawyer's lack of understanding of Shenzhen's real estate policies, the issue of property inheritance was delayed until 2024 without any progress. Finally, the law firm suggested that Mr. Wang handle the property inheritance through litigation.

Mr. Wang believed that litigation would require both plaintiff and defendant, and the entire process would be very time-consuming, and it was also likely to cause rifts among family members. In the end, he found the Dao Hua Marriage and Family Law Team located in Shenzhen and sought a solution.

Two, After accepting the委托, the Dao Hua lawyers thoroughly reviewed the case details and quickly identified the key points:

1、Is the property a "small property house"?

Firstly, it is necessary to understand why "small property houses" in Shenzhen cannot be registered for transfer, and it is clear that all "small property houses" in Shenzhen are illegal constructions without legal ownership certificates, i.e., they are self-built without permission. Therefore, they cannot be registered at the Shenzhen Real Estate Registration Center. It is明确规定 in China's "Civil Code" that the ownership of immovable property is determined by registration. Therefore, to this day, "small property houses" without property certificates are still untransferrable properties in Shenzhen. Therefore, the key to determining whether a property is a "small property house" is to determine whether the property has been registered as immovable property and whether there is a property certificate, etc.

However, after communicating with Mr. Wang, the Dao Hua lawyers found that the lawyer Mr. Wang entrusted in Huizhou made directional mistakes in judgment and handling due to his lack of understanding of Shenzhen's real estate policies: although the property purchased by Mr. Wang's parents in Pingshan District is residential, it was registered and obtained a property certificate at the time of purchase, belonging to Shenzhen's "red book house", and the property is actually the legitimate property of Mr. Wang's parents, which can be transferred through inheritance and registered, and is not an untransferrable "small property house".

2、Can the property be inherited through statutory inheritance when there is a will?

According to Article 1123 of our Civil Code, "After inheritance begins, it shall be handled in accordance with the statutory succession; if there is a will, it shall be handled in accordance with the testamentary succession or donation; if there is a legacy and maintenance agreement, it shall be handled in accordance with the agreement," then, in this case, since Mr. Wang's mother indeed left a will, is the inheritance of the property necessarily to be handled in accordance with the testamentary succession? In fact, it is not the case. In practice, due to many testators preparing wills unilaterally, the content and form of many wills often conflict with the provisions of the law, which instead increases obstacles for the heirs in handling the inheritance.

Lawyer Tang Yunhong points out: In addition to Article 1123, in accordance with the principle of civil autonomy, Article 1132 of the Civil Code also stipulates that "heirs shall handle inheritance issues with the spirit of mutual understanding, mutual tolerance, and unity. The time, method, and share of the division of the heritage shall be determined by the heirs by consultation," which means that in the case where all heirs agree on the distribution of the heritage and consent to it, even if there is a will, the law does not prohibit heirs from distributing the heritage through statutory succession.

3、How to handle the inheritance of the share of property owned by the couple in common, in the case where both heirs have passed away?

Our country currently implements the system of joint property of the couple, that is, the property acquired by both parties during the marriage relationship is jointly owned by both parties, with each party holding a 50% share. In this case, although the property in question is registered in Mr. Wang's mother's name, the property was purchased after the couple's marriage, and the property is legally the joint property of the two deceased heirs. Moreover, Mr. Wang's father did not leave a will during his lifetime, so the actual heirs in this case are Mr. Wang's parents. Therefore, in order to ensure that the property can be fully inherited, it is necessary to handle the share of property owned by Mr. Wang's parents separately to ensure that the property can be successfully transferred through registration.

3. Lawyer Dao Hua, based on the core points of the case and in response to Mr. Wang's need for a quick transfer of ownership, quickly tailored a plan for the client, helping Mr. Wang complete the transfer of property rights in just 13 days through inheritance notarization, obtaining 100% ownership of the house.

（1）On the day of accepting the委托, Lawyer Tang Yunhong led the marriage lawyer team to quickly determine the solution.

After a detailed discussion with Mr. Wang, Lawyer Tang Yunhong clarified the composition of his family members, identified the first-degree statutory heirs of the deceased as Mr. Wang and his two brothers, and learned that the other three were willing to renounce their inheritance of the property. With rich experience in handling marriage and inheritance cases, she quickly judged that the case could be handled through statutory succession for the transfer of inheritance.

The next day, Lawyer Tang Yunhong and her team went to the Real Estate Registration Center and the Notary Office to understand the specific procedures and required documents and evidence for notarized inheritance and inheritance transfer, and provided Mr. Wang with two plans with a detailed analysis of the pros and cons:

1. Handle the transfer of property rights according to the general procedures for inheritance transfer, which requires at least a 6-month waiting period, with the lowest cost;

2. Through notarized inheritance, that is, after obtaining the notarized certificate of inheritance rights, the certificate can be used to go to the Real Estate Registration Center for the transfer of ownership registration, which requires a cost for notarization, and it takes about 7 days from the notarization to obtaining the new property certificate.

Finally, in the hope of resolving this long-standing problem that had been dragging on for two years, Mr. Wang chose the scheme of transferring the property through notarial inheritance. After the scheme was confirmed, the Daohua Family Law Firm immediately began working.

（二） After determining the inheritance plan, Tang Yunhong, the lawyer, led the family law team to take action, developing a meticulous and orderly operational plan, tackling the core issues one by one, and implementing the inheritance plan.

1. On the premise that Mr. Wang's family agreed to allocate the property to Mr. Wang personally, and that all heirs were willing to cooperate in handling the notarial procedures, the Daohua legal team quickly drafted the Declaration of Waiver of Property Inheritance Rights for Mr. Wang's two brothers regarding the property in question. By having two of the three heirs explicitly waive their inheritance rights to the 50% property shares of Mr. Wang's parents, it was ensured that Mr. Wang could legally obtain 100% of the property shares as the sole heir through the notarial inheritance method. At the same time, to further strengthen the effectiveness of the two declarations of waiver, while Mr. Wang was handling the notarial inheritance, the two declarations of waiver were also notarized, effectively avoiding any possible disputes that Mr. Wang's family might face in the future and maintaining the stability and harmony of the family.

2. In China, in addition to the relevant property ownership documents required for the notarial inheritance, it is also necessary to provide proof of the kinship relationship between the heir and the deceased. Both of Mr. Wang's parents are elderly individuals from the 1920s. On one hand, due to the long time elapsed, many documents such as marriage certificates and birth certificates of the heirs have been lost; on the other hand, the two other heirs, besides Mr. Wang, are residents of Hong Kong, and their household registration records cannot be reflected in the household register of the deceased.

According to Mr. Wang's situation, Tang Yunhong, with her extensive experience in inheritance matters, suggested that Mr. Wang apply to the local police station of the household registration place of the two deceased for family member certificates of the two deceased. By proving through the household registration archives of that year that the three heirs are the natural children of the two elderly individuals, and by finding two relatives from the same village as the deceased as witnesses to prove the marital and parental relationships of the two elderly individuals, the issue of missing kinship proof materials was effectively resolved through the mutual assistance of evidence and witnesses from both sides.

In the end, with the full communication between Tang Yunhong and the notary office, Mr. Wang successfully prepared the necessary documents for the notary.

（三）On the 4th day after accepting the委托, the Daohua legal team accompanied Mr. Wang and his family to the notary office to handle the notary procedures.

After confirming the required documents and scheduling an appointment with the notary office, the Daohua legal team, accompanied by Mr. Wang's family and two witnesses, went to the notary office on September 2. Thanks to the thorough preparation of the preliminary communication and material preparation under the guidance of Tang Yunhong, and with the Daohua team present throughout to assist the three heirs and two witnesses in their interactions with the notary, the entire process took two hours and the two notarizations were completed successfully.

On September 9, which was the 11th day after accepting the委托, Mr. Wang successfully obtained the two notarial certificates:

（Three） On the day of the appointment, go to the Real Estate Registration Center to handle the house inheritance and transfer procedures and smoothly obtain the new real estate certificate.

On September 9th, after confirming the receipt of the notarial certificate, the lawyer of Dao Hua immediately made an appointment with the Futian Real Estate Registration Center for the next day's real estate transfer registration and accompanied Mr. Wang to complete the real estate notarial inheritance transfer procedures at the real estate registration center window. On September 11th, the 13th day after accepting Mr. Wang's entrustment, Mr. Wang smoothly obtained the new house ownership certificate.

Four, Tang Law Explanation:

With the implementation of the Civil Code in 2021, it stipulates that "the acquisition of property rights by inheritance shall take effect from the time of inheritance," but in practice, although the inheritance of house ownership by the heir takes effect from the time of inheritance, due to the influence of historical and policy factors, there are many cases where the transfer registration of property rights has not been handled in a timely manner. In this case, due to reasons such as the existence of a will, the heir being a Hong Kong resident, and the lawyer entrusted by Huizhou not being familiar with Shenzhen's local policies, the transfer registration was not handled for 3 years after the mother's death, and there were many difficulties on the road of inheritance and confirmation of rights.

Lawyer Tang Yunhong pointed out that the key point of this case is how to quickly complete inheritance and transfer through legal inheritance when the will cannot be executed due to practical factors. On the one hand, in the case of this case, the family of Mr. Wang is harmonious, and there is no dispute over the inheritance of the property, so there is no need to determine the inheritance rights through litigation; on the other hand, the longer the delay in handling inheritance matters, the more difficult it is to deal with. In Mr. Wang's case, due to various reasons, the delay was 3 years, resulting in the house being idle and unable to be effectively managed and maintained. With the passage of time, adjustments may also be made to the transfer procedures, leading to more difficulties in future transfers. Therefore, through the method of notarial inheritance, quickly obtaining a notarial document recognized by the real estate registration authority to handle the transfer, is the fastest way to solve the inheritance transfer issue.

Therefore, when there is a need for inheritance, it is advisable to entrust a local professional inheritance law firm team to assist in the handling of the entire process, from formulating a dedicated inheritance plan to ensuring the smooth implementation of documents, materials, and communication coordination throughout the process, in order to ensure that the wealth accumulated over a lifetime by the deceased can be successfully inherited.

（Tang Yunhong Lawyer）

Sixth, Legal Provisions

The Civil Code of the People's Republic of China:

Article 209  The establishment, alteration, transfer, and extinguishment of immovable property rights shall take effect upon registration in accordance with law; without registration, they shall not take effect, except as otherwise provided by law.

Article 214  The establishment, alteration, transfer, and extinguishment of immovable property rights shall take effect upon registration as required by law, from the time of recording in the register of immovable property.

Article 230  The acquisition of property rights by inheritance shall take effect from the beginning of the inheritance.

Seventh, Team Introduction

Dao Hua Marriage and Family Law Firm, with ten years of focus on ·marriage and family legal services related to large-scale property, is a实战 expert in marriage inheritance and family disputes (mediation/trial), and one of the influential brands in [Shenzhen local] marriage inheritance and wealth management legal services.

The team has handled over 1000 cases related to marriage and inheritance, and has rich practical experience in mediation and litigation in complex marriage and family disputes, inheritance disputes, will drafting, and family property distribution. The team is adept at handling difficult divorce property division cases involving Shenzhen small property rights houses, village committee shares, will drafting and notarization, and inheritance disputes, winning unanimous praise from clients.

Adhering to the philosophy of "guaranteeing asset security, preventing legal risks, and empowering wealth growth", the team gathers experts from the legal, banking, insurance, and tax industries, has a wealth of successful cases, and provides a comprehensive one-stop solution for marriage and family and wealth inheritance for high-net-worth individuals (including Hong Kong, Macau, and foreign nationals), to achieve the beautiful vision of risk prevention and control, debt isolation, and family wealth inheritance.

Asset types cover: immovable property (commercial housing, small property rights houses, land use rights, etc.), various property rights (equity, debt, relocation compensation, copyright, invention patents, etc.).

The team has completed the compilation of "Dao Hua Marriage and Inheritance Successful Case Compilation" and "Legal Practice of Family Wealth Inheritance", and has made outstanding achievements in both legal practice and theoretical research.