Shenzhen Property Worth Ten Million RMB Unable to Be Inherited and Transferred After Three Years? Tang Yunhong Lawyer Quickly Formulates Plan, Completes House Inheritance Transfer in Just 13 Days

One, Case Review:

Mr. Wang's parents passed away in 2011 and 2021 respectively. There are three sons in total, including Mr. Wang, and his two elder brothers have lived 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 in Longgang District, Shenzhen to one of her grandsons.

In 2021, after the elder passed away, Mr. Wang took the will to the Shenzhen Real Estate Registration Center to transfer the property. He learned from the center's staff that it was very difficult to transfer the property through the will as the designated heir was a Hong Kong resident, and the heir currently lived and worked in Hong Kong, stating that there was no need to inherit the heritage. 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 and no progress was made until 2024. Finally, the law firm suggested that Mr. Wang handle the property inheritance through litigation.

Mr. Wang believes that a lawsuit requires both the plaintiff and the defendant, and the entire litigation process is very time-consuming, and it is also easy to cause gaps among family members. In the end, he found the Dao Hua Family Law Firm located in Shenzhen to seek a solution.

Secondly, after accepting the entrustment, Dao Hua lawyer thoroughly reviewed the case details and quickly identified the key points of the case:

1Is the property a small property house?

Firstly, it is important to understand why the small property houses in Shenzhen cannot be registered for transfer, as it is clear that the small property houses in Shenzhen are all illegal constructions built without permission, which means they do not have legal ownership certificates. Therefore, they cannot be registered at the Shenzhen Real Estate Registration Center. The Civil Code of our country explicitly stipulates that the ownership of real estate property is determined by registration. Therefore, to this day, small property houses without property certificates in Shenzhen are still houses that cannot be transferred. Therefore, the most critical factor in determining whether a property belongs to the "small property house" category is to judge whether the property has undergone real estate registration and whether there is ownership proof, etc.

However, after communicating with Mr. Wang, lawyer Dao Hua found that the lawyer Mr. Wang entrusted in Huizhou made directional mistakes in judgment and handling due to a lack of understanding of the property policies in Shenzhen: Although the property Mr. Wang's parents purchased in Nanshan is residential, it was registered and obtained a property certificate at the time of purchase, making it a "red book house" in Shenzhen. This property is actually the legitimate property of Mr. Wang's parents and can be transferred through inheritance, and is not an "illegal small property" that cannot be transferred.

2In the case of a will, can real estate be inherited through legal succession?

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 legacy; if there is a legacy and support agreement, it shall be handled in accordance with the agreement," then, in this case, since Mr. Wang's mother indeed left a will, is it necessary to inherit the property in accordance with the testamentary succession? In fact, it is not the case. In practice, because many testators prepare their wills unilaterally, the content and form of many wills often conflict with the provisions of the law, whichinstead adds obstacles to the heirs when handling the inheritance.

In this regard, Lawyer Tang Yunhong pointed 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, and negotiate the resolution of inheritance matters. The time, method, and share of the division of the heritage shall be determined through negotiation by the heirs," which means that even if there is a will, the law does not prohibit heirs from distributing the heritage through the method of statutory inheritance when all heirs agree on the distribution of the heritage.

3How should the inheritance of the property share be handled in the case of a jointly-owned property between husband and wife, where both heirs have passed away?

China currently implements a joint property system for married couples, meaning that the property acquired by both spouses during the marriage is jointly owned by them, with each 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 got married, and the property is legally considered as the joint property of the two heirs. Moreover, Mr. Wang's father did not leave a will before his death, so the actual heirs in this case are Mr. Wang's parents. Therefore, in order to ensure that the property can be inherited 100%, it is necessary to handle the property shares owned by Mr. Wang's parents separately to ensure that the property can be successfully transferred and registered.

Three, based on the core points of the case and Mr. Wang's urgent need for the transfer of ownership, Dao Hua lawyer quickly tailored a solution for the client. Through the method of inheritance notarization, it took only 13 days to assist Mr. Wang in completing the property transfer and obtaining 100% ownership of the house.

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

On the day of the appointment, after a detailed discussion with Mr. Wang, Tang Yunhong, the lawyer, clarified the composition of the family members. In addition to the one designated as the heir by Mr. Wang's mother, the legal first-degree heirs of the deceased are Mr. Wang and his two brothers, three in total. After learning that the other three are willing to renounce their inheritance of the property, with rich experience in handling marriage and inheritance cases, it was quickly judged that the case can be inherited and transferred through legal succession.

The next day, Tang Yunhong, the lawyer, and his team went to the Real Estate Registration Center and the Notary Office to understand the specific procedures for notarized inheritance and inheritance transfer, as well as the required documents and proof materials. After that, they provided Mr. Wang with two plans and analyzed the pros and cons in detail.

1、In accordance with the general procedures for inheritance transfer.A minimum of 6 months of queuing time is required, with the lowest cost.

2、Through notarized inheritanceThat is, after obtaining a notarization of inheritance rights and the notarial certificate, one can go to the Real Estate Registration Center to handle the transfer registration with the notarial certificate, which requires a cost for the notarization fee, and it takes about 7 days from the notarization to obtaining the new house ownership certificate.

Finally, in the hope of resolving this long-standing problem that has been dragging on for two years as soon as possible, Mr. Wang chose the scheme of transferring ownership through notarized inheritance. After the plan was confirmed, the Dohua Family Law Firm immediately launched their work.

(Second)After determining the inheritance plan, Tang Yunhong, the lawyer, led the marriage lawyer team to take action, formulated a meticulous and orderly operational plan, tackled the core difficulties one by one, and implemented the inheritance plan.

1. Under the premise that Mr. Wang's family has agreed to allocate the property to Mr. Wang individually and that all heirs are willing to cooperate in handling the notarization procedures, the Dao Hua Law Firm team promptly drafted the "Declaration of Renunciation of Property Inheritance Rights" for Mr. Wang's two brothers regarding the property involved. By way of renunciation by two of the three heirs, the inheritance rights to 50% of the property under the names of Mr. Wang's parents were explicitly waived, ensuring that Mr. Wang, as the sole heir of the property, could legally obtain 100% of the property shares through inheritance rights notarization. At the same time, to further strengthen the effectiveness of the two renunciation declarations, while Mr. Wang was handling the inheritance rights notarization, the two renunciation declarations were also notarized simultaneously, ensuring that the notarization certificate could effectively play its role while effectively avoiding potential disputes and risks that Mr. Wang's family might face in the future, thus maintaining the stability and harmony of the family.

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

Based on Mr. Wang's situation, Tang Yunhong, lawyer with rich experience in the inheritance field, advised Mr. Wang to apply to the police stations in the household registration places 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 biological children of the two elderly, and simultaneously finding two relatives from the same village as witnesses to prove the marital and parental relationships of the two elderly, the problem of missing family member proof materials was effectively resolved through mutual assistance between the evidence of both parties and the testimonies of the witnesses.

Finally, with the full communication between Tang Yunhong, the lawyer, and the notary office, Mr. Wang smoothly prepared the necessary documents for the notarization.

(3) On the fourth day after accepting the entrustment, the Dao Hua Law Firm team accompanied Mr. Wang and his family to the notary office to handle the notarization.

After confirming the required materials and scheduling a time with the notary office, the Dao Hua law firm team accompanied Mr. Wang and his family, as well as two witnesses, to the notary office on September 2nd. Under the guidance of Lawyer Tang Yunhong, the preliminary communication and material preparation for the notarization were all in place. At the same time, the Dao Hua team was present throughout to assist the three heirs and the two witnesses in their communication with the notary. The entire process took two hours in total, and the two notarizations were successfully completed.

On September 9th, the eleventh day after accepting the entrustment, Mr. Wang successfully obtained two notarized certificates.

(3)On the appointment day, go to the Real Estate Registration Center to handle the house inheritance and transfer procedures, and successfully obtain the new property certificate.

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

Four, the Tang Code states:

In 2021, the Civil Code came into effect, stipulating that "the acquisition of property rights through inheritance shall take effect from the beginning of the inheritance." However, in practice, although the inheritance of property rights over houses takes effect from the beginning of the inheritance, due to objective factors such as history and policies, there are many cases where the transfer of property rights has not been timely registered. In relation to this case, due to reasons such as the existence of a will, the presence of Hong Kong residents among the heirs, and the lack of understanding of Shenzhen's local policies by the Huizhou lawyer appointed earlier, the transfer registration was not completed for three years after the mother's death, and the path of inheritance and confirmation of rights is fraught with difficulties.

Mr. Tang Yunhong, lawyer, pointed out that the key point of this case is how to quickly complete inheritance and transfer of property through legal inheritance when the will cannot be executed due to realistic factors. On one hand, in the case at hand, the family of Mr. Wang has a harmonious relationship among relatives, 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 inheritance matters, the more difficult it is to handle. In Mr. Wang's case, due to various reasons, the matter was delayed for 3 years, resulting in the property being left vacant and unable to receive effective management and maintenance. As time goes by, adjustments may also occur in the transfer procedures, leading to more difficulties in the future if transfer is to be carried out. 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 solution to resolve the inheritance and transfer.

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

(Tang Yunhong Lawyer)

Six,Statutory guidance

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

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

Article 214The establishment, alteration, transfer, and extinction of immovable property rights, which should be registered according to the law, shall take effect upon recording in the register of immovable property.

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

Section 7: Team Introduction

Dao Hua Marriage and Family Law Firm, ten years focused on · major property marriage and family legal services, expert in marriage inheritance and family disputes (mediation/trial), is [Shenzhen nativeOne of the influential brands in marriage inheritance and wealth management legal services.

The team has handled over 1000 cases related to marriage inheritance, and has extensive experience in dispute resolution fields such as complex marriage and family matters, inheritance disputes, will drafting, and family property distribution. Utilizing local wisdom, the team is skilled in handling difficult divorce property division cases involving Shenzhen's small property rights houses, village committee shares, will drafting and notarization, and inheritance disputes, winning unanimous praise from clients.

Adhering to the philosophy of "securing property safety, preventing legal risks, and empowering wealth appreciation," we gather experts from industries such as law, banking, insurance, and finance and taxation, with a wealth of successful cases. We provide a comprehensive package of solutions for high-net-worth individuals (including those from Hong Kong, Macau, and foreign nationals) in marriage, family affairs, and wealth inheritance, to achieve the beautiful vision of risk prevention and control, debt isolation, and family wealth inheritance.

Asset types include: real estate (residential property, small property rights house, land use rights, etc.), various property rights (equity, debt, relocation compensation, copyright, invention patents, etc.).

The team has completed the compilation of "A Collection of Successful Cases of Dao Hua Marriage and Inheritance" and "Legal Practice of Family Wealth Transmission," achieving remarkable achievements in both legal practice and theoretical research.