Expert: Henning Haarhaus - 2/23/2009

Question
If an Italian person dies with an estate plus debts, and these are paid out from the estate, is there any fixed period from death within which any unknown debts can collected by the creditors after which all claims are disallowed ?  We have a problem in that the sister of my wife wishes to pay out her share of the deceased mothers' flat using her and her children's inheritance from her deceased husbands estate but tells us that due to the debts he left she cannot use the money from the estate until until 2011. Husband died in 2006 and this seems a very long time in law.

Answer
The innheritors are always liable for the debts of the decedent with their own assets. However, they can limit their liability if they accept the inheritance with the reservation that an estate inventory is established (accettazione con beneficio d´inventario). In that case the inheritor´s assets and the estate remain two separate properties.

Probably, an acceptance with the formentioned reservation would not permit the inheritor to use the estate for himself before all debts have been paid but I am not sure about that. At first, you should find out if such reservation had been declared at all or if she accepted the inheritance without it (accettazione pura e semplice). In the latter case it should be possible for her to use the husband´s estate. She would be liable for his debts anyway.

I cannot tell you if there is a special provision stipulating that debts would become time barred after a certain time. However I do not think so - why should the creditor´s rights be cut due to an inheritance case?