In the past decade or two, real estate has created countless wealth. As housing prices continue to rise, the vast majority of residents in our country have also formed a family asset allocation method that focuses on house buying and investment. A research report from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics shows that as of the end of 2020, more than 70% of the household wealth of my country's residents consists of real estate. Not only that, the central bank survey report also shows that more than half of residents in urban areas in my country spend 80% of their salary income on buying houses.
Chinese residents are famous all over the world for their love of buying houses. Spanish media once reported that the average age of buying a house in my country is 28, the youngest in the world. Many young people become middle-aged as soon as they graduate. Not only that, our country also has the highest homeownership rate in the world, as high as 96.4%. There are 1.5 suites per household in urban areas. Both data are much higher than those of many developed economies.
Why are Chinese people so fond of investing in real estate? In the final analysis, there are four main reasons: First, it is influenced by traditional ideas such as "having a house means you are superior to others" and "not having a house is a shame". In China, a house is not only a place to live, but also a carrier of education and a guarantee for retirement. It is worth mentioning that I don’t know since when the mother-in-law married her daughter, and buying a house has become one of the standard features. Secondly, due to the lack of safe and reliable investment channels, investing in buying a house has become a way to maintain and increase the value of assets in the minds of most people. important channels. This is indeed the case. In the past ten or twenty years, investing in buying a house has been an unparalleled magic tool for making wealth, and has established a god-like status in the hearts of many people. Thirdly, as a result of being educated by the market, in the past few years, House prices rise more than they fall, and those who buy a house early basically make a lot of money, while those who buy a house later have to bear more costs. Therefore, in the minds of the vast majority of Chinese people, one should seize every opportunity to buy a house, and the sooner the better; fourth, a house is a symbol of family wealth. In reality, many people regard the house as a "family heirloom" and another reason to desperately buy a house. The important purpose is to leave more wealth to future generations. Especially in big cities, this kind of thinking is more serious.
It is true that the market value of a house in second- and third-tier cities is as high as two to three million. This is a huge amount of wealth that many people cannot obtain through hard work in their lifetime. Therefore, houses have always played an important role in the inheritance of Chinese families.
Parents are trying their best to accumulate wealth for their children, buy more houses and save more money. Their ultimate goal is to hope that their children will have more money and a more fulfilling life in the future. But on the other hand, we have also seen that in reality, there are a large number of real cases of children competing for their parents' properties every year. At the least, the family relationship is weak, and at worst, they even go to court and form a bloody feud.
The market value may be as high as tens of millions, which makes many people lose their basic conscience when facing huge wealth. In other words, sky-high real estate prices are constantly challenging the public order and good customs of society; on the other hand, it reflects the imperfection and imperfection of our country’s laws and regulations on real estate inheritance. Especially when children inherit their parents’ real estate, there are still many aspects that need to be regulated and strengthened.
For example, in 2013, a news broke in Anyang, Henan Province. The son forced his father to have a "notarized will" and left the house to himself. Then in his later years, his father was ill in bed and needed constant care. , the son passed the responsibility to his sister again. The father finally "repented" and decided to leave the property in his name to his daughter, so he made another handwritten will. But after the old man passed away, the daughter could not inherit her father's property because according to the laws and regulations at the time, the notarized will had priority, so the handwritten will later established by the father was invalid.
Not only that, in many people’s traditional understanding, parents’ real estate must be passed on to their children. Therefore, when it comes to caring for their parents in their later years, many children do not do their best enough, and what’s more, Some rely on their sole inheritance rights, and some even criticize their biological parents in every possible way, failing at all to fulfill their responsibilities of supporting the elderly. The most annoying thing is that in the end, they can still inherit their parents' property without shame.
However, the new regulations of the "Civil Code" have been officially implemented since January 1, 2021, and there have also been major changes in the inheritance of parents' properties: inheritance of parents' properties must be based on four major "new regulations" "manage. In particular, the new regulations stipulate that starting from 2021, children may "no longer inherit" their parents' property under two circumstances, and it is useless for children to fight because the law is supportive. This will completely subvert many people's traditional understanding.
First, the new regulations give parents more autonomy in handling real estate. In both cases, children will "no longer inherit" their parents' real estate.
Article 1133 of the New Regulations stipulates that a natural person may make a will to donate personal property to the state, collectives or organizations or individuals other than legal heirs; Article 1133 of the New Regulations It is stipulated that if an heir who has the ability to support and the conditions to support fails to fulfill his support obligations, he shall receive no or less share when distributing the inheritance.
Based on these two new regulations, it is not difficult to find that the new regulations actually enlarge the rights of parents to freely dispose of real estate. The new regulations also provide support for some parents who wish to leave their property to a third party other than the legal heir. This means that from this year, as long as parents wish, they can pass the property in their name to anyone by making a will. In other words, they also have the right not to leave the property to their children. Is this really the case in reality? Of course there are. For example, some elderly people value love and justice, and their children have a relatively prosperous life. The elderly people are willing to leave their properties to nannies or friends who take care of them. In this case, they can do so by making a will. In this case, the children will “no longer inherit” their parents’ property.
In addition, we often see that many children are very unfilial. They did not fulfill their responsibility to support their parents when the old man was alive, but when the old man passed away, they ran out to fight for the property. Regarding this situation, the new regulations also clearly stipulate that if the responsibilities of supporting the elderly are not fulfilled, there is no need to divide the inheritance when distributing the inheritance. To put it simply, under the new regulations in the future, "unfilial sons" will most likely "no longer inherit" their parents' properties.
Of course, it needs to be clear that the decision-making power still lies in the hands of the parents. We seem to have no other solution besides moral condemnation for those situations where the children do not fulfill their filial piety, but their parents care about their family ties and do not have the same understanding as their children.
Second, the new regulations add a "forgiveness system", and children who have "made mistakes" can regain their inheritance rights
In reality, there is a very common situation, that is, children lose their inheritance rights due to various reasons. , such as abandoning the decedent or mistreating the decedent in serious cases; forging, tampering with, concealing or destroying wills in serious cases; forcing or preventing the decedent from establishing, changing or withdrawing wills by means of fraud or coercion in serious cases, etc., but after being punished, , the child completely repented, and the child was forgiven by the deceased.
In this case, the "mistaken" child can recover his inheritance rights. This is because Article 1125 of the new regulations stipulates that if the heir truly shows repentance and the decedent expresses forgiveness or later lists him or her as the heir in the will, the heir will not lose the right to inherit.
For example, Lao Li has two sons. The younger son has not been engaged in serious work since he was a child, and he has been idle and idle. This became even worse after he got married and started a business. Since the younger son has not had a regular job all year round, family expenses have become a problem. So he came up with the idea of ????taking over his parents' old house. He once stole Lao Li's real estate certificate, and then forced Lao Li to provide him with a mortgage loan. When Lao Li refused, the younger son punched and kicked Lao Li many times, and once again even sent Lao Li to the hospital. In this case, Lao Li completely "deprived" his younger son of his legal inheritance rights, and even severed the father-son relationship with his younger son for five years.
Three years ago, the younger son began to repent and decided to start a new life. In the past three years, my youngest son has not only gotten rid of his habit of idleness, but has also started his own vegetable vendor business. His life has improved and he now has funds. In the past three years, the younger son has taken great care of Lao Li's daily life and sent money to Lao Li from time to time. Under this situation, the relationship between Lao Li and his younger son gradually eased. At the end of last year, the family reunited, and the younger son cried and repented, and even knelt down to Lao Li to admit his mistake. Lao Li knew that his younger son had completely "returned his evil ways" this time, so he decided not to lose his inheritance rights.
Third, the new regulations expand the scope of heirs. Nephews and nephews have legal inheritance rights in the absence of the first and second heirs
New Regulations 1,110 Article 28 stipulates: If the decedent's children die before the decedent, the direct descendants of the decedent's children shall inherit by substitution. If the decedent's brothers and sisters die before the decedent, the children of the decedent's brothers and sisters shall inherit on behalf of the decedent.
In other words, starting from this year, the scope of heirs will be expanded to nephews, nieces, nephews, and nieces. This means that the previous situation of "without a legal heir living, the natural person's inheritance is nationalized" will no longer exist. Regarding this point, everyone is probably most familiar with the incident of “elderly properties being nationalized” that occurred in Shenzhen. The old man was alone and childless, and his only niece took care of him in his later years. However, after the old man passed away, his niece was unable to inherit the property worth five million in his name. The final analysis is because laws and regulations clearly stipulate that when the first and second heirs are not alive, the natural person's estate will be nationalized. The new regulations expand the scope of heirs to nephews and nephews, which means that this situation will no longer happen in the future.
Of course, we also found that this new rule has many controversies. Some people objected on the grounds that nephews and nephews have not fulfilled the slightest responsibility in supporting the elderly, and allowing them to legally inherit the inheritance will encourage the idea of ??getting something for nothing. It is more likely to trigger the crime of "property grabbing". Experts' interpretation of this is that the reason why the new regulations expand the scope of inheritance rights is that on the one hand it increases the possibility of property being passed down among relatives; on the other hand it reflects the state's protection of citizens' private property.
In other words, while extending the scope of filial piety, the rights holder's property can also be passed down among family members, thus protecting the rights holder's private property rights to a greater extent.
Fourth, two new will forms are added: printed will and video will. “The highest validity of a notarized will” has been deleted.
The traditional ways of making a will include self-writing, writing on behalf of others, and recording. 5 forms of wills: oral and notarized. And there is a certain hierarchical relationship between these five forms, that is, the notarized will has the highest validity. To put it simply, regardless of the several forms of wills made by natural persons, the notarized will will prevail in the end. There is a very big problem: the procedures for notarizing a will are cumbersome and difficult to change. It is understandable for the elderly to go to the notary office to notarize the will when they are still healthy. However, if they are dying elderly or elderly people with limited mobility, they will definitely not be able to do so. Therefore, the previous methods of making wills had great limitations.
The new regulations that have been implemented since this year have completely eliminated this "limitation". This is reflected in two aspects: first, on the original basis, printing and video recording will have been added to keep pace with the times, in order to respond to the needs of the times when technological tools such as printers and smartphones are widely used, and to fill the gaps in related fields; secondly, The second is to delete the "highest effect of a notarized will" - Article 1142 of the new regulations stipulates: After making a will, if the testator carries out civil legal actions contrary to the contents of the will, it will be deemed to have violated the relevant contents of the will. withdraw. If there are several wills and their contents are conflicting, the last will shall prevail. In other words, starting from this year, even if the elderly make multiple forms of wills, there is no priority relationship, and the last will will be the standard for execution.
It is worth mentioning that in order to prevent the elderly (testator) from being coerced, the new regulations also clearly require that two or more witnesses are required when making a will, and the witness who prints the will must participate in making the will. Throughout the process, the testator and witnesses signed every page of the will.
For example, Uncle Zhang made four wills during his lifetime. In order, they are a self-written will, a notarized will, a written will and a video will. The contents of each will are different, and the distribution of the inheritance The amount also varies greatly. According to the new regulations, after Uncle Zhang's death, the videotaped will is obviously the standard for final execution. Because at this time the notarized will no longer has the highest validity and has the same validity as other wills.
Professionals concluded that the reason why the Civil Code stipulates this is, on the one hand, to reduce the difficulty for the testator to modify the will, and on the other hand, it also fully protects the testator’s autonomy and more effectively ensures the inheritance can be handled in accordance with the will of the testator.
Summary: There are more or less "deficiencies" in the past regulations, which is also one of the root causes of farce over real estate among children. The new regulations have corrected and improved some contents in a timely and keeping pace with the times, making up for deficiencies and filling vacancies to some extent, which will greatly help reduce the possibility of future family disputes over inheritance.
In addition, the new regulations give parents the right to handle property, deposits and other inheritances independently, making it possible for children to "no longer inherit" their parents' property, and under legal and reasonable circumstances, it is useless for children to quarrel. . In a sense, this forces children to be more filial and take care of the elderly. It is also a warning to the world that the most precious things in the world are not external things such as houses and cars, but the love of brotherhood and flesh and blood. The details show the good intentions of the makers of the new regulations: while your parents are still alive, please perform filial piety as early as possible.