The most common wills are self-written wills and proxy wills. You can tell what they mean by their names, right? One is written by himself, and the other may be illiterate or for physical reasons, but they are all legally binding.
But the question is, how to determine this legal effect? This means how to make sure that this will is valid. In fact, I made a brief comment on the query. It was clearly stipulated in the previous inheritance law, but after the Civil Code came out, this law was moved to the Civil Code.
Articles 1 134 and 1 135 of the Civil Code.
A self-made will is written and signed by the testator, indicating the year, month and day.
A will that entrusts others to write on behalf of others shall be witnessed by two or more witnesses, and one of them shall write on behalf of others, which shall be signed by the testator, agent and other witnesses, and marked with the year, month and day.
However, for this question raised by the subject, I also specially consulted a lawyer online, haha.
The lawyer told me that the most common cases about the validity of wills are the validity of "self-written wills" and "proxy wills".
Both of these wills belong to written wills, and the two most important parts are the specific content and signature. Through these two parts, we can distinguish between self-written will and agency will. See, they're still lawyers, so get to the point.
According to the above law, if the specific content is written by the testator himself, the signature is also signed by the testator, and the year, month and day are also indicated, then the will is an effective self-written will.
However, if the specific content is not written by the testator himself, even if the signature is signed by the testator himself, this will is not an effective self-written will, but an agent will stipulated in the Civil Code. To ensure the validity of the proxy will, there must be a premise that "the proxy will should be witnessed by more than two witnesses". As I mentioned just now, this is stipulated by law and there is no room for discussion. In addition, the factors that constitute an effective ghostwriting will are written by one of the witnesses, and then signed by the testator, ghostwriter and witness, so the date is naturally needed. Some people here may have questions. What if the testator can't write? You can press your fingerprints. Oh, haha, this is easy to solve.
I once saw a case of writing a will on the internet, and finally ruled that the will was invalid. The specific content is not written by the testator, and can only be considered from the perspective of writing a will on behalf of the testator. However, it was mentioned in the case that because there were no more than two witnesses present, the people's courts at the two levels considered the will illegal, that is, it was invalid. The final ruling is very unfavorable to the testator, and the natural loss is great, but the court recognizes it according to law, and there is no problem.
On the identification of the validity of self-written will and agency will, I will summarize it for you:
The conditions for the validity of a self-written will are: the content written by the testator himself+the signature of the testator himself+the date of the testator, but both are indispensable.
Conditions for the validity of a proxy will: there are more than two witnesses present+the agent is one of the witnesses+the testator, the agent and other witnesses have the same signature+date, year and month, but both are indispensable.
In fact, I also found a problem, that is, the witness problem, but I found the relevant laws.
Article 1 140 of the Civil Code: The following persons cannot be witnesses of the will: ... (3) People who are interested in the heirs and legatees. "。
This is easy to understand. A witness must first have full capacity for civil conduct, and he must also have the ability to testify. As for whether this ability exists, it depends on specific facts. For example, people who can't read, don't know enough about the language used in the will, and people who don't have the ability to know the contents of the will because of physical defects have some shortcomings in recognizing and understanding the specific contents of the will.
Let's broaden our knowledge. What are the elements of various forms of wills? ：
Personally, I think it is best to write my own will, and other ways of making a will have disadvantages. In order to reduce the disputes behind you, don't use a written will. You should use a written will, and you should strictly follow the provisions of the civil code. You can record the whole process when you make a will, so that you can check it afterwards. What do you think of this?