The death of a person or a loved one is often unexpected. However, accidents, crimes and other circumstances can happen at any time. Family members are obliged to guard and bury the deceased. but later problems may arise regarding their property and inheritance.

It may happen that a deceased person, for various reasons, they didn’t go want with the appropriate distribution of their assets. When the death is unexpected or there is no legal culture, it can be inherited without expressing the person’s wishes. The Civil Code establishes that the inheritance of goods can be testamentary or intestate. However, accepting an inheritance also implies inheriting obligations, in this case the debts of the deceased.

Attorney Jack Sotelo indicates that the article 583 of the Civil Code points out that in case the hereditary heirs they do not accept inheritance on the property of a deceased person, They must not pay any kind of debt that person had in their life.

All debts, be it credit cards, mortgages, loans and so on, can be inherited. That is, users must cancel them if they have accepted inheritance.

“When the liabilities are greater than the goods left behind, many people opt for the disinheritance procedure as established by the Civil Code so that they are not considered legitimate heirs and creditors cannot initiate legal proceedings against them“, states Sotelo, but also establishes that in Ecuador people usually do not identify themselves and, in this case, there is no one to take action against for debt collection.

If the children want an inheritance, they have to carry out a deed of inheritance and then the creditors initiate lawsuits to collect the debt. “Usually people claim inheritance when the assets are greater than the debt, in this case they write off the due obligations and keep the rest,” explains the lawyer.