When you are heir to an inheritance, you have to make a choice: accept or reject the inheritance, also known as inheritance. In Dutch inheritance law you have the following three options:

• accept the inheritance cleanly
• accept the inheritance beneficially
• reject the inheritance.

In this blog we tell the difference between these 3 possibilities and we take a closer look at rejecting an inheritance.

Accepting an inheritance cleanly

When you accept the inheritance as heir in full, you are responsible for all the assets and debts of the deceased, but the positive balance is of course also for you. Please note, pure acceptance is only possible if you are older than 18 years.

Unnoticed pure acceptance
Sometimes a situation can arise in which you have already accepted the inheritance without noticing. For example, through well-intentioned actions such as taking items from the deceased's home for personal use. When you have paid debts of the deceased or have sold the house of the deceased to pay debts, for example, these are acts of pure acceptance. Before you accept an inheritance purely, it is important that you are well aware of the financial position of the estate. With pure acceptance, you are liable with your private assets in the event of any debts.

Accepting an inheritance beneficially

The second option is to accept the inheritance beneficially. This is a wise choice when you are not sure whether the deceased was in debt or not. By accepting beneficiaries, you accept the inheritance with reservation. For example, you are not liable with your private assets in the event of (possible) debts and you will receive your part of the estate, your inheritance part, when all debts have been paid.

Reject Legacy

The last option is to refuse an inheritance, we call this rejection. You are then no longer an heir and are therefore no longer responsible for the settlement of the inheritance. You are not responsible for the debts, but you do not receive anything. Even if the estate ends positively.

Reasons to Reject an Inheritance

There can be many reasons for an heir to reject an inheritance.
For example, you know that the deceased had debts and you do not want to be liable for this with your own private assets.
It is of course also possible that you do not know the deceased. For example, because it is a distant relative that you had never heard of before. If the deceased has not had a will drawn up, legal inheritance law applies. This means that heirs are sought in the family, sometimes up to the 6th degree. For example, it can happen that distant relatives suddenly receive a message that they are heirs of, for example, a great-uncle they had never heard of before. When a letter from a notary falls on the mat with the announcement that you are heir, this may raise questions and even deter you from doing anything with it and having it rejected.

There may also be an emotional reason for rejecting the inheritance. For example, when a lot has happened in a family and you as heir want nothing to do with the inheritance of the deceased.

But you can also have a positive, emotional reason. For example, you are the sole heir together with a brother or sister and want to 'give' your inheritance to him or her by rejecting it.

What are the consequences of rejecting an inheritance?

You would think, you reject that inheritance and need to do nothing further. Unfortunately, rejection is not without a struggle and there are some consequences that you have to take into account.

Placement

When you reject the inheritance, you are no longer an heir and substitution occurs. This means that when you have children, they are automatically the next heir. If you do not want your children to become heirs, and neither should they, then they too will have to reject the inheritance. In the case of minor children, the inheritance can only be rejected with the consent of the subdistrict court. However, this consent is not always granted by the subdistrict court.

Inheritance tax

If you reject the inheritance, this will not affect the amount of the inheritance tax. This means that the level of inheritance tax for the other heirs remains the same and they will therefore probably have to pay more inheritance tax. This is an important thing to remember, especially in the above example when you want to refuse to 'give' your inheritance to your brother or sister.

Rejecting an inheritance, how do you arrange this?

If you decide to reject an inheritance, you must make a statement to this effect to the court in the region where the deceased lived. You can do this in person at the court counter. But you also have the option to reject the inheritance in writing by means of the form Declaration of inheritance† This form can be found at the website of Judiciary.

When submitting the form, please also include the following documents:

• a copy of the death certificate
• a copy of your valid ID

There are costs associated with rejecting the inheritance. These costs, court fees, amount to €2022 in 134. Once the fees have been paid, your rejection will be entered in the court's estate register and you will receive the Deed of inheritance.