Reader T.K. C (Hanoi) wondered: "Parents died without a will, the family has 3 children, the eldest child wants to donate/receive the entire land plot. What rights do other children have?".
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, lawyer Nguyen Ngoc Tu - Law Firm LawKey Co., Ltd. - said that if parents die without leaving a legal will, the inheritance part under the rights of the deceased is divided according to the law according to Article 650 of the 2015 Civil Code. According to Clause 1, Article 651, the first line of inheritance includes wife, husband, biological father, biological mother, adoptive father, adoptive mother, biological child and adopted child of the deceased; heirs in the same line are entitled to equal inheritance.
Therefore, it is not possible to implicitly determine that 3 children each are entitled to 1/3 of the entire land plot. First of all, it is necessary to determine who is the heir at the time of opening inheritance and accurately determine the property belonging to the deceased.
If the house and land are common property of both husband and wife, then when a person dies, only the property rights of that person are included in the inheritance; the part of the surviving person is still under that person's authority. If both husband and wife have died, it is necessary to determine the time of opening inheritance of each person in turn to determine the inheritance and the corresponding heir.
If after determining the inheritance and the heir, there are only 3 children who are heirs in the same row, no other heirs in the same row and no case of succession, then each person in principle enjoys 1/3 of the inheritance.
The eldest son is not naturally entitled to receive the entire house and land. Co-heirs can agree to let the eldest son receive the entire house and land and pay other co-heirs the value they enjoy.
If no agreement can be reached, each co-heir has the right to request the Court to divide the inheritance according to Article 660 of the 2015 Civil Code; the division can be in kind, if it cannot be in kind, it can be divided according to value. In case the property cannot be divided in kind, the Court may hand over the property to one recipient and pay the value to others, or handle it according to a plan suitable to legal regulations and the status of the property.
