The opening of an inheritance does not always offer economic advantages.
Sometimes the inheritance hides fatal pitfalls such as the burden of debts that weigh on the inheritance and that the heirs, in the hurry to accept the inheritance, find themselves having to face disastrous consequences.
Other times an apparently uninteresting inheritance induces the overly prudent called to inherit to give up the inheritance and then to repent of the renunciation, because large real estate or equity funds and other assets that no one imagined emerge.
However, according to art. 525 of the Italian Civil Code, the waiver of the inheritance can be revoked within the term of 10 years from the day of the opening of the succession.
Obviously in the case of renunciation of inheritance each case has its own history, and requires careful examination, however it is certainly comforting to know that there is art. 525 of the Italian civil code that offers the opportunity to revoke a waiver, sometimes too hasty.
The situation is also interesting for international successions.
If the deceased was an Italian citizen residing abroad and also had the citizenship of a State not part of the European Union (for example a citizen of the USA, Switzerland, etc.) and died without leaving a will, what will be the law of the State that regulates the succession?
In this case, art. 19 paragraph 2 of Italian Law No. 218/1995 applies to his succession, which provides "if the person has more citizenships, the law of the law between the States of belonging to which he or she has the closest connection applies.
If among the citizenships there is the Italian one, this one prevails".
Therefore, if Italian law is applicable, the revocation of the waiver of the inheritance is also applicable.
Obviously it will be necessary to ascertain the situation case by case, and also verify whether or not there is a will, if there are agreements between the Italian State and the Foreign State, for example in the case of Switzerland the applicability of the bilateral Convention between Italy and Switzerland of 1868, still in force.
So even in international successions it is possible to examine and evaluate whether the revocation of the waiver of the inheritance referred to in art. 525 of the Italian Civil Code is applicable, and who knows if this is not good news for those called to the inheritance...
Milano, October 27th 2023.
Avv. Giovanni Babino
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