When there is more than one inheritor sharing the estate, from the moment the inheritance is accepted (Accepting the inheritance- Liability on the deceased debts) up to the sharing out of the estate, the assets that are in the estate form the so called “comunidad hereditaria», a kind of joint ownership in which each inheritor’s share is alloted according to the last will and testament, if one exists, or according to the legal order of succession, if there is no will.

If the legate is not made up of single assets, but a share in the estate, the legatee is also considered to be a joint owner in the “ Comunidad Hereditaria”.

Before the sharing out of the estate, the joint owners should be aware of the following points:

• Each one can use the inherited assets according to his or her share in the undivided joint ownership but without infringing on the respective rights of the other communal owners.
• Each one can ask the others to contribute to any neccesary expenses relating to the assets.
• No one can make any modifications to any of the assets without the consent of all the others.
• Each one of the inheritors who jointly share the “comunidad hereditaria” can dispose of his or her own share in the whole estate, but can not dispose of any individual asset, entirely or in part. That will only be possible after the individual ownership has been conferred in the sharing out of the estate. Until then, any individual asset that is going to be disposed of, must be disposed of with the consent of all the participants.
• If one of the joint owners sells his or her share in the estate, the other participants have preference over an outside buyer so if the purchase has already been completed, each one of them has the right to legal redemption

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• If within the estate there are assets that were jointly owned by the deceased and his or her spouse, they are now jointly owned by the inheritors and the surviving spouse

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