Can I refuse an inheritance?

You are not obliged to accept an inheritance. If, for example, the inheritance contains many debts , you have to pay a lot of inheritance tax or you prefer not to inherit from the deceased, you can decide to refuse the inheritance. This is then called "rejecting" the inheritance. To do so, you have to follow certain steps, otherwise the rejection will not be valid.

Be careful: when you consider rejecting the inheritance, that you do not do things by which you legally 'tacitly' accept the inheritance. These include, for example, renting out a house or garage box from the inheritance or paying a non-urgent debt. In that case, you have allegedly accepted the inheritance. If the inheritance then contains many debts, you will have to pay all those debts.

A lawyer will advise you whether it is best to refuse an inheritance or not and what steps to take to do so. They will also make you aware of the risks of tacit acceptance.