Succession law

Doctor and the application of professional secrecy "If the heiress of a deceased patient asks the doctor who was treating him to give an opinion on the deceased's capacity for discernment when drawing up his will, does he have the right to answer her? Stéphanie The Criminal Code punishes breaches of professional secrecy. According to article...

House: buy or inherit? "I'd like to buy my father's property in the canton of Vaud. Is it more advantageous for me to buy it for a symbolic CHF 1 before he dies, or wait until I inherit it? Samy, Gland From a tax point of view, a cantonal inheritance tax...

My estate without a will? "I am 90 years old, single and have no children. My nephew (my late brother's son) and his mother are the only members of my family. How will my estate be divided if I don't make a will? How much should I leave to my sister-in-law and my...

Leaving our lease to our daughter? "We are very interested in your answer about "keeping grandma's lease" and would like to know whether we can bequeath the lease on our flat to our only daughter without a massive increase in rent." May-Christiane and René, Geneva Under the legal provisions governing inheritance,...

The will "We are married under the ordinary regime of participation in acquests and have no joint children. My spouse has no heirs apart from myself. He wants to draw up a will stipulating that half of his estate will go to my son from a previous marriage and the other half to an association. Can he...

The legacy " We have 3 adult children. We own a second home and, with the agreement of the whole family, we want to leave it solely to our youngest son. Is this possible and what precautions should we take? Thien, Geneva Under art. 467 of the Civil Code (CC), any person who is capable of discernment and...

The tenancy agreement in succession " My mother has just died and I'm the sole heir. I'd like to keep her lease. But since she had a debt of 5,000 francs, I don't want to accept her succession. My question is: how do I go about refusing the succession? If I refuse the succession, can I still...

The benefit of the inventory When someone dies, a number of administrative formalities have to be undertaken. Under Swiss law, if the estate is accepted, the heirs inherit the assets as well as the liabilities...

Succession in relation to a tenancy agreement "My father died at the end of the year and the management company with which he was a tenant sent me and my brothers a letter explaining that we had to countersign the fact that we no longer wanted to be joint tenants and that...