My brother lent my sister

My brother lent my sister

"My late brother left my sister and myself as heirs. When the estate was divided up, I found out that my brother had, during his lifetime, lent my sister a fairly large sum of money interest-free. Do I have the right to recover part of it?

Antoine, Geneva

When a person dies, his heirs acquire by operation of law the whole of his estate, in particular his debts, his rights of ownership and the property he possessed, subject to possible disinheritance or repudiation. The heirs jointly dispose of the property forming part of the estate, as long as it has not been divided.

The heirs may request the division of the estate at any time. If the deceased had drawn up a will or made a contract of inheritance, the estate is divided in accordance with his or her last wishes, insofar as they do not affect the minimum legal share of the estate to which the descendants, parents and spouse are entitled. In the absence of such provisions, the estate is distributed among the legal heirs. Thus, if there are no descendants of the deceased, the estate devolves to his parents or to his brothers and sisters if his parents predeceased him.

The heirs have an equal right to all the assets of the estate and are free to agree how the assets are to be divided. According to article 610 of the Civil Code, each heir must inform the other co-heirs of the property relations they had with the deceased, in order to distribute the estate fairly. If the deceased had made a donation, granted an interest-free loan or any other act of distribution free of charge or partially free of charge in favour of an heir with the aim of improving his situation, the latter must include in the estate the assets he received in kind or deduct their value from his inheritance share, unless the deceased had expressly provided otherwise. In the case of a sum of money, the nominal value must be reported, i.e. the value of the amount when the gift was made. It should be noted that neither expenses incurred for education nor customary gifts can be reported.

Therefore, when you shared your brother's estate, your sister should have informed you of the existence of the loan that had been granted to her, the purpose for which it had been granted and, where appropriate, should have included the sum loaned in the estate, so that this sum could also be shared between you. If your sister refuses to give you the share to which you are entitled, you can apply to the court for a declaration that the loan is repayable and for an order that she pay you half of it.