Cohabiting as husband and wife, can the woman inherit property when the husband died?

Marriage is an important event in everyone’s life. To be considered legally married, the essential thing every couple needs to do is to register their marriage. However, the reality shows that many couples are cohabiting as husband and wife but haven’t registered their marriage. So when cohabiting as husband and wife, can the woman inherit property when the husband died? Are there any ways to prove that the remaining person also contributes to their common property?

In this Legal Q&A column, let’s join a lawyer specializing in inheritance consulting at PL & Partners Law Firm to learn about this topic by answering a question from a reader.

The question is as follows:

“My husband and I live together but we do not register our marriage. We have a son but have not registered for his birth certificate.

I intend to wait until my son is 1 year old to register his birth but unfortunately, my husband passed away 2 months ago.

My husband’s stepchildren have returned to claim his inheritance. One of my husband’s assets is the house that I’m living in, which is our common property. That asset mostly comes from my money, I am also the one who deposits money to buy the house, my husband only contributes a small part of the money and holds title to the house in his name.

So can I win that house when dividing the inheritance?”

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Thank you for sending your question to PL & Partners Law Firm.

For your case, our Lawyer would like to give you the advice on inheritance as follows:

There are two steps you can take to win assets for you and your son, specifically:

1. PROVING THE BLOOD RELATION BETWEEN YOUR HUSBAND AND SON TO INHERIT PROPERTY.

Because you and your husband did not register your marriage, you will not be in the line of inheritance. However, your son is still an heir.

You can prove that your son is your husband’s biological son by performing a DNA test from your husband’s hair/blood samples or those of your husband’s stepchildren. When DNA results prove the blood relation between your son and your husband, he will be in the first line of inheritance on a par with your husband’s stepchildren.

But in your case there are many possibilities that it is difficult to take the DNA test because you and your husband’s stepchildren are having a dispute over property, for their own benefits, they will refuse to provide hair/blood samples to you. Meanwhile, your husband has passed away and has been buried, so violating the deceased may also cause inconvenience and many other spiritual factors.

Thus, it can be seen that although this solution is popular, you will likely encounter many difficulties during implementation.

2. PROVING YOUR CONTRIBUTION.

For your case, Article 14 of the 2014 Law on Marriage and Family stipulates that when men and women living together as husband and wife without registering marriage, their property shall be divided according to the agreement between the parties; In case there is no agreement, it will be divided according to the provisions of Civil Code.

In this case, because your husband has passed away and cannot reach an agreement with you, the division of common property will be resolved according to the provisions of Article 209 and Article 219 of the 2015 Civil Code.

You need to determine your share in that house by providing purchase and sale documents, deposit documents and related documents proving that you are the person who signed the contract to buy that house.

If it is determined that your husband also has a share in that house, according to Article 219 of the 2015 Civil Code, you have the right to request to pay that share in cash or by other equivalent items. In the event that an agreement cannot be reached, the house will have to be sold to divide the property into parts.

From the above, we have answered the question of a reader about the issue whether a person can inherit the husband’s inheritance when living together as husband and wife.

If you have legal questions or advice on inheritance, please don’t hesitate to contact us at: