Succession

Rights and property that cannot be inherited in the inheritance of estate

The rights and property that cannot be inherited in the inheritance of estate mainly include:

(1) Personal rights of the decedent. Personal rights refer to the civil rights that take the personal interests as their main contents, and are the civil rights inseparable from the person. The main personal rights of citizens are: right of name, right of personal liberty, right of life, right of health, right of personal name, right of reputation, right of honor, right of portrait, and right of privacy, right to education and right to rest, etc. Because the personal rights are inseparable from the person of the obligees, they will be eliminated with the death of the obligees, and they cannot be inherited by the successors.

(2) Political rights of the decedent. Political rights are the rights of the citizens to participate in the political life of the country and to carry out political activities. The political rights of the citizens include: the right to vote, right to stand for election, right of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration, freedom of correspondence, right to serve in leadership positions, right to criticize and make suggestions, and right to make complaints, charges or exposures. The political rights of the citizen will no longer exist with the death of the citizen and cannot be inherited by their successors.

(3) Property rights that are exclusively owned by the decedents themselves. Property rights that are exclusively and personally owned mainly include: right to use the state or collective property, including right to use the public property, right of management of plots for private use, hilly land for private use, fish ponds, orchards, beaches, pastures, and grasslands. Right to contract businesses, right to lease houses, right to work contained in the employment contract, right of property escrow, right to legacy accepting legacy from others, right to claim maintenance payments, pensions, financial compensation payment, and allowance for daily life, right to claim labor wages, as well as other economic remuneration related to work or position, such as free medical service, and housing distribution, etc. These property rights are inseparable from the decedents themselves, they can be enjoyed by the decedents while they remain alive, and these rights will no longer exist with the death of the decedents. Therefore, they cannot be inherited by the successors as estate.

(4) Property that do not belong to the decedents. They mainly include the state or collective property, illegal gains of the decedents, and property of unknown origin or property with disputed ownership.

[Note] Other personal property that does not fall into the scope of the decendents’ personal property include: pre-marital property of the spouse of the decedent, part of property jointly owned by the husband and wife that belong to the spouse, the property that the couple have agreed to be owned separately by the spouse during the period in which they are under contract of marriage, personal property owned by other family members of the decedent, joint property of the family that are owned by other family members, financial compensation payment, and allowance for daily life to the relatives of the decedents, insurance benefit of life insurance in which the decedents have designated the beneficiary in the insurance contract, property as gifts inter vivos to other citizens by the decedents as well as property that are inherently owned by other citizens themselves.