What is the civil relationship in an estate?

Verified 16 February 2023 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

You have made a donation to one of your heirs and you wonder if it will be taken into account when sharing your estate? The civil report check that the donations made respect the rights of the heirs at the time of sharing your estate.

The civil relationship consists in fictititiously reintegrating past donations into the estate of the deceased. Donor recipients do not have to return the goods received. It is their value that is added to the heritage of the deceased.

If there's at least one heir in titleHowever, the civil report of the donations makes it possible to verify that they do not encroach on the share of inheritance which is rightfully theirs.

If there are at least 2 heirs and if one of them has received a donation, the civil report of the donations ensures equal treatment between the heirs.

Warning

the civil report must not be confused with the fiscal report.

These are the donations made to your heirs presumptive which are referred to in the civil report.

FYI

In principle, if one of your heirs renounces the estate, the donations you made to him will not be taken into account in the civil report. If you want those donations reported, you have to expressly provide for.

Certain donations shall not be taken into account in the civil report. This is the case in particular for donations made outside the inheritance, the donation-sharing and the customary gift.

The bequest are also excluded from the civil report.

However, manual donations shall be taken into account in the civil report.

You can decide that a donation is not included in the civil report. For that, you have to expressly provide for at the time of donation. In this case, the heir who has not received his share of reserve can make a reduction action .

The civil report shall be drawn up at the time of the donor's succession. In practice, it is the notary in charge of the estate who makes the report.

You have made donations to each of your 3 children in your lifetime:

1^er child: €10,000
2^e child: €20,000
3^e child: €30,000

The total of donations is therefore €60,000.

You die leaving a legacy of €120,000.

The civil relationship of these donations to your wealth allows you to increase the value of your wealth by €60,000, which brings its total to €180,000.

The sharing of this fictitious heritage of €180,000 between your 3 children gives each one a theoretical legacy of €60,000.

But you have to deduct from everyone's share the value of the gift he had received during your lifetime.