Donations, new rules from 2024. What changes and consequences

The 2024 budget law introduces a very important innovation in inheritance law, introducing new rules regarding donations.
In particular, the restitution action is abolished, reducing the guarantees of the legitimate heirs but better protecting third-party buyers.
The gift reform will, in fact, have a significant impact on the real estate market, compressing the protection of legitimate heirs.
Here is what changes and what the consequences of the reform on donations are.
The new rules on donations As anticipated, the 2024 budget law abolishes the restitution action, preventing legitimate heirs from removing the asset from the third-party buyer.
Let's clarify.
The legitimate heirs (spouse, children and, in their absence, ascendants) are entitled to a certain share of the inheritance, established on the basis of the number of heirs present by the Civil Code.
Transfers made with donations, although implemented during life, have an effect on the hereditary assets.
The legitimate heirs can, in the event that the donations have reduced the share due to them, bring an action to reduce the legitimate right in court to obtain what is established by law.
The reduction action can be exercised up to 10 years after the opening of the succession; therefore, in this period of time the goods object of the donation can be sold by the donee to third party buyers.
Before the reform, the exercise of the restitution action allowed the heirs to recover the asset in question by also taking it away from the third buyer or in any case new owner.
The latter however had the right to take action against the sold donee, after having been deprived of the purchased good.
read also Budget Law 2024, the (almost) definitive text with all the new features What changes from 2024 The restitution action maximizes the powers of legitimate heirs, but creates a climate of uncertainty regarding the assets transferred with donations.
This problem is evident above all with regards to real estate sales, given that the purchase of a property originating from a donation is not entirely safe and the possibility of requesting the reimbursement of the price paid in legal proceedings is a modest consolation.
Furthermore, it is not even that simple to purchase a property that the seller obtained through a donation, since lenders are severely limited in granting mortgages for these properties.
Furthermore, the restitution action also allowed the heirs to nullify any mortgage present on the asset guaranteeing the loan.
With the reform contained in the budget law, this uncertainty is eliminated, to the benefit of buyers – who can purchase houses from donors in complete safety – and consequently also of the entire real estate market.
This does not mean that the heirs are not entitled to claim the legitimate share, but they will only be able to do so by taking legal action against the sold donee and demanding compensation for the value of the asset.
read also Payment of pension portion to cohabiting child, is it an advance on the inheritance? The consequences of the reform on donations The reform on donations is preparing to have a significant impact on the real estate market, as it will eliminate the risks associated with the reduction action, promoting the safety of buyers and credit institutions.
Promoting the circulation of real estate is an important objective in the country's economic growth, but it risks significantly restricting the rights of legitimate heirs.
The latter, in fact, will no longer be able to make claims on the asset, but only on the financial compensation to be requested from the donee.
Here, in the event that the latter is insolvent, it will be necessary to open a debt collection procedure with all the time required.
Furthermore, if the donee turns out to have nothing, the heir will have no way of recovering either the asset or its value.
It is exactly the same risk that the buyer faced before the reform, which now shifts to the legitimate heirs.
The shifting of the risk is justifiable not so much because the buyer is a third party and would assume the risk unfairly (despite being extraneous to the inheritance), but because the uncertainty of the donations has a more far-reaching effect, which risks to paralyze a large part of the real estate market.
For this reason, from 2024 it will also be safer to transfer your assets with donations.
The heirs, however, will have to make sure they take action to claim the legitimate right as soon as possible to increase the chances of success and above all try to obtain the asset, rather than its equivalent.
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