Scope of fulfilling property obligations of the deceased- Legal perspectives, shortcomings and proposals for reform

Abstract

The article titled “Scope of fulfilling property obligations of the deceased—Legal perspectives, shortcomings, and proposals for reform” concentrates on analysing one of the essential issues in the law of inheritance, which is the extent to which heirs are required to fulfill property-related obligations that the deceased had not completed prior to death. Pursuant to Article 615 of the 2015 Civil Code of Vietnam, the scope of fulfilling such obligations is determined based on the timing of the estate division: in cases where the estate has not yet been divided, the obligations are to be fulfilled using the estate itself; in cases where the estate has already been divided, each heir must fulfill the obligations within the limits of the portion of the estate they have received. However, in practice, the understanding and application of this provision remain problematic, with many instances of confusion and lack of uniformity. In this research, the author also seeks to further analyze the determination of the scope of fulfilling property obligations in situations where an inventory of the estate exists. On the basis of a comparative legal analysis between the laws of Vietnam, the French Republic, and the United States, the article clarifies several core issues: the joint and several liability of heirs in performing the deceased’s property obligations; the requirement to establish an estate inventory in order to clearly identify the basis and boundaries for obligation performance; and the treatment of fruits and proceeds derived from the estate, which must be considered within the estate’s scope for the purposes of fulfilling obligations. From the inadequacies and ambiguities identified through legal analysis, the author proposes improvements to the Vietnamese legal framework by concretizing and clarifying the provisions related to the scope of property obligations left by the deceased, thereby enhancing legal certainty and ensuring more consistent application in practice.