Proceeding in the Civil Court Proceedings Law, is standard when there is no agreement for the sharing out of the estate, if the assets have not been distributed by the testator in the last will, nor a contador partidor appointed in the testament.

The court can be seised by any of the beneficiaries.

The court’s way to share out the estate is to designate a contador partidor and, if desired, a valuer of the assets. This main proceeding can have other important effects such as the so called «intervencion del caudal hereditario» which means that an inventory of the estate is made by the court and the assets will be under administration until the sharing out.

In this proceeding, once the contador partidor prepares a “cuaderno particional” (a draft for the sharing out of the estate), the heirs who have presented themselves to the court can accept it or dispute it within the same proceeding.

The court will approve the cuaderno particional or resolve any dispute which may arise.

In all such cases the sharing out is by a court resolution, either if there is no opposition to the «Cuaderno Particional» made by the contador, in which case it will simply be approved, or by a sentence ending a disputed court case .
This, notwithstanding, before the sentence, a court agreement can be settled.

With regard to court proceedings, the following must be considered:

.-You need to appoint not only an abogado but also a procurador, not just to start the proceeding but to be able to speak on your behalf in the proceeding.

.-A sentence can be appealed, and even then, any party can start an ordinary proceeding thereafter.

.- If some assets are indivisible and their value is worth more than the share of any individual co-owner, such assets can be given to one of them with the obligation to pay the balance to the others. That means that a new obligation arises without your consent, and even without your participation in the valuation of that asset, which has been made by the appointed valuer or the contador partidor. In such a case, you have the right to ask for the forced sale of the asset in a public auction.

.-The Contador Partidor will be appointed by the court, either one agreed on by all the parties at court or by the court itself, so it is advisable for the parties to agree on the Contador Partidor and on the limits that can be settled in the sharing out (value of the assets, limits in the atribution of a single valuable asset with the obligation of economic compensation, possibility of atribution of a single asset to more than one beneficiary and so on). We can offer our experience as a contador partidor in any court proceedings.