Death during the divorce

If the divorce has not yet been registered, the marriage can still exist for inheritance law. Living apart is not proof of the opposite. A separate address, a different lock or proceedings that are under way show that the household had split. They do not show that the marriage is over as a matter of law. In the file you note the fact of living apart, with the source, and you separately note the question whether the divorce has been registered. Those two lines stay apart. Ervazo does not turn a moving date into a divorce date.

Ask the municipality and the notary. The municipality can say whether a divorce stands in the registers. The notary can say what that means for this estate. You do not fill in those answers before they exist. Note the date of the question and the name of the authority or of the office. A member of staff who thinks the divorce was surely already completed does not supply a registration. Until the answer is there, the spouse in the file remains a possible spouse, not a former spouse and not a certain surviving partner. Both labels would be guesses.

The papers of the proceedings belong with it, but they do not replace the registration. A petition, an order that has not yet been registered, or a settlement in draft: each document gets its own name and date. You do not write divorce completed because a hearing has been held. The hearing is one fact. The registration is another fact. If the order has been registered, you note the date of that registration with the document from the municipality. Only then does the question shift from perhaps still married to the next question, which the notary interprets. Until that date you do not guess from the fact of living apart.

Keep the estate open on this point until the municipality and the notary have given an answer. A separate home and a pending petition are facts on the timeline, not a registration. Leaving the partner out of account is as risky as already allocating everything to the partner. Both steps invent an end to the marriage, or its continuation. Ervazo makes no deed and does not fill in civil status.