No heirs, then the State

If nobody exists in any of the four groups of heirs, the State inherits. That is an outcome at the end of a search, not a conclusion drawn from an empty address book. An address book, a telephone and a list of friends show who was close by. They do not show that there is no child, no parent, no brother or sister and no further family in the groups. In the file you write that the State is the heir only once that search has been done and recorded. Until then the circle remains an open question. Ervazo does not fill in the State in order to close an empty field.

The search begins at the Central Register of Wills (Centraal Testamentenregister) and with the family. A will can make people heirs who do not stand in the four groups. Without that inquiry you do not know whether the statute points to the groups at all. You also search the civil registry and the papers of the deceased for children, parents, brothers and sisters, and for further family who could fall into a later group. Every name that surfaces you note with the relationship and the source. A name you cannot place remains a name with a question, not a reason to name the State.

Write down what you have done, not only what you did not find. Which register was consulted, on which date, and what the outcome was. Which relatives were asked, and what they said about further family. A sentence such as nobody is known is too vague. It does not say who was searched for. An empty address book gets, in the file, the status of empty address book, not the status of proof that the groups are empty. Keep the extract or the statement from the register with the documents. Ervazo describes no approach to an authority of the State and fills in no procedure.

Only once the four groups have turned out to be empty and a will appoints nobody else do you note the State as heir, with the sources of that finding. You do not describe from an assumption how the State then deals with the estate. That path is not to be invented in free text. The search itself stays in the file as an annex. Ervazo records the search and makes no deed.