Unconditional acceptance and the debts

Unconditional acceptance means that the heir accepts the estate, with the assets and with the debts. Whoever accepts unconditionally also becomes liable for the debts. In the file that choice is therefore not a tick only on the assets side. Beside the choice belongs the list of debts, insofar as they are known. Unknown debts remain as an open point. They do not disappear because someone has already accepted. The liabilities stay beside the assets.

The choice can appear from a declaration. It can also appear from conduct. Conducting oneself as an heir can be unconditional acceptance. Taking assets away or selling them can be such conduct. The file formulates that cautiously. It records who took or sold which asset, on which day, and which document shows that. It does not itself draw the legal conclusion that acceptance has thereby taken place. That step stays visible as a question, not as an automatic tick next to a receipt or a photo.

Not every act belongs in that box. The file names the act and stops there. It does not fill in a list of safe and unsafe conduct, because that list would be a judgment. An heir who empties a cupboard stands with those facts on the timeline. Whether that is unconditional acceptance, the file does not decide. The note may say that conduct as an heir can count, so that no one later reads the act as logistics only.

Unconditional acceptance stands beside the other choices: acceptance under the benefit of inventory, and renunciation. The file does not pick the first one that comes along as the default. As long as there is no declaration and no described conduct, the choice stays empty. An empty choice is not unconditional acceptance. Nor is an empty choice an acceptance under the benefit of inventory. The program does not fill the emptiness because the family has already exchanged keys or because a funeral has been arranged. The choice waits for a fact.

Ervazo records the choice and the acts that have been described. It does not pronounce an acceptance, draws up no deed and makes no payment. It does not calculate by way of advice. A described sale remains a fact with a date and an asset. The civil-law notary, the court or the Dutch Tax Administration (Belastingdienst) decides the specific case. Until that decision, conduct remains a described fact and not a concluded form of acceptance.