thingymebob 1 | 5
2 Sep 2018 / #1
Husband is Polish, I'm not, and we are both one of five siblings. Although we both come from working class backgrounds, his parents are worse off than mine. I'm the primary earner in our relationship as in I earn twice his salary but still not huge earnings (together we are around €85k gross). I've been lucky in savings and investments before we married plus afterwards, and have a healthy private pension and state entitlements.
Due to an inheritance from my godmother we are in a position to buy an apartment or house in Poland as an investment with the intention of retiring there. We have no children unfortunately and already have a home where we live (with a mortgage). I'm happy with that. I like Poland, visit often (more often than him), and qualms. The only thing that does worry me is that if he passes before me, that his parents and/or siblings can claim the Polish property or indeed any assets held abroad. I read somewhere that they could claim he had an obligation to provide for them??
My MIL already regularly asks for large sums of money as does the eldest brother, and while we've been happy to help on some occasions, when we don't, the atmosphere gets quite tense. As an example, we've paid for a bathroom renovation, a kitchen renovation, and a new roof. The BIL has been hinting for money to buy a car now he has a child, and after a year of not so subtle hints, last month asked outright for 25,000zł. When we declined, my husband got an ear ache about family loyalty. I know often he uses the excuse of me being the bigger earner and saying 'No' but it's a joint decision. We send money for the start of the school year for the younger siblings (big age gap of almost 15 years in the middle) and have paid for laptops etc. There seems to be an expectation that as we are earning in euros, we have lots of money when we don't, we're just careful. So it's not like we're mean, but equally my own family don't ask or expect money, and our gifting towards my nieces and nephews is at a much lower value.
I don't want to be in a situation where my in laws grab everything if my husband dies. Is there a legal obligation to provide for them? Is there any way around it?
Due to an inheritance from my godmother we are in a position to buy an apartment or house in Poland as an investment with the intention of retiring there. We have no children unfortunately and already have a home where we live (with a mortgage). I'm happy with that. I like Poland, visit often (more often than him), and qualms. The only thing that does worry me is that if he passes before me, that his parents and/or siblings can claim the Polish property or indeed any assets held abroad. I read somewhere that they could claim he had an obligation to provide for them??
My MIL already regularly asks for large sums of money as does the eldest brother, and while we've been happy to help on some occasions, when we don't, the atmosphere gets quite tense. As an example, we've paid for a bathroom renovation, a kitchen renovation, and a new roof. The BIL has been hinting for money to buy a car now he has a child, and after a year of not so subtle hints, last month asked outright for 25,000zł. When we declined, my husband got an ear ache about family loyalty. I know often he uses the excuse of me being the bigger earner and saying 'No' but it's a joint decision. We send money for the start of the school year for the younger siblings (big age gap of almost 15 years in the middle) and have paid for laptops etc. There seems to be an expectation that as we are earning in euros, we have lots of money when we don't, we're just careful. So it's not like we're mean, but equally my own family don't ask or expect money, and our gifting towards my nieces and nephews is at a much lower value.
I don't want to be in a situation where my in laws grab everything if my husband dies. Is there a legal obligation to provide for them? Is there any way around it?