Rejecting Inheritance

My father passed away in Poland last week. I know for a fact that his debts are higher than any assets that he has remaining. I would like to reject the inheritance so I am not liable for his debts. I understand I have 6 months to do this. My aunt in Poland is snail mailing me the death certificate.

I currently live in southern California and I do not have the ability to travel to Poland to see a notary or the court to reject the inheritance in person.

I have read that the Polish Consulate in Los Angeles could help me with filing the documents but contacting the consulate and setting up an appointment seems very difficult.

I have emailed them and I try calling multiple times a day but half the time the extension doesn't even ring and when it does no one answers.

What are my options? Does anyone have experience with this? Can I just walk into the consulate and do this?

Thank you

One more thing to add. My father did not have a will and nothing written down. I am the only child.

In the USA you are not responsible for the debts of your deceased parents.
I'm interested if Poland has such a law or not. I don't think you should be responsible for any outstanding debts after the bank repossess what they can.

Untrue, Joker!
There are any number of instances in which the offspring, that is, the sons or daughters
of a debtor will have to pay off what their parents owed, either the gov't. as well as private
creditors.

It is true that such will stop with the children, not on down to grandchildren. Nonetheless,
in the US, the law is fairly strict in this regard.

BS. When the parents die, the estate has to pay what is owed. If what is left is negative, tough...unless the kids volunteered to co-sign.

What's left over is distributed according to the will or probate judge if there in no will.

It may come as a relief to find out that, in general, you are not personally liable for your parents' debt. If they pass away with debt, it is repaid out of their estate. However, this means that debt repayment could diminish or eliminate assets and property you could have inherited from your parents.

Correct unless you co signed any loans they had.


Sources please Lyzko, not opinions.

Any advice for my issue? Seems like the responses veered off topic.

I'm sorry for you loss and sorry to tell you that you're not likely to find any useful advice here.

If your aunt wants to help she might explain the problem to local authorities and see what suggestions they have (in Poland a lot of bureaucratic decisions are made locally in line with local interpretations of laws which are often.... not very clear).

If you do go in person to the consulate don't expect any sympathy or regret offered for how inaccessible and useless they've been. Any attitude on your part will just make things worse. You can always wait until everything's over and settled and then read them the riot act.

If you're not ever planning on going (back?) to Poland then just ignoring it all would have been an option at one point, not so sure about how long the reach of the law is now....

In Poland you are. You can reject the inheritance all together, accept it only to the level of possible debt or accept it completely.

Steve. you posted here a couple of weeks ago and I actually answered your post with the information you needed. Here is a link to my reply.

https://polishforums.com/law/poland-father-life-support-usa-heir-88219/

Inheritance has to be claimed. Don't want it? Don't claim it.
Nobody will ship Mom's piano to you as a surprise.

Novi, don't be such an idiot. Under Polish law you inherit the deceased's debts as well as their assets. People pursue debts. The Polish courts even pursue minors for the debts of grandparents! Take a look at this, from one of your favourite news sources. I remember the case, it was so shocking to me.

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2550999/Impoverished-Polish-child-forced-dead-grandfathers-debt.html

Against "their assets", not yours, moron.
Nobody can force you to claim or accept inheritance.
An insane court in Poland does not mean sh*it. We had a court that legalized abortion in 1973.

Quoting:
Impoverished Polish child, 9, forced to take on his dead grandfather's £3,000 outstanding loan in bizarre court order

Bizarre = insane.

You are dishonest by claiming "Polish law". A moron judge is not "Polish law". Laws come from Sejm, not moron judges.

I don't know if it's insane.

With the right frame of mind, you can interpret this in a positive light. That is, having a real and material connection to your grandfather :)

When you turn 18 and finally pay it down, you'll feel twice the adult your 18 year old peers will be feeling. Of course - you just settled your grandpa's debt!

For amounts above $3K, I can see how this stops being funny... however.

Seems like the girls here have won this one with sources to back them up.
The other self-appointed attorneys here seem to base their findings on just their opinions and nothing factual.

Most likely, this is what happened...

Before his death, Dziadek wrote: I hereby make my beloved wnuczek the sole heir to my estate.
Wnuczek's parents get it, rejoice, and happily sign 10 pages of incomprehensible legalese on his behalf.

Next week, wnuczek gets his turtle and rowerek.

A week later, the bill dziadek forgot to pay. An oh fvck moment...
What the idiot parents didn't realize was that by accepting the turtle, they accepted everything else with the critter...including dziadek's debts.

Me, a legal genius...


Just showing off my amazing knowledge of English...

You once more display your ignorance of Poland and things Polish.

Poland has a system of Civil Law rather than Common Law (like the UK,US).

Judges mostly don't make decisions in a Civil Law system, they look at the facts of the case, find the appropriate laws and apply them.

Under Polish law unless an heir refuses an inheritance they are liable for debts of the deceased (beyond the size of the estate).

I'm not defending the system, Polish inheritance law is a mess but the OP needs to work with that and not your misinformed and deranged fantasies.

Just be quiet about topics you are ignorant of (which is... all of them).

THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I SAID!!!

Learn English or at least read slowly...

Duh!

No. You said you just don't have to claim it. In reality it has to be refused (a bureaucratic process).

It's a guilty unless found innocent idiocy. Now I know why I left that God-forsaken sh*ithole.

My bet is still that I am dealing only with idiots like you here. Even Polish law can't be that stupid. A simple test to test its sanity:

Assume that one thousand fiscal idiots put you in their wills, each one coming with 1 million buck debt. You don't know any of them.

Are you now obligated to run around to refuse each of those 1000 cases?

Wills are not common in Poland. But there is 6 months to reject the estate.

What happens when you do nothing?

You legally inherit the estate (including debts).

If I want to. If I don't want to inherit, I don't have to.

You are lying. I cannot be responsible for the actions of other civilians if I didn't consent or had no control over them. See Lidice as an exception.

Only you can be that insane.

Well, you'd be free to argue that after you've been arrested for not settling your debts.

Yes. Ignoring this is not in the OP's best interest (might get away with it if he never returns to Poland, but easier to formally refuse the inheritance).

Make a note of all the times you tried to call the consulate - maybe a call log on your cellphone

Go there and If it is closed take a photo

This can be used as evidence that you made a reasonable effort to follow the procedure.

Hey, legal geniuses: What happens if your "loved" one dies with a ton of bills, 2 dollars in assets, and a will with you in it? You say fvck it and do nothing. Now what?

If you are in Poland that would be several years of legal hassle but you could get out of it by rejecting the inheritance

If you didn't do the paperwork then you won't go to jail of course, but it will affect your credit score etc.

Yes it is a dumb law and I suspect it will be on its way out. 30 years ago for most Poles there were no debts and no assets - now that has changed this dumb law is causing more and more difficulties

In Chicago or Udmurtia ? Who knows ? Or cares - this is a question about Poland