What is Heirship Fraud (Collusion of the Deceased)?
What is Inheritance Fraud (Collusion by the Deceased)?
In this article, I will discuss the collusive transactions of a testator, which cause legal actions to have different outcomes in both interpersonal and familial/kinship relationships, for you, my valued readers.
Collusion is a situation where the purpose of the transactions made between individuals differs from their true intentions. To give an example, it is when a person's purpose in a legal relationship with a third party is not the same as what they actually intend to do. Recently, individuals have been transferring their assets to another person to prevent foreclosure, and they show these transactions in the land registry as if a sale has taken place. The primary intent here is not to sell the assets to third parties, but to lend the assets to another person to prevent liens from being placed on them. This situation is called an absolute collusive transaction.
Relative collusion is when a transaction takes place through a joint decision between the parties. However, the situation where a different transaction is displayed in order to hide the actual transaction that took place is called a relatively collusive transaction. To give an example, if a person wants to donate their property to a third party but shows the donation as a sale to prevent other heirs from objecting to this situation, this is called a relatively collusive transaction.
The issue we encounter most frequently in inheritance law is the collusive transactions performed by the testator. The legal transactions that the testator makes, partly to hide their will, are of the nature of relative collusion. The testator's true intention is to withhold assets from their heirs. Legal transactions performed by the testator with the aim of withholding assets are called relatively collusive transactions. What we encounter most in practice is the testator wanting to donate real estate to a third party to prevent an heir from exercising their rights arising from inheritance law, but showing this donation as a sale in the land registry, made in due form, due to the possibility that the heir might exercise their right to object in the future. Collusive transactions made by the testator with the aim of withholding assets from their heirs are called Muris Muvazaası (Collusion by the Deceased).
The objective in collusion by the deceased is to prevent heirs from recovering their inheritance shares by filing a reduction lawsuit. The testator disguises the donation they actually intend to make as a sale transaction in the land registry to withhold assets. The testator aims to prevent heirs with reserved shares from filing a reduction lawsuit.
However, there are certain conditions for collusion by the deceased. Specifically;
For collusion by the deceased to be accepted, first of all, the existence of an apparent transaction is sought. The transaction that is not intended to be made but must be made to hide the intention is called an invisible transaction.
Another issue is that a collusion agreement must have been made between the parties. When the parties make an agreement among themselves regarding why the collusive transaction is being made, this agreement is called a collusion agreement by the deceased.
The third issue is that the testator must be acting with the intent to withhold assets from their heirs.
The final issue is that a secret contract is made between the parties that is the one actually intended to be made and is hidden from everyone else.
Collusion by the deceased is performed with third parties. There is no limitation in the law on this matter, and the testator can perform their collusive transactions with whoever they wish in bad faith.