Blog Details

Author - Associate Megha Motwani

The heirship certificates are the legal documents needed to prove that you are the right beneficiary to successfully claim, the ancestral property or the property of your deceased parents. The next of the kin basically needs it as the certificate specifies the list of the name of the heirs who are eligible to claim or transfer the property of their deceased parents in their name. Thus, when the head of the family or any member of the family dies then any member of the family or his heirs can go and apply for a legal heir certificate and all the legal heirs of a person will be listed in the legal heir certificate issued by the appropriate office. 

Who are the direct legal heirs of the deceased person?

A son, daughter, widow or a husband and any grandchildren whose parents are no more are considered as the direct legal heirs of a person in case of all these persons are not there or are not available then in that case brothers, sisters will also be considered as legal heirs for a particular person.

What does a legal heir certificate contain?

A legal heir certificate will contain the name of the deceased person their age at the time of his/her death and his/her sex and the list of family members who all are to be considered as the legal heirs of the person so dead.

Purpose lying in obtaining this certificate

The main purpose is to transfer the ownership of the immovable properties from the name of the deceased to the name of the surviving family members or the legal heirs and also to claim any pension benefits, provident fund, gratuity, insurance claims or any other service benefits of central and state government departments, specifically when the deceased has not selected a nominee. Therefore, for all kinds of immovable properties, the claim can be made through a legal heir certificate.

The heirship certificate, unlike the succession certificate, is not obtained from any judicial court rather is obtained from a local authority. Thereby, it is comparatively easier to obtain and is a reliable document over a succession certificate. Therefore, families typically first apply for a legal heirship certificate and in the event, a legal heirship certificate is not accepted by the relevant authority for any reason, then a succession certificate is applied for.

The succession certificate is a very important document that one has to have for being able to claim any movable asset like the balances in the bank accounts or shares. Thus, the banks are reluctant in releasing the funds without the succession certificate but in some cases, banks and private companies also accept heirship certificates for allowing the transfer of deposits, balances, investments, shares, etc. as such certificate like succession certificate establishes the relationship of the heirs to the deceased for claims.

Procedure for procuring a Legal Heirship Certificate

The application has to be made to the appropriate office. The appropriate office is the registrar of birth and death or the revenue officer such as tahsildars, revenue mandal officers or talukdars, in every taluk or municipal corporation. The application will be forwarded to a particular village administrative officer where the person lastly resided and a process of investigation will take on as to the number of legal heirs and their health condition and thereafter, the report will be forwarded by the village administrative officer to the tahsildar or a registrar of birth and death of a particular area and will issue the legal heirship certificate as per the reporter.

The documents required for procuring a Legal Heirship Certificate

The first and foremost document required for applying for the legal heirship certificate  is the death certificate of a particular person which can be obtained from the municipal corporation or from the registrar of birth and death of that particular area and second is the address proof where the deceased person lastly resided or lived for a longer time is to be submitted  along with the details of the person applying for it as well as the details of the legal heirs are also required for applying for the heirship certificate.