An heir answers only up to the value of what they receive, with two exceptions

They are Articles 1587 and 1588 of the Civil Code of 2020: the cap on the heir’s liability and the two cases in which they also answer with their own patrimony.

Whoever inherited or is about to inherit in Puerto Rico and faces the decedent’s debts, legacies to pay or expenses of the estate.

• The heir answers for the decedent’s obligations, the legacies and the hereditary charges exclusively up to the value of the hereditary goods they receive.Verified against the official source
• If the obligations of the inheritance exceed the value of the estate’s assets, the heir answers with their patrimony if they alienate, consume or employ hereditary goods to pay hereditary obligations not yet due.Verified against the official source
• They also answer for the loss or deterioration that, through their fault or negligence, occurs in the hereditary goods.Verified against the official source

• The list of hereditary goods received: the cap in Article 1587 is measured by their value.
• The list of the decedent’s obligations, the legacies and the hereditary charges.
• The record of each obligation’s due date before paying it: Article 1588 singles out those not yet due.

1. 1

   Step 1: The cap

   Article 1587: the heir answers exclusively up to the value of the hereditary goods they receive. One need not pay more than what was received.

2. 2

   Step 2: What falls inside the cap

   The same article names three things: the decedent’s obligations, the legacies and the hereditary charges. The charges have their own list in Article 1589.

3. 3

   Step 3: When the cap can break

   Article 1588, first condition: when the obligations of the inheritance exceed the value of the estate’s assets. If the estate covers everything, this article does not come in.

4. 4

   Step 4: First door: paying ahead of time

   The heir answers with their patrimony if they alienate, consume or employ hereditary goods to pay hereditary obligations not yet due.

5. 5

   Step 5: The three verbs matter

   Alienate, consume or employ. Selling is not required: using the estate’s good for that early payment is enough.

6. 6

   Step 6: Second door: fault or negligence

   The same article: they also answer for the loss or deterioration that, through their fault or negligence, occurs in the hereditary goods.

7. 7

   Step 7: What the Code does not ask for here

   Article 1587 states the cap without demanding an inventory, declaration or procedure. The inventory appears later, in Article 1591, and for something else: opposing an attachment.

8. 8

   Step 8: What the Code does not explain

   It does not say how the value of the goods received is calculated or as of what date, does not define “obligations not yet due” and does not say what happens when there are several heirs. This guide does not assume it.

These two articles describe no procedure before any agency and do not mention the court: they fix how far liability reaches. The procedural tool the Code does name — opposing an attachment of one’s own goods with an inventory — is in Article 1591, with its own guide on this site.

• Believing inheriting obliges paying all the decedent’s debts: the cap is the value of what was received.
• Thinking paying estate debts with estate goods is always safe: if they had not matured and the estate is short, it is not.
• Overlooking the “not yet due” detail: it is what separates the reproached payment from the normal one.
• Believing a good must be sold to fall under Article 1588: alienating, consuming or employing count equally.
• Neglecting the hereditary goods: loss or deterioration through fault or negligence exposes one’s own patrimony.
• Assuming Article 1588 always applies: it starts from the obligations exceeding the value of the assets.
• Looking in Article 1587 for a list of hereditary charges: it is in Article 1589.
• Taking for granted that the Code requires an inventory to have the cap: in these two articles it does not.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Poder Judicial de Puerto Rico

  Poder Judicial

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov