Inheriting property in Portugal: the foreign heir's playbook
Inheriting property in Portugal as a foreign heir: which country's law applies, forced heirship, the tax deadlines, and why nobody can sell without the others.
Inheriting a Portuguese property from abroad puts you inside two legal systems at once. Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 decides which country's succession law governs the estate, and the default is the law of the country where the deceased was habitually resident, not the country where the house stands. Portuguese law then applies its own rule that surprises most common-law heirs: a fixed share of the estate is reserved for spouse and children, and cannot be willed away. Until the estate is divided, nobody owns the house, everybody owns the estate, and no heir can sell alone. Meanwhile the tax clock runs from the date of death, and the property accrues IMI, condominium charges and the damage that comes from standing empty. The Jurisdiction Mapper sets out how the Portuguese process differs from the one you know at home.
Table of Contents
- Which country's law applies to a Portuguese property?
- What is forced heirship and how does it change your inheritance?
- What do you have to file, and by when?
- Why can no heir sell the property alone?
- What does an inherited Portuguese property actually cost you?
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Conclusion
Which country's law applies to a Portuguese property?
Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 applies the law of the deceased's habitual residence at death, unless the deceased chose the law of their nationality.
The intuitive answer, that Portuguese property follows Portuguese law, is wrong more often than it is right. Since 17 August 2015, Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 governs cross-border successions across the EU, with the exception of Denmark and Ireland, and it treats the estate as one whole rather than splitting it by asset location. The connecting factor is the deceased's habitual residence at the time of death.
For a British couple who retired to the Algarve fifteen years ago, that means Portuguese succession law governs everything, including assets left in the United Kingdom. For a German national who owned a Lisbon apartment but lived in Munich, German law governs, including the Lisbon flat.
The regulation allows one deliberate override. A person may choose the law of a country of their nationality to govern their succession, expressed in a will made during their lifetime. That choice is what a foreign owner uses to keep their home jurisdiction's rules over a Portuguese house, and it has to have been made by the deceased. An heir cannot make it after the fact.
One document makes the result usable across borders. The European Certificate of Succession, created by the same regulation, proves who the heirs are and what powers they hold, and is recognised in other Member States without further procedure. For an heir dealing with a Portuguese registry, a Portuguese bank and a Portuguese notary from another country, it is the instrument that avoids reproving the same facts three times.
This is general information, not tax or legal advice. Verify your situation with a qualified professional.
What is forced heirship and how does it change your inheritance?
Portuguese law reserves a fixed share of the estate for spouse, children and ascendants, and a will cannot dispose of that reserved portion.
Common-law heirs arrive expecting testamentary freedom. Portuguese law does not offer it. A category of protected heirs (herdeiros legitimários), comprising the surviving spouse, descendants and, in their absence, ascendants, is entitled to a reserved share of the estate (legítima) whatever the will says. Only the remainder, the disposable quota (quota disponível), can be left freely.
The proportions move with the family composition. Where a surviving spouse and children inherit together, the reserved portion is two-thirds of the estate. Where there is no surviving spouse, the children's reserved share is one-half with a single child and two-thirds with two or more (Código Civil, Arts. 2158.º and 2159.º). The disposable quota is what is left after that calculation.
The practical consequence lands on people who assumed a will settled the matter. A father who leaves his Cascais apartment to one daughter, in a will governed by Portuguese law, has not disinherited the others: their reserved shares still attach to the estate, and the apartment forms part of the pool from which those shares are satisfied. The daughter may end up owning the property only by compensating her siblings in cash.
Whether these rules bite at all depends on the answer to the first question. If the deceased was habitually resident in England and left the Portuguese house by an English will, English rules of testamentary freedom apply to the succession. If they had retired to Portugal, Portuguese forced heirship applies to their entire estate.
What do you have to file, and by when?
The head of the estate must file the Modelo 1 stamp duty declaration by the end of the third month following the death, an unextendable deadline.
Portugal handles inheritance through the estate itself. The estate receives its own tax number and is represented by a head of the estate (cabeça de casal), a role the law assigns in a fixed order beginning with the surviving spouse and passing to the heirs. That person carries the filing obligations, wherever the heirs happen to live.
The first obligation is the declaration. Modelo 1 of stamp duty on gratuitous transfers identifies the deceased, the beneficiaries, their degree of kinship and the assets, and must reach the tax authority by the end of the third month following the month of death. The deadline is unextendable unless justified grounds are accepted, in which case an extension of up to 60 days may be granted (Autoridade Tributária, Portal das Finanças). The obligation stands even when nobody owes anything.
The second is the tax. Gratuitous transfers to individuals are taxed at 10%, but the spouse or de facto partner, descendants and ascendants are exempt. Siblings, nephews and nieces, cousins and unrelated beneficiaries pay. Where the estate includes immovable property, the family exemption covers the 10% rate and does not remove the separate stamp duty charge on the transfer of immovables, levied at 0.8% of the tax value (CRN Contabilidade and comparajá, 2026). Portugal charges no inheritance tax in the sense a British or American heir would recognise, which is a genuine advantage, and it is not the same as owing nothing.
A third liability appears later, at division. If one heir takes the property and compensates the others in cash (tornas), the excess over that heir's ideal share is treated as an onerous transfer subject to IMT, payable by the heir who received more than their share (Ordem dos Contabilistas Certificados; STA and CAAD decisions on the excess-of-share rule). The valuation used at division therefore has direct tax consequences, which is one reason it should not be an approximation.
The full breakdown of Portuguese property costs covers the ongoing side, and the IMT calculator handles the transfer-tax arithmetic when tornas come into play.
Why can no heir sell the property alone?
Until the estate is divided, heirs co-own the whole estate rather than specific assets, so disposing of the property requires every heir to agree.
Before division (partilha), an inheritance is an undivided estate (herança indivisa). Each heir holds a share of the whole, not a room, a floor or a percentage of one house. Four siblings with a quarter each cannot point at the property and claim a quarter of it.
Selling, granting a long lease or carrying out works beyond ordinary maintenance requires unanimity among the heirs or a judicial authorisation replacing it. The head of the estate administers, which is not the same as being able to dispose: a sale made without the others' consent is challengeable and creates liability. One heir who disagrees, or who simply cannot be found, stops the transaction.
That last scenario is the ordinary case for internationally dispersed families. An heir in Toronto who never answers, a cousin whose address nobody has kept, a sibling who wants to hold the house for sentimental reasons: any of them freezes the asset indefinitely. Portuguese law sets no deadline for dividing an estate, and there are properties that have sat undivided for generations, each one adding heirs to the chain.
Portugal is legislating on exactly this. On 17 July 2026 Parliament approved a diploma authorising the Government to create a special judicial process allowing a single heir, the surviving spouse or an executor with division powers to apply for the sale of a property trapped in an undivided estate, giving the Government 180 days to establish it. The announced design exempts a property that is the permanent home of one of the heirs, and preserves the other heirs' right of first refusal to match the best offer and keep the property in the family (idealista/news, ECO and CNN Portugal, July 2026). The authorisation exists; the process itself has still to be created, so an heir cannot use it today.
What does an inherited Portuguese property actually cost you?
An undivided property keeps accruing IMI, condominium charges and deterioration, and the disagreement that blocks most estates is about value, not about willingness.
Costs run whether or not the family agrees. IMI falls due annually, paid in a single instalment by 31 May below 100€, in two, May and November, between 100€ and 500€, and in three, May, August and November, above 500€. Condominium quotas keep accruing against the fraction. An uninsured, unoccupied property carries risk nobody is monitoring.
Deterioration is the expensive part and the one absentee heirs cannot see. A house closed for years, unheated and unventilated, develops condensation damage to finishes, joinery and installations. A single displaced roof tile admits water through successive winters. Portugal's stock gives the base rate: 35.8% of buildings need repair, split into 21.8% light, 9.4% medium and 4.6% deep (INE, Censos 2021), so the honest figure for serious condition problems is the 14% in the medium and deep categories. An inherited property, by definition without an active owner during the undivided period, drifts toward that group with every year.
And this is where most estates actually stall. Heirs rarely disagree about whether to sell. They disagree about what the house is worth, and each brings a number from a different source: a tax value from the property record, which is built for taxation and sits below market; an agent's phone estimate; an asking price from a portal, which is a seller's hope rather than a transaction. None of them measures the condition of the building, and condition is what separates the numbers.
For an heir abroad, that gap is wider still, because you are being asked to accept a valuation of a building you cannot walk through. A dated technical condition report closes it: it prices the roof, the structure, the damp and the installations, and it converts a family argument about expectations into a discussion about quotations. Where the document layer flags legal or registry risk first, screen it before anyone travels.
See how Portuguese succession, ownership and transaction rules differ from the ones in your own country, before you commit to a position.
→ Use the Jurisdiction Mapper, how buying and owning in Portugal differs from your home country
If the property's condition is the open question, a physical inspection is the next step. → Book with InspectOS
Frequently Asked Questions
Which country's law applies when I inherit property in Portugal?
Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 applies the law of the country where the deceased was habitually resident at death to the estate as a whole, including the Portuguese property. The deceased could override this by choosing the law of a country of their nationality in a will made during their lifetime. Heirs cannot make that choice afterwards.
Does Portugal have inheritance tax?
Not in the form British or American heirs expect. Gratuitous transfers are subject to stamp duty at 10%, and spouses or de facto partners, descendants and ascendants are exempt from that rate. Siblings, nephews, cousins and unrelated beneficiaries pay it. A separate stamp duty charge of 0.8% of the tax value applies to the transfer of immovable property.
Can one heir force the sale of an inherited Portuguese property?
Not today. Disposing of an asset in an undivided estate requires all heirs to agree or a judicial authorisation. Parliament approved a diploma on 17 July 2026 authorising the Government to create a special process letting a single heir apply for the sale, with an exemption where the property is an heir's permanent home, but the Government has 180 days to establish that process and it does not exist yet.
Can I be disinherited under a Portuguese will?
Not if you are a protected heir. Portuguese law reserves a share of the estate (legítima) for the surviving spouse, descendants and, failing those, ascendants, and a will cannot dispose of it. Where a spouse and children inherit together the reserved portion is two-thirds; without a spouse it is one-half for a single child and two-thirds for two or more.
How long do I have to declare an inheritance in Portugal?
The head of the estate must file the Modelo 1 stamp duty declaration by the end of the third month following the month of death. The deadline is unextendable unless justified grounds are accepted, when an extension of up to 60 days may be granted. The declaration is required even where the heirs are exempt from the tax.
Conclusion
A Portuguese inheritance handled from abroad turns on three questions, in order: which country's law governs the estate, what share the law reserves for whom, and what the property is actually worth. The first two are answered by Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 and the Portuguese Civil Code. The third is the one that keeps estates frozen for years, because nobody has produced a number the whole family can accept. The filing clock, meanwhile, started on the date of death.
Updated August 2026 | RealOS Portugal Reviewed by Filipe Dornellas
Sources: Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council · Código Civil, Arts. 2158.º and 2159.º, and the regime of the undivided estate and head of the estate · Autoridade Tributária, Portal das Finanças, Modelo 1 stamp duty on gratuitous transfers · Ordem dos Contabilistas Certificados, IMT on the excess of the hereditary share; STA and CAAD decisions · INE, Censos 2021 · idealista/news, ECO and CNN Portugal, July 2026, parliamentary approval of the undivided-estate regime · CRN Contabilidade and comparajá, 2026, stamp duty on inherited immovables.