Chilean property does not pass to heirs by the fact of death. Until an estate is formally granted and registered, nobody can sell it, mortgage it, or in many cases even prove it is theirs — and the file usually sits untouched for years because everyone involved is abroad.
Heirs acquire rights on death, but under article 688 of the Civil Code they cannot dispose of inherited real estate until the estate has been formally granted and that grant registered against the property.
What this looks like in practice: a family keeps paying property tax on a house nobody can sell, sometimes for a decade. Meanwhile the original heirs die and their own heirs join the file, so the estate that needed three signatures now needs eleven, spread across three countries. The cost of fixing it rises every year it is left alone. That is the single strongest argument for dealing with it now rather than when someone wants to sell.
Which properties, in whose name, in which registry, with what encumbrances. Families are often wrong about this, and it changes everything downstream.
Every heir needs a Chilean tax number, including those who have never set foot in the country.
The formal grant. Administrative through the Civil Registry where there is no will; judicial where there is one, or where the estate was opened outside Chile.
Chile taxes the inheritance under Law 16.271, at progressive rates, with allowances that depend on how closely each heir was related to the deceased. How it is calculated.
The grant and the estate inventory are registered, and the property is entered in the heirs' names. Only now can it be sold or mortgaged.
Co-ownership between heirs scattered across countries tends to end badly. If the plan is to sell, we say so early and structure for it.
Two questions that come up in every one of these files, and that are better answered before the estate is finished than after.
Once the property is registered in the heirs' names, a power of attorney drafted for that specific sale lets us handle the deed and the registry. Signed before a Chilean consulate, or apostilled in your country. See the guide on selling from abroad.
Chile taxes the gain on sale, with an exemption for individuals up to a cumulative threshold expressed in UF. Inherited property has its own cost-basis rules, and they often work in the heirs' favour — but only if the file was built correctly from the start.
Chilean banks apply their own source-of-funds checks to a foreign heir selling inherited property. Knowing what they will ask for, before the sale rather than after, is what keeps the money from sitting in a Chilean account for months.
This page is general information about Chilean law, not legal advice, and it does not create a lawyer–client relationship. Figures in UF vary daily. Every matter turns on its own documents.
A name, an approximate address and a date of death is usually enough for us to find the property and tell you what state the file is in. That first search costs you nothing.
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