Chile Forum

Hello,
My father is chiliean citizen and was married to my mom in Israel. He returned to Chile and my mom was living in Israel. after 5 years ( i was 4 years old) they divorced. He never took any responsebility regurding the fact i am his child. When i was 21 he was qurious to see me and i went there for a month (he promissed to pay university and to help ) but after that he disappeard again.
My question is: What are my legal rights in the state of Chile? What about heritage rights (he have other 5 kids)? If one of those days can i build a case against him?
Thank you.

Eventually i intend to go there and claim my rights, as far as i know he a wealthy man and as a father he needs to take responsability for ALL of his kids, and give them the chance to have a future.

Best regards
Lara

I have no idea about any inheritance, but at least you are a citizen of Chile and can get a Chilean passport.

My best guess that there is no where in the world where a man is obligated to support his children that are over 21 years of age. I think that you are out of luck on that front.

Chilean law might or might not have set laws about whom inheritance goes to. I suggest that you speak to a lawyer in Chile, and I recommend the owner of this forum for a consultation.

Go to Sitios.Cl and click on Registro Civil. Look for Posesion Efectiva title and click on it. You will find quite a bit of information concerning inheritances and so forth. Due to the fact that you are 21 years old you will have a hard time trying to get monetary help or...? from your father. Saludos.

My understanding of Chilean Inheritance laws is that upon a person’s death, half of his or her estate goes to the spouse (whether they want it to or not), a quarter is divided among the children of the deceased (no matter how many children they may have), and the remaining quarter can be designated for distribution as the deceased saw fit.

By the way, couples that live together but who are not married, are not entitled to receive an inheritance.

That information comes from the Cachando Chile blog and she had a couple informative links to check out on that particular post:
http://cachandochile.wordpress.com/2009 ... heritance/

It's a bit convoluted in my opinion. My mom has ensured that any property she wants us to receive on her death comes to us by just putting it in our names ahead of time here in Chile and in Canada lol. My Aunt and "Uncle" have been together for as long as I can remember. However, technically he and his real wife are still married (they separated early on but she refused to divorce him even after it became legal, why give up the alimony right?) and so anything he wants to leave my Aunt or cousin, he has to put in their names now. If he doesn't, the rights will go to his Ex and any children he had with her and my Aunt and Cousin will have no rights whatsoever. What's nuts is that you also have to be careful how you do that, because if the court decides you are trying to circumvent the inheritance laws this way, they'll intercede with their own ruling. Anyhow, like I said, it's convoluted IMHO...

Chile follows Napoleonic law and children legitimate or otherwise inherit and can not be denied BUT you must wait until your father dies and if he disposes of his real property before he dies you are out of luck. I do not know if he owes you support in Chile, in Puerto Rico we also follow Napoleonic law and parents MUST support their children until their majority. You need a lawyer!

Thank you al for the quick response, I am checking my possibilities at the moment. I will take a lawyer
in order to understand precisely what are my legal rights. This is something i am not willing to let go,
it took me a while to confront my emotional state about this subject ( that's why i am much older then 21) and i 'lost' my legal rights.

Thanks again.
Lara.

Was there a Ghet?

Sorry, just got back.

We have handled several cases of this type. There are some short articles explaining a bit of what you need at: http://www.spencerglobal.com

You will need a lawyer to do this. Among other things, you should register your citizenship because it puts you on the books as one of the inheritors. Otherwise no one knows to look for you when it comes time to divide the estate. You will also want to make sure nothing happens to his estate before he dies that might make it impossible for you to collect (i.e. he gives all the money to the other kids, or sticks in a company, or whatever). There are laws to stop those sorts of transfers designed just to circumvent the inheritance laws.

There are laws in Chile that now give "illegitimate" children the same rights as recognized children.

Highly suggest giving my wife Zandra a call at the number in my signature, because it is all far more involved given your situation than you will ever be able to piece together on the internet reading a few sites and asking questions on forums.