A man who received the usufruct of a home from his mother refused to share it with his brothers and sisters when she died. Justice has just found him wrong, and here is why.
No, receiving the usufruct of a property does not necessarily make you its owner. Several days ago, media, including BFM TV and TF1, relayed a court decision rendered by the Court of Cassation on the subject of an inheritance. In it, a man refused to share with his brothers and sisters the usufruct of a house donated by his mother during her lifetime. During the distribution of the property, he considered that this residence belonged to him, and that he was the only one who could benefit from it, since it had been given to him. However, justice did not side with him. If the usufruct allows for example to enjoy a property or to collect the income without becoming its owner, the Court of Cassation reminded the defendant that this right was extinguished with the death of the donor.
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“If it is made definitively, it is lifelong and it is extinguished whatever happens on the death of the donor. The usufruct is extinguished on the death of the one who gave it and not of the one who received it”, thus recalled the judges, relayed by TF1, who recall that this son cannot therefore keep for himself, after the death of his mother, the benefit of the usufruct he had before this death. In return, if he wishes to keep the house, his brothers and sisters demand the payment of compensation. “They rightly claim since the death of their mother since, while waiting for a division, all were equal usufructuaries on this property”thus concluded the Court.
How to obtain a usufruct?
A person can acquire a right of usufruct by contract, by will or by law. This is the case, for example, when one of the two members of a married couple dies: the other acquires de facto the usufruct over all the property owned by his spouse.. The dismemberment of property is also very often used to organize a future succession: the father who owns real estate, consents during his lifetime to the usus and the fructus to his child (he can live there and, if necessary, rent it and collect the rent). The father retains the right to sell it. Upon his death, the ownership of the property will be consolidated: the child will automatically regain the three rights and will lose his quality of usufructuary to become full owner of the property.