Short answer. Not on their own. Parents and guardians may accept an inheritance left to a minor or an incapacitated person by themselves, but they cannot repudiate it without going to court first. A renunciation signed without judicial authorization does not validly give up the child's share.
What the law says
Any inheritance left to minors or incapacitated persons may be accepted by their parents or guardians. Parents or guardians may repudiate the inheritance left to their wards only by judicial authorization.
Civil Code, Article 1044 — Who May Accept or Repudiate. Read the full provision →
Why accepting is easy and giving up is not
The law treats the two acts very differently because their consequences are not symmetrical. Accepting adds something to the child's patrimony; even if the estate later proves burdensome, the child has not been stripped of anything he already had a right to. Repudiating is a permanent, unilateral surrender of property the child is legally entitled to, made by someone else, at an age when the child cannot object. So the Civil Code lets a parent or guardian accept alone, but interposes a judge before any renunciation. The requirement exists to protect the ward from the guardian's own convenience, pressure from relatives, or a settlement that suits the adults.
What judicial authorization actually means here
It means a court must be asked, in advance, to allow the repudiation — the judge weighs whether giving up the share genuinely serves the minor's interest. Occasionally it does: an estate loaded with debts, or an inherited property carrying obligations larger than its value, can be worth declining. But the burden runs the other way. The parent has to show the court why surrendering something is better for the child than keeping it. A private deed of waiver, a barangay agreement, or a notarized quitclaim signed by the parent alone does not satisfy this, however many witnesses signed it and however sincere the family consensus was at the time.
The consequences of a renunciation done the wrong way
A repudiation made without the court's authority does not effectively divest the child. That has an uncomfortable practical edge for everyone involved. The other heirs who relied on it may find the partition unsettled, and a buyer who took the property on the strength of that deed may face a claim from the child later. Registers of deeds and banks increasingly ask for the court order precisely because of this exposure. If you are on the receiving side of such a waiver, the missing authorization is not a formality you can paper over with an affidavit.
What to do before anyone signs
If the estate looks insolvent, get the debts and the assets valued before deciding anything — repudiation is not the only way to limit exposure, and it is the most irreversible. If a deed has already been signed for a minor, do not treat the matter as closed; gather the deed, the death certificate, the list of estate assets and any titles, and have the position reviewed. Where a guardian was formally appointed, the guardianship record matters too. Outcomes depend entirely on the particular estate, and nothing here predicts how a court will rule on a given petition.
Cases citing this provision
These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.
- Michael C. Guy vs. Hon. Court of Appeals, et al, G.R. No. 163707, September 15, 2006 — read the decision on LawPhil →