We already divided our parents' estate, but one heir's share turned out to have a hidden problem — what can the other heirs do?

The obligation survives the division

Article 1092 is short and deliberate: After the partition has been made, the co-heirs shall be reciprocally bound to warrant the title to, and the quality of, each property adjudicated. Two distinct things are warranted. Title covers the case where the property was never wholly the estate's to give — a stranger turns out to own part of it, a mortgage or an easement surfaces, a boundary is not where the plan said. Quality covers a defect in the thing itself. Reciprocally means it runs in every direction, so the heir complaining today is answerable on his own share tomorrow.

How the loss is spread

Article 1093 fixes the arithmetic. The obligation shall be proportionate to the respective hereditary shares of the co-heirs, but if any one of them should be insolvent, the other co-heirs shall be liable for his part in the same proportion, deducting the part corresponding to the one who should be indemnified. So a co-heir who cannot pay does not defeat the remedy; his portion is redistributed among the solvent ones, with the injured heir's own share of it taken out first — he is not made to indemnify himself. Those who cover for him keep a right of action should his finances recover.

Ten years, and a shorter clock for credits

Article 1094 provides that An action to enforce the warranty among heirs must be brought within ten years from the date the right of action accrues. Note what the period runs from: not the date of the partition, but the accrual of the right of action, which is why the date the defect was actually asserted against the heir matters and should be documented. Where the estate distributed receivables rather than land, Article 1095 is stricter — the warranty of the debtor's solvency can only be enforced during the five years following the partition, and bad debts known to and accepted by the distributee are not warranted at all.

When warranty is the wrong remedy

Warranty compensates for a particular property that failed; it leaves the division standing. Where the complaint is that the division itself was wrong, Article 1097 allows a partition to be rescinded or annulled for the same causes as contracts, and Article 1098 adds rescission for lesion when any one of the co-heirs received things whose value is less, by at least one-fourth, than the share to which he is entitled, considering the value of the things at the time they were adjudicated. Values are taken as of the adjudication, not today. Which route fits turns on whether one asset disappointed or the whole allocation was skewed.

Related provisions

• Civil Code, Article 1092 — Reciprocal Warranty Among Heirs
• Civil Code, Article 1093 — Warranty Is Proportionate
• Civil Code, Article 1094 — Ten Years to Enforce Warranty
• Civil Code, Article 1095 — Assigned Credits
• Civil Code, Article 1097 — Partition May Be Rescinded Like a Contract
• Civil Code, Article 1098 — Rescission for Lesion