Short answer. Yes. Article 781 makes the inheritance include not just the property existing at death but whatever has accrued to it since the succession opened. Rent, interest, harvests and other fruits the property produces after your parent dies belong to the inheritance, and so ultimately to the heir who receives it.
What the law says
The inheritance of a person includes not only the property and the transmissible rights and obligations existing at the time of his death, but also those which have accrued thereto since the opening of the succession.
Civil Code, Article 781 — Property Accruing After Death. Read the full provision →
What Article 781 adds
Article 781 provides that the inheritance of a person includes not only the property and the transmissible rights and obligations existing at the time of his death, but also those which have accrued thereto since the opening of the succession. Succession 'opens' at the moment of death. From that instant the estate is a fixed mass, but it does not sit frozen — the land is still farmed, the deposit still earns interest, the building still collects rent. The article says those later gains are not a separate windfall for whoever happens to be managing the property. They belong to the inheritance itself.
Why the fruits follow the property
The reasoning is that ownership of the property carries ownership of what the property yields. An heir's right vests at the moment of death, even though the estate is not actually divided until later, sometimes years later. During that gap the property keeps producing, and the income produced attaches to the asset that produced it. So the person who eventually receives a particular parcel is entitled not only to the parcel but to the rents and harvests it generated in the meantime — the fruits are accounted for as part of what he inherits, not kept by the sibling who happened to collect them.
It cuts both ways: gains and burdens
The article speaks of rights and obligations alike, so accrual is not all upside. Interest that ran on a debt of the estate since death, taxes that fell due, the cost of preserving the property — these accrued after the opening of the succession too, and they are charged against the inheritance in the same accounting. The heir takes the post-death income but also bears the post-death carrying costs of what he receives. Whoever managed the property in the interim is entitled to be reimbursed for legitimate expenses at the same time as he accounts for the income.
Settling it at partition
In practice this is resolved when the estate is finally partitioned. The heir who administered the property renders an accounting: income received on one side, taxes and preservation costs on the other, with the net credited or charged to the shares. Keep the record as you go — lease contracts and the rent actually collected, tax receipts, invoices for repairs, and the dates each parcel produced. A co-heir who suspects income has been collected and pocketed is entitled to that accounting, and the manager who kept clean books is in a far stronger position than one relying on memory.
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.
- Elenita V. Macalinao, Kenneth V. Macalinao and Kristel V. Macalinao vs. Cerina, A.K.A. Cerena N. Macalinao and Cindy N. Ma, G.R. No. 250613, April 3, 2024 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Felimon C. Torres vs. Board of Trustees, Government Service Insurance System; Housing Finance Administration Department and Committee on Claims, Government Service Insurance System, G.R. No. 225920, April 3, 2024 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Esther Victoria Alcala Vda. De Alcañeses vs. Jose S. Alcañeses, substituted by his legal, G.R. No. 187847, June 30, 2021 — read the decision on LawPhil →