President António José Seguro promulgated legislation on August 7 giving the government 180 days to create a special legal process for undivided inheritances, property jointly owned by multiple heirs who haven't formally divided it. Under the eventual process, a single heir could force a sale without the other heirs' agreement. The mechanism itself doesn't exist yet, this authorizes the government to build it. The legislation also authorizes the government to create a separate "succession arbitration" regime set by the deceased, and to amend the Civil Code, the Civil Procedure Code, and Portugal's medically assisted reproduction law.
Parliament passed the authorization on July 17, in a final floor vote backed by PSD, CDS-PP, PS, IL, and JPP. Chega and PAN abstained. PCP, BE, and Livre voted against. The government now has 180 days from when the authorization takes effect to actually write the operative rules into law.
The scale of the problem
The government says at least 3.4 million rural properties, roughly a third of the estimated 11 million rural properties nationally, are currently held in undivided inheritances. Managing or selling these properties currently requires every heir's consent. A single objecting heir can leave an estate deadlocked for years, according to Ministro da Presidência António Leitão Amaro, who told Parliament in June that this is the core problem the reform targets.
The government has framed the reform as a housing-supply measure as much as a legal fix, arguing that unresolved inheritances are a significant driver of vacant, unused properties nationally, both rural land and urban housing.
How the mechanism actually works
Under the version of the bill Parliament passed, the trigger is time-based: two years after an inheritance is accepted, if the heirs still haven't reached agreement, a single heir will be able to initiate a court process to force a sale, once the government actually writes the operative rules. Under the March proposal, other heirs would keep the right to match the winning offer and buy out the property themselves, keeping it in the family rather than losing it to an outside buyer, though the exact mechanics depend on how the government's eventual rules are drafted. Prime Minister Luís Montenegro has pushed back on the "forced sale" framing used almost universally in Portuguese press coverage of this law, including in headlines, arguing the real goal is to get all heirs to participate in resolving the deadlock, not to strip anyone of their share of the property's value.
The legislation promulgated this week authorizes the government to write the detailed rules for this "special process," described as urgent in nature, for court-ordered sales of jointly inherited real estate specifically in cases where heirs can't agree on selling.
What's excluded
Following amendments proposed by PSD during committee review, a family home ("casa de morada de família") will be excluded from the special sale process unless the surviving spouse expressly consents, a protection extended to unmarried partners in a registered de facto union as well. Inheritances currently in insolvency proceedings will also be excluded, a broader carve-out than what the government originally proposed, which had only excluded cases involving a formal "convenção de indivisão" (agreement to keep property undivided) or where the right to division couldn't be legally exercised at all. Cases involving minor or legally incapacitated heirs will also get added oversight from Portugal's Ministério Público (public prosecutor's office).
New Executor and Management Powers, Once Written Into Law
The authorization lets the government create a new role, a "testamenteiro" with partition powers. This would be an executor who could centralize administration, liquidation, and division authority in one third party, intended to speed up the succession process by removing the timing and terms of division from the heirs themselves. A separate provision would let heirs assign administration of the inheritance and the "cabeça-de-casal" role (the person legally responsible for managing the estate) to any other person, as long as a simple majority of heirs agree, except when the current cabeça-de-casal is the surviving spouse. A related proposal on letting heirs choose the cabeça-de-casal by simple majority, originally introduced separately by Iniciativa Liberal in early June, was folded into this same final authorization by PSD.
Existing Cases Are Included, and That's Contested
Once the government writes the operative rules, the new regime is set to apply to "all inheritances opened and not yet divided" as of the date it takes effect, meaning it will reach cases that already existed when the new regime takes effect, not just inheritances opened afterward. That's a procedural change applying to pending cases, not a retroactive change to the substantive inheritance rights that existed when those inheritances opened.
That scope still drew objections during committee debate. PSD's Paulo Marcelo acknowledged the sensitivity but argued these are procedural rules, not penal or tax rules, which he said the Constitution permits applying to cases already open, and that it's in the public interest for the new rules to reach currently pending court cases rather than leave them under the old, slower regime.
One unusual provision, also pending
The authorization includes a specific carve-out tied to assisted reproduction: once written into law, the right to divide an inheritance won't be exercisable if there's documented consent for post-mortem insemination, for three years after the succession opens, or until the child is born, whichever comes first, while the legally permitted insemination procedures are still pending.