How do you renounce an inheritance in Peru, and what does it do?

What it is and when it comes up

Renouncing an inheritance means formally saying you don’t want to be an heir. It isn’t simply “doing nothing”: it is an act with its own form and deadline, and it has an effect that goes beyond your own decision, because it can open the door for your own children to inherit in your place.

People consider renouncing mainly when the inheritance brings more debt than assets, when there’s a family conflict someone would rather stay out of, or, for whatever reason, someone simply doesn’t want to take on the position of heir. If your concern is specifically what happens with the decedent’s debts, before renouncing outright it’s worth reading about the beneficio de inventario: that page explains a less drastic alternative, which lets you keep the assets without answering for debts beyond what you inherited.

The deadline: three months in Peru, six abroad

The law doesn’t leave the decision open indefinitely. Under article 673 of the Civil Code, if you don’t file a formal renunciation within three months (while in Peru) or six months (if you live abroad), the law automatically presumes you accepted the inheritance. This is called presumed acceptance, and it’s the third of three recognized ways to accept an inheritance: express (a written declaration), tacit (acting as owner of the assets, for example taking possession of them), and presumed (letting the deadline pass without renouncing).

The important point is that silence is not neutral. If you do nothing and let the deadline pass, you don’t end up outside the inheritance by default: you end up inside it, assets and debts alike.

How it’s done: a public deed

Sunarp’s Reglamento de Inscripciones de los Registros de Testamentos y de Sucesiones Intestadas is clear about the form: the title required to register a renunciation of inheritance is the notarial copy of the public deed. This rule appears, worded the same way, both for a renunciation recorded in the Wills Registry (article 19 of the Reglamento) and for one recorded in the Intestate Succession Registry (article 33).

In practice, this means a letter, a text message to the other heirs, or a verbal statement to the notary is not enough. You need a public deed, executed before a notary, whose notarial copy is what later gets filed for registration.

Who can renounce

Not everyone can renounce on their own. Article 674 of the Civil Code requires that whoever renounces have free disposal of their own property. A minor, for instance, doesn’t have that free disposal, so they can’t renounce directly: their legal representative has to act, usually with the additional authorizations the law requires for acts of this weight over a minor’s estate.

The effects: as if you had never been an heir

Article 677 of the Civil Code sets out the core effect of renouncing: the law treats it as if succession never occurred in the renouncer’s favor. In other words, the law treats the situation as if, from the very moment the decedent died, you never became an heir at all. The effect is retroactive to that date, not just from when you sign the deed.

This has a direct practical consequence: if you renounce on time and in the right form, the estate’s debts don’t reach you, because legally you were never in the position of heir to answer for them.

Watch out: your children can still inherit in your place

This is the point that surprises people most. Renouncing doesn’t always cut your branch of the family out of the succession. Article 681 of the Civil Code governs succession by representation, and expressly extends it to the case of renunciation: the descendants of whoever renounces can step into that person’s place and degree, and receive what would have corresponded to them had they not renounced.

In other words, if you renounce your father’s inheritance, your own children — the decedent’s grandchildren — can inherit in your place by representation, unless they also renounce or that possibility doesn’t exist in the specific case. Renouncing settles your own position toward the inheritance; it doesn’t necessarily close the door for your descendants.

What this page doesn’t settle

There are two related scenarios we chose not to cover here, because we couldn’t verify them directly against an official source during this review:

• Renouncing in favor of one specific person. If the idea isn’t simply to step aside, but to have your share pass specifically to one particular heir, that’s no longer a simple renunciation: Sunarp treats it as a different figure, close to a donation, with its own formal requirements. Talk to a notary if that’s your situation.
• Whether an already-registered renunciation can be revoked. We did not directly verify whether, once a renunciation is registered, there is any way to undo it. Before signing, assume it’s a decision you’ll have to live with.

Where it gets registered

The notarial copy of the public deed is filed with Sunarp, in whichever registry the succession itself is recorded in: the Wills Registry if the decedent left a will, or the Intestate Succession Registry if not. It isn’t filed directly with the property registry for each real estate asset; it’s the registration of the succession that later lets ownership of the assets pass to whoever did accept the inheritance.