Parents left property behind, siblings in Shenzhen go to court over ¥20 million real estate—the validity of the will hinges on these key points.

Last week, a client from Longhua, Shenzhen came to me, sighing the moment he spoke: his father had passed away three years ago, leaving behind a school-district property in Nanshan valued at 20 million RMB. His sister held a will written by their father before his death, stating that the house belonged to her. The younger brother disagreed, claiming the will was forged and that the estate should be divided equally under statutory succession. The family has been arguing over this since 2022, and at the end of last year, the sister directly sued the younger brother in Futian District Court.

I know this type of case very well. Inheritance disputes in Shenzhen have surged sharply in recent years. According to public court data, the number of inheritance dispute cases citywide has been increasing by around 15% annually, and cross-border and cross-generational inheritance is becoming more and more common — parents leave property in Shenzhen, while their children may be overseas, some may have acquired foreign citizenship, and others may have divorced and remarried, resulting in a line of potential heirs that can stretch to over a dozen people.

The core conflict in Shenzhen inheritance disputes: property appreciation has outpaced family bonds.

Frankly speaking, properties in Shenzhen are simply too valuable. An ordinary apartment easily costs several million, while school-district housing and luxury homes can easily reach over ten million. In the inheritance cases I've handled, over 90% of the disputes revolve around real estate. Siblings grew up together, and it's not that there's no affection between them, but when faced with a difference of several million or even over ten million, family bonds can easily be torn apart.

Even more troublesome is that many parents pass away too suddenly, leaving no will at all. Or if they did leave one, it is riddled with flaws—either missing the date, having only a signature without a fingerprint, or being so vaguely worded that two wills can be interpreted to produce two completely contradictory outcomes. When such cases go to court, judges have no choice but to piece together the evidence chain to make a ruling.

Is a will valid or not? The court recognizes these three hard criteria.

Articles 1134 through 1144 of the Civil Code clearly stipulate the forms of wills. However, in Shenzhen's judicial practice, courts are most particular about three things:

First, whether the testator was of sound mind when making the will.In many inheritance disputes in Shenzhen, children question whether their parents, when drafting a will, were already suffering from Alzheimer's disease or were hospitalized with severe illness, and thus lacked the capacity to dispose of property. Courts will retrieve hospital medical records and nursing documentation, and may even summon the attending physician at the time to testify in court. I have seen a case where the will was signed on the third day after the father underwent brain surgery, and the court directly ruled it invalid.

Second, whether the signature and fingerprint are authentic.A holographic will must be written entirely by the testator in their own handwriting, signed, and dated with the year, month, and day. A will made by proxy (attested will) requires two or more witnesses to be present, and the witnesses cannot be heirs or persons with an interest in the heirs. Many elderly people in Shenzhen habitually use seals instead of signatures, which the courts view as highly risky—seals can be engraved at will, but handwriting authentication constitutes conclusive evidence.

Third, whether the contents of the will disposed of another person's property.For example, in the case of a house jointly owned by a married couple, if the father states in his will, "The house goes to the eldest daughter," but half of the house originally belonged to his spouse, then this clause in the will is invalid with respect to the spouse's portion of the property rights. Many families in Shenzhen overlook this point, thinking that simply writing down a name is enough. In reality, if the property shares are not clearly defined, the will may be written in vain.

How is it divided without a will? Statutory inheritance is not simply "equal division."

If the parents did not leave a will, statutory succession applies under Article 1127 of the Civil Code, where the first-order heirs are the spouse, children, and parents. On the surface, the children divide the estate equally, but in actual practice, the differences are significant.

For example, take an apartment in Futian, Shenzhen worth 8 million yuan. If the father passes away and the mother is still alive, the three children might assume each gets 2 million. But in reality, the mother first takes half as marital joint property, and then the remaining 4 million is split equally between the mother and the three children—so the mother gets 6 million in total, and each child gets only about 667,000 yuan. Many people can't calculate this correctly, thinking "equal division" simply means dividing by the number of people, and only end up in court do they realize they miscalculated.

Additionally, children who have fulfilled primary support obligations or lived with their parents may claim a larger share. In recent years, Shenzhen courts have placed increasing emphasis on evidence of "actual support"—who accompanied parents to medical appointments, who handled daily living expenses, and who provided hands-on care when parents were ill. Transfer records, signatures on medical records, and neighbor testimony can all serve as basis for receiving a larger share of the estate.

Cross-Border and Cross-Generational Inheritance: Shenzhen's Increasingly Prominent Foreign-Related Elements

Shenzhen is a city of immigrants, and inheritance disputes here involve particularly many foreign-related elements. In a case I handled last year, the father held Shenzhen household registration and left a property in Luohu, but the eldest son had already acquired Canadian citizenship, and the younger daughter was settled in Hong Kong. After the father passed away, the two children could not reach any agreement on how to dispose of the property.

Foreign-related inheritance involves issues of applicable law—should Chinese law or Canadian law apply? If the property is located in Shenzhen, Chinese law typically applies, but the determination of heir identity, marital relationships, and child custody may involve foreign documents that require notarization, translation, and legalization. Going through the entire process can take over half a year. Add to that time zone differences and communication costs, and mediation in such cases becomes extremely difficult.

There is also the issue of cross-generational inheritance. After parents pass away, if their children predecease them, the grandchildren are involved in subrogation inheritance. If a child divorces and remarries, do stepchildren have inheritance rights? All of these have appeared in inheritance disputes in Shenzhen, and each one is a point of contention involving real money.

Real case handled by Zhiming Law Firm: 20 million yuan property fully recovered.

Last year, our Zhiming Law Firm concluded a case involving a client, Ms. Chen from Nanshan, Shenzhen. Her father owned a luxury property in Shekou, valued at approximately 20 million yuan. Before his passing, her father had made a holographic will explicitly stating that the property was to go to Ms. Chen. However, Ms. Chen's elder brother refused to accept this, claiming that the will was written under duress from Ms. Chen, and filed a lawsuit in court demanding that the estate be divided equally in accordance with statutory inheritance.

After Lead Attorney Shen Jinlong took over the case, he did three things: first, he applied for handwriting authentication to confirm that the signature on the will was indeed written by the father himself; second, he obtained the father's medical examination report and outpatient records from a Grade-A tertiary hospital in Shenzhen for the three months prior to the making of the will, proving that the father's cognitive functions were completely normal at that time; third, he located an old neighbor who had been present at the time—a longtime chess partner of the father with no conflict of interest whatsoever with Ms. Chen—who testified in court that the father had clear thinking and free will when making the will.

The court ultimately adopted all the evidence, found the will valid, and ruled that the 20 million yuan property be inherited entirely by Ms. Chen. Her brother appealed but lost, and the second-instance court upheld the original judgment. From case filing to the conclusion of the second-instance trial, the case lasted one year and two months.

Ms. Chen later told me that if it hadn't been for this will, or if the will had had even the slightest flaw, the house would most likely have been split evenly. Her brother really didn't lack money; he just couldn't swallow that bitter pill. But the law is about evidence, not emotions.

Three practical suggestions for people in Shenzhen

First, make your will as early as possible while your parents are still alive.Shenzhen housing prices are high, and real estate is a major asset, so don't shy away from discussing wills. Having a lawyer draft a standard will doesn't cost much, but it can save descendants dozens of times the trouble. A handwritten will is easy to find fault with; it is recommended to make a notarized will or a lawyer-witnessed will, as they carry stronger evidentiary weight.

Second, properly retain evidence of support payments.If the parents did not leave a will, and you did in fact bear the primary support obligation, be sure to keep records of bank transfers, medical payment receipts, and daily purchase documents. These are strong evidence in court for receiving a larger share of the estate—don't wait until litigation to start looking for them.

Third, when the validity of a will is disputed, don't tough it out alone.The number of inheritance dispute cases in Shenzhen is rising, and the courts' adjudication standards are also tightening. Whether a will is valid involves multiple professional procedures such as handwriting identification, mental capacity assessment, and witness qualification review—one wrong step and the entire case collapses. Hiring an experienced lawyer to help you evaluate evidence and develop a strategy is far better than arguing yourself red-faced with your siblings in court.

Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm has been deeply rooted in Shenzhen for 26 years, having handled over 10,000 cases in total. Director Shen Jinlong is a senior lawyer with 26 years of practice experience, a master's degree holder from Fudan University, and a senior economist. In his early years, he also held executive positions in state-owned enterprises, giving him an understanding of both the law and human nature when handling inheritance disputes. If you are facing issues regarding the division of parents' real estate or disputes over the validity of wills, you are welcome to visit us in person at Room 1802, Block A, Xintian Century Business Center, Shixia North Second Street, Futian District, Shenzhen — for cases like this, talking beats litigating for peace of mind, and if you do litigate, it should be done with a well-planned strategy.

Phone: 0755-25986969

Q: If the parents did not leave a will, but one of the children has been living with the parents all along, can that child receive a larger share of the property?
Answer: Yes, you can claim it. The Civil Code stipulates that heirs who lived with the deceased or fulfilled the primary support obligation may receive a larger share when the estate is distributed. However, the court will require you to provide evidence of actual cohabitation and care, such as household registration records, utility payment records, medical accompaniment records, etc. Merely claiming it verbally is not enough.