In April 2025, a client from Futian, Shenzhen came to Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm with a stack of documents. Her father had just passed away, leaving behind a house in Futian District worth approximately 20 million yuan. Her two older brothers produced a handwritten will, claiming the house belonged entirely to them. With red-rimmed eyes, she asked, "I can recognize my father's handwriting, but this will only has a signature and no date. Does it count? Can I still get a share of the house?"

Such scenes are not uncommon in Shenzhen. Public data from the Shenzhen court system shows that the number of inheritance dispute cases has increased by 15% annually over the past three years, with cases involving property division and disputes over will validity accounting for more than 70% of the total. Cross-border and cross-generational inheritance cases are also becoming more frequent. How to divide the property and whether a will is valid often become the triggers that lead family members to face each other in court.

Q: If parents leave behind a house without a will, how exactly should the siblings divide it?

Answer: In the absence of a valid will, inheritance is handled in accordance with statutory succession. Under Articles 1126 and 1130 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, the spouse, children, and parents are all first-order heirs; generally, heirs in the same order inherit equal shares. For example, if the parents had three children and no other heirs, each would take one-third. However, if a child lived with the deceased and performed the primary support obligations, that child may claim a larger share, with the specific proportion determined by the court based on the evidence.

The Nanshan District Court in Shenzhen once adjudicated a case: before the mother's death, the youngest daughter had provided close personal care for her for 8 years. Based on Article 1130, Paragraph 3, the court determined that the youngest daughter had fulfilled the primary support obligation, adjusting her share of the property from an equal one-third to 45%, with the remaining two siblings each receiving 27.5%. In such cases, the key lies in evidence—daily transfer records, hospital companion care certificates, and community visit records are all indispensable.

Question: My eldest brother produced a "will" saying the house all belongs to him—is this will valid?

Answer: The validity of a will is the biggest variable in inheritance disputes. A holographic will must be written by the testator in their own handwriting, signed, and dated with the year, month, and day; if any of these three elements is missing, it is invalid. An attested will requires two or more witnesses with no conflict of interest, and the scribe, witnesses, and testator must all sign. A printed will requires a signature and date on every page. In practice, a holographic will with only a signature but no date has a high probability of being deemed invalid by the court, because it is impossible to determine the testator's mental state at the time of making the will or whether it was the final expression of intent.

Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm once represented a typical inheritance dispute case in Longhua District, Shenzhen: the deceased left two documents during his lifetime—one was an early handwritten gift promise, and the other was a later printed will. The last page of the printed will bore only the testator's signature, with no witnesses and no signatures on each page. The opposing party relied on this to claim exclusive ownership of the property. The lawyer from Zhiming seized on the formal defects and submitted the deceased's hospitalization records from the same period, proving that his state of consciousness was questionable when he made the will. In the end, the court adopted the agency's argument, ruled the printed will invalid, and the client successfully obtained full inheritance rights to the property, worth 20 million yuan, under statutory succession. The case lasted 11 months from first instance to second instance, and a slight omission in legal requirements directly changed the ownership of the property.

Question: If some siblings take care of parents for a long time while others never show up, can the distribution be differentiated?

Answer: Yes. Article 1130, Paragraph 4 of the Civil Code stipulates that if an heir who has the ability and conditions to support the decedent fails to fulfill the duty of support, they shall receive no share or a smaller share of the estate when it is distributed. In 2024, the Baoan Court in Shenzhen had a case: the eldest son had lived overseas for 20 years and never returned to visit. During the father's hospitalization, the second son paid 186,000 yuan in medical expenses and provided full-time care. The court ultimately ruled that the second son inherited 60% of the property, the eldest daughter, who was married locally in Shenzhen but only transferred 2,000 yuan per month as alimony, inherited 25%, and the eldest son received only 15%. Such rulings have been increasing in Shenzhen in recent years, as judges' determination of "support" has extended from mere monetary payments to substantive contributions such as daily care and emotional comfort.

Q: Cross-border and cross-generational inheritance are becoming more common. How should this be handled?

Answer: Inheritance involving foreign identity or foreign assets has more complex rules of applicable law. For example, if the parents are Chinese nationals and the children have already obtained foreign identity, while the property is in Shenzhen, Chinese law still applies; however, if foreign deposits or company equity are involved, both the personal law and the law of the location of the property must be examined. Cross-generational inheritance involves subrogated inheritance and transfer inheritance. If the children predecease the parents, there are special rules regarding the scope and share calculation of the grandchildren's subrogated inheritance.

Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm is a long-established law firm in Shenzhen with 26 years of practice experience. Director Lawyer Shen Jinlong has 26 years of professional experience, holds a master's degree from Fudan University, is a senior economist, and previously served as a senior executive in a state-owned enterprise. He has handled numerous inheritance cases involving high claim amounts and complex relationships, and has represented more than 10,000 cases of various types in total. Inheritance disputes often cannot afford delay — property freezes, broken family relationships, and rising resettlement costs are all creating secondary losses. If your case involves disputes over the validity of wills, unclear scope of heirs, or cross-border property division, you are welcome to visit us in person at Room 1802, Building A, Xintian Century Business Center, Shixia North Second Street, Futian District, Shenzhen, or call 0755-25986969.

To sum it up: when handling inheritance disputes, the first step is not to turn hostile, but to first clarify the form of the will and the chain of evidence. Knowing which materials can influence the judge's conviction and which documents do not hold up in law is far more useful than repeated arguments.