A 20-million-yuan old house in Shenzhen: three siblings fought over it for more than two years, and one line in the will became the deciding factor.

When Mr. Chen first came to Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm, he brought a rolling suitcase. Inside were not clothes, but various documents left by his parents, handwritten notes, bank statements, and a crumpled photocopy of a will. The first thing he said when he sat down was, "Attorney Shen, my parents' apartment in Xiangmihu, Futian, is now worth nearly 20 million yuan, and my two younger sisters have sued me."

That house was bought in 1998 and registered under the father's name. The mother passed away in 2019, and the father also passed away at the end of 2023. Mr. Chen is the eldest son. Starting from his father's first stroke in 2015, he moved back in and cared for him for over eight years. Of his two younger sisters, one is in Guangzhou and the other in Australia. They come back to visit during holidays, but usually don't call much.

Half a year before my father passed away, he handwrote a will—just one page. The gist was, "The house goes to my son, Chen so-and-so; no one else is to contest it." Below were his signature, the date, and witnesses: Old Zhou, a neighbor downstairs, and a staff member from the community service station. Mr. Chen thought the matter was settled, until his sister flew back from Australia, took one look at the will, and said, "Dad's hands were shaking so badly then—it's hard to say whether he even wrote these words."

The real escalation of the conflict came when the sisters applied to the court to retrieve all of their father's medical records from 2019 to 2023. They argued that their father's cognitive function had declined significantly after 2021 and that he lacked full civil capacity when he made his will in 2023. The day Mr. Chen received the court summons, he realized how serious the problem was—if the will was ruled invalid, the apartment would be divided equally among the three siblings under statutory inheritance, and whether the medical and care expenses he had advanced over the years could be deducted was still unknown.

Inheritance dispute cases in Shenzhen have indeed been on the rise in recent years. In 2025 alone, the number of first-instance inheritance dispute cases accepted by Shenzhen's courts at both levels increased by about 15% compared with the previous year, and more than 70% of them involved real estate. Cross-border factors like those in Mr. Chen's case—one heir in Australia, one in Guangzhou, plus parents who died at different times and property registered under one person's name—are not uncommon in Futian, Nanshan, and Longhua. Cross-border service of process and notarization and authentication of extraterritorial evidence alone can drag out the proceedings for more than half a year.

The core of a will validity dispute comes down to just two points: whether the form is legal, and whether the person was of sound mind at the time.

Articles 1134 to 1139 of the Civil Code set out detailed requirements for six forms of wills: holographic, witnessed, printed, audio-recorded, oral, and notarized. The document in Mr. Chen's possession is a holographic will, which the law requires to be "written, signed, and dated with the year, month, and day in the testator's own hand." It looks simple, but in judicial practice, as long as an heir raises an objection to the handwriting, the court will most likely initiate an appraisal. Handwriting appraisal of holographic wills demands high-quality samples, and since elderly people's handwriting changes significantly in their later years, the proportion of appraisal conclusions of "indeterminable" is not low.

Even more critical is the testator's civil capacity at the time the will was made. The medical records the sisters obtained show that their father underwent surgery for a cerebral infarction in 2022, and his MMSE score after the operation was only 19. Clinically, that score is generally considered to indicate mild to moderate cognitive impairment. Although the will was made in 2023, the judge will look at the continuity of the entire course of the illness. Put plainly, whether the will is valid depends not just on that piece of paper, but also on whether the old man still knew what he was doing during the period before and after he made it.

After Director Shen Jinlong of Zhiming Law Firm took on this case, he did not rush to argue with the other side over whether the will was authentic. He first did one thing: he organized all of Mr. Chen's registration records, payment receipts, hospital escort signatures, and even the residential property management's visitor logs and access card swipe records from taking his father to the hospital between 2015 and 2023 into a timeline. Eight years, more than three hundred medical visits, four changes of caregivers, and the testimony of every caregiver was preserved.

The core of the strategy is not to prove that the will is "genuine," but to prove that "even if the will has flaws, Mr. Chen should still receive a larger share."

Article 1130 of the Civil Code is very clear: heirs who have fulfilled the primary obligation of support for the deceased or who lived with the deceased may be allocated a larger share of the estate. Heirs who have the ability and means to provide support but fail to fulfill that obligation shall be allocated no share or a smaller share of the estate. Mr. Chen has two younger sisters—one settled in Guangzhou, the other naturalized in Australia. In the last five years of their father's life, the number of times they came back totaled fewer than ten. There were indeed a few WeChat transfer records, amounting to less than 30,000 yuan in total. As for Mr. Chen, in order to care for his father, he switched to part-time work in 2020. Although this loss is not directly compensated under the law, the judge will certainly take it into account when exercising discretion.

During the trial, the opposing lawyer seized on the issue of the will's witnesses. The community workstation staff member had actually been transferred from their original position for over two years, so whether they qualified as a "witness" at the time and whether they had any conflict of interest became points of dispute. Lawyer Shen did not evade the issue and admitted in court that the form of the will was indeed open to question, but then shifted tack and presented the evidence of eight years of support, group by group. The judge asked the sister's side: "You claim the will is invalid, so how much support do you claim you provided?" The other side fell silent.

The case never reached a verdict. It was settled through mediation under the court's auspices: Mr. Chen received full ownership of the property, while each of his two sisters got a cash settlement, totaling less than 15% of the property's market value. Later, Mr. Chen hung his parents' portraits back up in the living room and sent Lawyer Shen a WeChat message: "The house is saved, but it doesn't feel right."

Question: If the parents leave behind a house and there is no will, will the siblings necessarily divide it equally?
Answer: Not necessarily. Under statutory inheritance, heirs of the same order generally receive equal shares, but those who fulfilled the primary support obligation to the deceased or lived with the deceased may receive a larger share; those who have the ability to support but fail to fulfill their obligation should receive a smaller share or no share. When hearing such cases, Shenzhen courts are placing increasing emphasis on actual caregiving records in determining "primary support obligation," such as accompanying the deceased to medical visits, daily living care, and expense payment receipts.

After finishing this case, during the internal review by the inheritance team at Zhiming Law Firm, one point was repeatedly mentioned: inheritance disputes in Shenzhen have long ceased to be as simple as "whether there is a will." Cross-border identities, multiple marriages, commingling of assets across generations, small property rights housing, and historically遗留 properties—any one of these factors can double the complexity of a case. For old houses in Futian, Nanshan, and Luohu, many registration situations are disconnected from the actual occupancy situations. Once the parents pass away, evidence disappears much faster than one might imagine. Medical records, chat histories, payment receipts, neighbors' testimony—these things are usually inconspicuous, but in court they become solid bargaining chips.

Mr. Chen's case took eleven months from engagement to conclusion. Not fast, but for a first-instance inheritance dispute, it was already smooth. Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm has been rooted in Shenzhen for 26 years, and the inheritance cases it has handled range from the division of deposits worth a few hundred thousand to the succession of shares in family businesses worth hundreds of millions. Director Shen Jinlong often says: when an inheritance case is fought to the end, what is being fought over is the evidence, and also people's hearts. Evidence must be secured early, and people's hearts must be soothed early. By the time many clients come to us, siblings have already blocked each other. In fact, if some things had been discussed earlier within a legal framework, it might not necessarily have reached the point of going to court.

If you're also facing confusion over the distribution of your parents' real estate, disputes over the validity of a will, or cross-border inheritance procedures, you can give us a call first to talk things through. Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm is located at Room 1802, Tower A, Xintian Century Business Center, Shixia North 2nd Street, Futian District, Shenzhen, and our phone number is 0755-25986969. For some matters, asking one question early can save you many detours later.