Who inherits without a will in Mozambique?

In the Portuguese civil-code tradition, the spouse and the children are the first heirs and share the estate, and a reserved part (the legítima) cannot be taken away by a will. Family laws passed since independence have made sons and daughters equal.

A spouse with no children shares with the parents or other ascendants, and takes the whole estate if there are none.

Children first, then the parents and other ascendants, then the siblings, then more distant relatives, and finally the state.

Many Portuguese-heritage countries recognise a stable union (união de facto) for some purposes, but an unmarried partner generally has no automatic right to inherit.

A part of the estate is reserved for the children, the spouse and, if there are no children, the parents. A will can dispose freely only of the rest.

The law of the place where land lies usually governs the land, and the law of the person's last home usually governs the rest. An estate with a foreign element needs advice in the country.

• In many communities customary rules decide who inherits family land and the family home, and courts and reforms have been moving toward equal rights for sons and daughters and for widows. Which law applies often depends on the form of the marriage and on whether the person lived under customary law.

Mozambique belongs to the Customary law is a leading source family. Succession law grows out of the legal tradition, so it helps to know how the system works.

Read the Mozambique legal-system profile in the Legal Families Atlas →
Who owns what in a marriage in Mozambique? →

• JuriGlobe, University of Ottawa: world legal systems
• World Bank: Women, Business and the Law (country data on inheritance rights)