Beneficium Inventarii

As previously noted, the sui heredes had the right to decline the paternal inheritance (ius abstinendi) if they thought that the deceased estate was too heavily burdened with debts or even insolvent.

The so-called ‘benefit of an inventory' (beneficium inventarii) was a further remedy introduced into later law by Justinian to protect the heir who was not a heres suus. An heir of this kind (heres extraneus) was free to choose whether to accept or decline the inheritance, but such choice might be difficult without an investigation of the solvency of the testator's estate. Thus, such an heir was granted the right to compile an inventory of the assets of the estate within thirty days of learning of the inheritance.^[1130] The inventory had to be completed within sixty days from that date.^[1131] If the heir chose to make use of this benefit, he could not be held liable for debts above the value of the assets of the inheritance. Although in this case the two estates were not kept separate, the value of the assets of the deceased estate was calculated and the heir was liable to this amount with both his own and the estate's assets.

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