Wills and their applications increase in 2020 due to Covid-19

Fear of dying from covid-19 prompted Laura Villa to stop postponing her will. Like her, many Mexicans eventually decided to dictate their last will in the wake of the pandemic, some from their sick bed.

With an easy smile when given a sugary skull with his name on the Day of the Dead, the Mexican still refuses to talk about inheritance, to the point that only 5% of those who have to distribute have legalized these matters in the country, according to the College. of Notaries from Mexico City.

Conversely, large numbers inherit conflicts that span generations.

“I kept saying“ for next year. ”Mexicans are very interested in tomorrow and we don’t like to talk wills“He’s a bird of ill omen,” said Villa, a 49-year-old financier worried about clarifying the fate of two departments.

Added to superstition is the reluctance to undertake legal procedures, considered expensive and cumbersome, for which there are families who have spent decades living in the homes of deceased relatives without having property titles.

– Fired –

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For years, authorities and notaries have provided concessions and discounts for people to put their possessions in order and even organize campaigns such as “September, Testament Month”, now extended to October.

“Applications for opening a will increased by almost 60%. We will all die and when we see it more closely, like with this covid-19, people are more worried, “says Luis Antonio Montes de Oca, communications secretary of the Mexico City Notaries Association.

In early September, Villa tested after paying $ 118.

“I thought, ‘I’m not going to die now, I’m healthy.’ But you see the pandemic and with it the decision to – now yes – make my will “, adds Villa, who has two children.

With nearly 90,000 deaths and 129 million inhabitants, Mexico is the fourth country most mourned by the new coronavirus; It also accounts for around 900,000 infections.

Montes de Oca produced around 140 this year wills versus 90 in 2019. The epidemic invariably emerges in interviews with your customers.

One of them was prostrated by the virus. After a video call in which the patient expressed his will, the notary made a visit by a biosecurity team, read the document and signed it, as required by law which only admits wills in person.

“I arrived very scared. To avoid contagion, I asked him to have his pen signed without my having to lend him mine, “recalls the lawyer.” The best thing is that my client has recovered.

– ‘Panic’ –

Dying without a will leads to problems with real estate, as without a property title they cannot be sold or rented. Regularization is simple when family members agree; otherwise, it takes time and money.

Although the legalization of inheritances in Mexico City reaches 20%, the government of the capital has created a special unit of inheritance.

“With the pandemic there has been a panic reaction from people about wanting to do everything now. There are people who live in a house and they didn’t mind regularizing. Now they want to do it so they don’t leave the problem inherited, “explains Antonio Ramírez, head of the unit.

The entity handles the death cases of covid-19 that did not depart wills or whose process was left undone.

Montes de Oca has had two such tests. «He is very fresh on the pandemic, the duel must pass. Then there will surely be other cases of people leaving their legacy in limbo, he predicts.

AFP