Foreign husband
If a Taiwan wife dies , what happens about the house which is in the wife’s name , will the husband get half or all of the sale of the house , the husband is not Taiwanese ,
iiuc
The property obtained during the marriage are usually regarded as the common property of the married couple unless there is some special contract or situations, so if the house was bought after your marriage, the half of it is yours together with other properties. The remaining half should be inherited by the surviving people who have the right of inheritance including you.
Civil Code
Article 1039
Upon the death of one of the husband and the wife, half the common property shall pass to the heir of the deceased and the other half shall devolve on the surviving party.
In the case of the division of property mentioned in the preceding paragraph, where some other agreement exists as to the amounts, such agreement shall be followed.
In the case provided in the first paragraph, where the surviving party is by law unable to inherit, he may not claim a greater portion of the common property than he would get in the case of divorce.
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This wasn’t the thread I was expecting
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I got my popcorn ready before opening 
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Ok thank you
Never thought I’d get an answer, from anyone,
Wow
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Article 1138
Heirs to property other than the spouse come in the following order:
(1) Lineal descendants by blood;
(2) Parents;
(3) Brothers and sisters;
(4) Grandparents.
Article 1144
Each spouse has the right to inherit the property of the other, and his or her entitled portion is determined according to the following Subparagraphs:
(1) Where the spouse inherits concurrently with heirs of the first order, as provided in Article 1138, his or her entitled portion is equal to the other heirs;
(2) Where the spouse inherits concurrently with heirs of the second or third order as provided in Article 1138, his or her entitled portion is one-half of the inheritance;
(3) Where the spouse inherits concurrently with heirs of the fourth order as provided in Article 1138, his or her entitled portion is two-thirds of the inheritance;
(4) Where there is no heir of any of the four orders provided in Article 1138, his or her entitled portion is the entirety of the inheritance.
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How would the court weight right of inheritance versus instructions in a will?
Article 1187
A testator may freely dispose of his property by a will so far as it does not contravene the provisions in regard to compulsory portions.
Article 1223
The compulsory portion of an heir is determined as follows:
(1) For a lineal descendant by blood, the compulsory portion is one half of his entitled portion;
(2) For a parent, the compulsory portion is one half of his entitled portion;
(3) For a spouse, the compulsory portion is one half of his entitled portion;
(4) For a brother or a sister, the compulsory portion is one-third of his or her entitled portion;
(5) For a grandparent, the compulsory portion is one-third of his entitled portion.
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So, just so I understand, they’re saying that, if your spouse is Taiwanese and dies, the house that you and your spouse, not the spouse’s parents, siblings or children, purchased with your combined income, the income that you and your spouse alone put into the house, only one half of that house belongs to the surviving partner while the other half gets divvied up to whatever leeches of blood relations come knocking?
If so, it explains 100% of the screwed up nature of Taiwan’s housing market.
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What if the property is still under housing loan? Will the payables be transfered to the proper heir?
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That’s actually pretty interesting how its directly codefied in the law, and not to the interpretation of courts which is the case in many common law jurisdictions. I guess this is a product of civil code vs common law.
As far as I know in my province of the old country, the Will just needs to ensure that the spouse and offspring have “adequate provision for his or her proper maintenance and support”. You can see how this would cause family fights and drama.
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It may be possible that my Taiwanese son can get half , if his mother is died , and the husband get half , the Taiwan family want be happy if that’s the case ,
No, this example does not seem to be correct for two reasons: First, it is not property obtained from “combined income” – income is not mentioned at all in the law. Taiwan is a communal law system, so ANY property purchased AFTER marriage becomes shared property (i.e., communal) UNLESS there is an explicit agreement (and you should check whether agreements between spouses specifying a particular spouse has an entire claim on a particular property obtained after the marriage cannot be challenged; when I got married, 3 friends separately approached me and advised me to close on the house BEFORE the wedding). In short, there is nothing about “combined income” - you can obtain property by inheritance or as a gift (donation)
Second, if the decedent does not have any heirs of their own, i.e., spouse and children, only then will the leeches have a claim, and that claim will be calculated as half of what a normal inheritance would have been.
At least, this is how I understand it. This description of compulsory portions in Germany is helpful (and obviously, is not necessarily the way things work out in Taiwan): Compulsory portion | Erbrecht Düsseldorf | Fachanwalt Dr. Michael Gottschalk
So you should consult a Taiwan estate lawyer for a definitive and up-to-date understanding. Hopefully, these definitions from other countries are helpful in forming your questions when you consult someone with solid estate experience
(On that note, isn’t much of Taiwan law derived from German law via the Japanese Imperial Codes?)
Those basic codes of the ROC law were in appearance modeled on civil law countries, especially Germany, but in fact directed by Japanese law and legal theories, which were dominated by German jurisprudence. 5
5 See Dan F. Henderson, Japanese Influences on Communist Chinese Legal Language, in Jerome A. Cohen ed., CONTEMPORARY CHINESE LAW: RESEARCH PROBLEMS AND PERSPECTIVES (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970), 158–87
SOURCE: PART IV: Legal tranplants and the influence of Japanese law in Asia
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Right - if the Taiwanese mother passes away, her foreign spouse and child would share any property obtained (bought or otherwise) AFTER the mother married her spouse.
So, this implies that if the Taiwanese wife inherited a property from her own parents after she married a foreign spouse, and then passed away and had no children or siblings, then the foreign spouse would end up with their in-law’s property. I do not know if this is the case in Taiwan (so consult an estate lawyer) but it would seem to be. And should also be the case in same-sex marriages here.
This would apply similarly to other communal law jurisdictions (like in the map below where the dark blue US states are communal law states)
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Do you mean blood relations towards children or as well extended relatives outside of nuclear family like parents, siblings and maybe even aunties.
What happens with amount paid from life insurance for death? It is divided among family relatives automatically or owner, holder (husband) of policy gets everything?
Interesting topic 
iius, it is if the Taiwanese mother passes away, her foreign spouse and her children would share any property the mother owned.
things she obtained after the marriage are common property with her spouse, unless it was obtained by inheritance etc, so only half is what she onwed.
you first need to figure out what are the common property, then take half of it. the remaining half of the common property and her own property are what should be inherited. if she have chidren, the children and you are her heirs.
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What about Foreign spouse, house in their name, dies? Surviving Taiwanese spouse gets the lot?
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That’s exactly what I was just wondering haha
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Article 1153
Heirs shall be jointly liable for the debts of the decedent but liabilities are limited to the extent of the property acquired from the estate.
Among the heirs, each heir is liable for the decedent’s debts based upon their relative share of the total estate, unless otherwise provided by law or agreed upon by the heirs.
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nationality doesnt matter. the same laws are applied. if they dont have child, and foreigners parents are still alive, the parents and taiwanese spouse are heirs.
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