Civil law

The declaration of absence

Many people wonder what the declaration of legal absence is, and many of these people are asking to be mistaken for the declaration of death. We will clarify in this article some aspects about the declaration of absence.

declaration of absence

By declaration of absence is meant that legal declaration, by a court, of the situation of absence of a person. In other words, when a person disappears and his whereabouts are unknown, there comes a time when that situation can not legally be undefined. It is at this moment when the situation of legal absence of the above mentioned person is declared.

Keep in mind that by talking about the person is legally absent it is not talking about whether the person has passed away and his body has not been found or if, on the contrary, the person remains alive but by voluntary or involuntary matters is in unknown whereabouts and you do not have any news in this regard.

The law says that the interim can not be eternal and that the destination that has run the person is independent of being declared legally absent. Now, when does a declaration of absence occur? And even further, what effects does it produce?

First of all, it is possible to distinguish between what is a person merely disappeared and what is a person in a situation of being declared legally absent.

For the person who has simply disappeared, from the beginning, there can be implement measures that are designed to protect their interests. These measures go to appoint an advocate who will be in charge of dealing with the personal and property of the disappeared person who does not admit delay.

On the contrary, when the person who has disappeared maintains that situation in time, and more than a year has passed since his disappearance, his absence can be declared legally. This one-year period will be three years after a person in charge of the missing person has been previously appointed.

All of the above is regulated in the Civil Code and the main effects of the declaration of absence are, for example, that if the missing person had children, the parental authority will be exercised exclusively by the parent who is present and, in case of having a marriage in force, the spouse or present shall be entitled to the separation of property.

The court competent to hear the cases of declarations of absence shall be the last known address of the absent person. The spouse who is not legally separated from the absent person, the person who maintains an affective relationship similar to that of marriage or blood relatives up to the fourth degree, may apply the request for declaration of absence.

They may also request a petition for the declaration of the absence of a disappeared person, all those persons with some exercisable right over the property of the absent person and may also be a matter that is initiated by office, or through a complaint, by the Public Prosecutor.