Waiting for the inheritance: 40 flats and champagne

The countdown to the inheritance: 40 flats and waiting for the champagne

What does it feel like to know your grandparents own forty properties while you pay 400 euros a month to rent one? A real and controversial case has brought generational tensions, inheritance expectations and the boomer habit of building empires on a public pension into the spotlight.

Forty flats owned by a police officer and a housewife

The protagonist's grandparents – a retired National Police officer and a housewife – managed to amass more than forty properties through their work. Many observers find the figure hard to swallow: the average pension of a retired police officer hardly allows a fortune to multiply to that extent without leverage, investments or some other factor. Even so, the figure stands within the family story: six children, and a grandson who feels discriminated against.

The last straw is the unequal treatment: while one brother was given a house to live in for free plus two more to rent out, the other is charged 400 euros a month on the grounds that they are "doing him a favour". The difference in treatment is so obvious that the man openly admits he wants to open a bottle of champagne when the grandparents pass away.

Is a portfolio of forty flats believable?

Scepticism is the most common reaction. A portfolio of forty properties is not built on an average salary and a pension, unless there were previous inheritances or aggressive borrowing during the property bubble. Some point out that, if the story is true, the real value of those flats may be low – perhaps in depopulated villages – and that the rents do not generate significant income. The question of whether such a portfolio is viable remains open.

The inheritance conflict: conditions and favouritism

Discrimination between siblings is nothing new. Here a condition for inheriting is added: attending the funeral. A clause which, if broken, could leave the heir with nothing. The man has started a public countdown: crossing off days on the calendar until the moment of death, while sending messages full of resentment. The online community reacts harshly: some call him "weak" and remind him of the ninth and tenth commandments; others suggest that this resentment will get him disinherited.

The generational gap in property ownership

The case illustrates the divide between boomers, who benefited from a stable job market and cheap housing, and millennials, who see owning a home as an impossible dream. But here the conflict is intra-family: the grandson demands what he considers his share without having contributed to building that wealth. The grandparents, for their part, manage their assets by their own rules: favouritism, conditions and iron control over the transfer of wealth.

In the end, the person opening the champagne may not be the heir. If the grandparents spend the estate on care or reverse mortgages, they will be the ones popping the cork. With their own money, of course.