“I am writing this letter to let you know that we are very
ARTICLE PUBLISHED BY PORTUGUESE TIMES
for the care you took of our father.
As a gesture of gratitude, my brother and I are proposing to donate the land
donate to you the land that adjoins your house and the land
the land to the east of the building that your husband is the tenant of.
is a tenant, with the task of looking after our mother,
namely to guide her, pay her bills, accompany her to the doctor’s
bills, accompanying her to the doctors, keeping her company
while we’re away. We know that she will be well
well, taking as an example the way he accompanied and cared for our mother.
and cared for our father. We’ve sent you the powers of attorney
so that you can mark the deed”.
A donation is a contract whereby a person, out of a spirit of liberality and at the expense of their assets, disposes of a thing or a right free of charge, or assumes an obligation, for the benefit of the other party. We could call this type of donation a pure and simple donation, when someone donates to someone else and they accept a certain asset.
There are also so-called remunerative donations and donations with a modal clause or with charges.
The letter that the children sent to their neighbor includes these two types of donation (which are still a free contract), the so-called remunerative donation, where the beneficiary is limited to receiving and the modal donation, where the beneficiary is obliged to comply with charges, which must be set out in the contract, and the charges cannot exceed the value of the donated asset. This would be the case of the donee receiving a good and being obliged, in addition to providing it with care, to pay for all food and health costs, among others, that the donor may incur in excess of the value of the thing donated.
What characterizes a remunerative donation is the fact that the services that are intended to be remunerated do not have the nature of an enforceable debt, and there is no obligation on the part of the donor towards the donee, with only the donor’s motive being relevant: gratitude for fulfilling a duty that was spontaneously rendered.
To this extent, the following are examples of the effects of a remunerative donation: it cannot be revoked due to ingratitude on the part of the donee; there is a presumption of exemption from collation in relation to the donated goods, among others.
In the event of non-compliance with the modal clause set out in the deed, both the donor, or his heirs, and any interested parties are entitled to demand that the donee, or his heirs, comply with the charges, and may request that the donation be rescinded, based on non-compliance with the charges, when this right is conferred on them by the contract.
The formalization of the donation contract takes place through the contest and agreement of two wills, with the donation proposal corresponding to the acceptance of the donee. Donations are subject to stamp duty, except for donations made by parents and grandparents to children and grandchildren.
Not everyone can donate, the so-called active incapacity, that is, incapacitated people are prevented from donating, as are their legal representatives who act on their behalf and in their interest.
“Everything I’ve done has been out of friendship and affection and it will be the same feelings that motivate me to continue caring for your mother, even though I find it difficult to say yes, after talking to my family I accept your donations, which is why I’m writing this letter.”
Judith Teodoro,
Lawyer
