I inherited money from my grandmother but there are outstanding debts, do I have to pay them?

In most cases, an inheritance comes with liabilities included, so technically yes you should cover them with what you receive. The thing people forget is that if the debts exceed the value of what you inherited, you could end up paying out of your own pocket to fill the gap, so before you accept anything it's worth doing a serious inventory of what's in the estate and exactly how much is owed. If things look bad, you have the option to renounce the inheritance within the set timeframe, but you need to do that quickly and with proper legal advice.

What I'd recommend is talking to a lawyer who specializes in estates before doing anything, because the situation is more nuanced than it seems. Yeah, technically you inherit the debts along with the assets, but here's the thing: you only have to pay those debts up to the amount of what you inherited. Like, if your grandmother left you 100 thousand and had 150 thousand in debts, they can't come after the other 50 thousand from your personal assets. That's important to understand clearly.

What the previous answer said about renouncing the inheritance is true, but there's also another option that a lot of people don't know about: you can accept the inheritance "with benefit of inventory," which basically means you only have to pay up to what you received, without affecting your assets. It's more common than people think when debts are involved.

In any case, before you touch anything, you need to know exactly how much the total debts are and whether there are enough assets to cover them. If your grandmother left properties, money in the account, all that goes into the equation. A lawyer will help you figure out whether it's better to accept, accept with benefit of inventory, or just straight up renounce. It's not something you have to decide right away.