Recovery of gifts with foreign reference
Good day,
I have some questions regarding the topic of reclaiming gifts with foreign connections, which are numbered for better reference in the following text:
Suppose a German resident in Germany gifts a property located in Germany to his son, who resides in a non-EU country (Switzerland, USA, China, etc.).
After a few years, the son gifts the property to his wife, who also does not live in Germany.
Now, the original donor becomes needy, and the German social welfare office attempts to reclaim the gift.
This is the situation. The question is, what happens next.
The son will argue "dispossession" to the office since he gifted the property to someone else.
So, the question (1) is, can the office still pursue the wife, even if her gift was made under foreign law, meaning both the donor and the recipient live abroad? Suppose further that the foreign country has no legal provision for reclaiming gifts in social cases.
Or does the law still apply based on the location of the property as the gift object (2), i.e., in Germany?
What if the property had been sold, and the money transferred abroad (3)? Would German law still apply (4)? Certainly not if the son had sold it beforehand and then gifted the money to the wife abroad (5). But what if the wife sold it after being gifted (6)? In both cases, the original gift object in Germany is no longer in existence at the time of reclaiming, as it was sold. The question is, does it make a difference if it was sold before or after the (second) gift (7)?
Would it be an alternative if the wife wants to keep the property long-term, to "devalue" it by placing a mortgage equal to the market value and transferring the money abroad (8)? The property would then not be usable for a potential claimant, even if they were to get it back eventually. In this case, would the office still be able to reclaim the property (and the mortgage) or just try to trace the money further (9)? If by then the money had been gifted to a third party abroad (e.g., the wife's sister), so that all parties involved and the gift object are not in Germany (10)? What actions could the office take in that case, or would their options be exhausted (11)?
Thank you in advance for your attention and handling of this matter!
