When one co-owner's whereabouts are unknown: the 2023 system to acquire or dispose of their share (Civil Code Articles 262-2 and 262-3)

In short: even where a co-owned property has a co-owner you cannot reach (a co-owner whose whereabouts, etc., are unknown), the Civil Code as amended and enforced on 1 April 2023 created a system to acquire that share through a court ruling, or to sell the property to a third party including that share (Civil Code Articles 262-2 and 262-3). The procedure is filed with the district court where the property is located and proceeds by depositing the market-value amount the court fixes. This article is general information on the framework of the system; it does not represent you in the application or prepare court-submission documents.

Who is a co-owner whose whereabouts, etc., are unknown, and how is that determined?

A "co-owner whose whereabouts, etc., are unknown" means, where among the co-owners there is one whom "the other co-owners cannot know, or whose whereabouts cannot be known," that co-owner (Civil Code Article 262-2, paragraph 1). It becomes a problem for land or buildings where inheritances have piled up, the number of co-owners has grown, and the address and name of some co-owners are no longer known.

Whether a person "cannot be known" means that it does not become clear even after the necessary investigation is exhausted. Concretely, you examine the registration record, the residence certificate or the supplementary family register (the certificate of past addresses), and the family register showing the inheritance relations, and you show the court by documents that the name or whereabouts still cannot be ascertained. You cannot simply declare someone "of unknown whereabouts" without exhausting the investigation.

Item	Content
Basis	Civil Code Article 262-2 (acquisition of the share) and Article 262-3 (disposal of the share)
Date of enforcement	1 April 2023 (the Act partially amending the Civil Code, etc. = Act No. 24 of 2021)
Object	A co-ownership share in real property
Determination	The co-owner's name or whereabouts cannot be ascertained even after exhausting the investigation of the registration record, residence certificate, supplementary family register, etc.

The long-standing administrator of an absentee's property (Civil Code Article 25) is a system to manage an absentee's property as a whole, and appointment and management take time and cost. By contrast, the system of Articles 262-2 and 262-3 narrows the procedure, allowing you to advance the acquisition or disposal targeting only the unknown co-owner's share in the co-owned real property.

How does the court procedure to acquire the unknown co-owner's share (Civil Code Article 262-2) proceed?

Where real property is co-owned by several persons and there is a co-owner whose whereabouts, etc., are unknown, the court may, on the request of a co-owner, make a ruling to have that requesting co-owner acquire the unknown co-owner's share (Civil Code Article 262-2, paragraph 1). If there are several requesting co-owners, they acquire pro rata to their respective shares. The procedure is filed with the district court with jurisdiction over the location of the real property (Act on Procedures for Non-Contentious Cases, Article 87, paragraph 1).

The court publicly notifies that the application has been made and sets a period for the unknown co-owner to file an objection or the like. This period may not be less than three months (Act on Procedures for Non-Contentious Cases, Article 87, paragraph 2). Co-owners whose name and whereabouts are known from the registry are separately notified (same Article, paragraph 3).

Stage	Content	Basis
Application	To the district court where the property is located	Act on Procedures for Non-Contentious Cases, Art. 87, para. 1
Public notice / period	A period for objections, etc. is publicly notified; three months or more	Same Article, para. 2
Deposit	Deposit the amount the court fixes (next section)	Same Article, paras. 5 and 8
Finality of the ruling	Takes effect only once final	Same Article, para. 9

One caution. Where a judicial demand for partition or a demand for division of the estate has been made for that property and a co-owner other than the unknown co-owner files an objection, the court cannot make the acquisition ruling (Civil Code Article 262-2, paragraph 2). Also, where the share belongs to an estate and should be divided among co-heirs, this ruling cannot be made unless ten years have passed since the inheritance began (same Article, paragraph 3).

How do you sell to a third party including the unknown co-owner's share (Article 262-3)?

You want to sell the whole co-owned property to a third party, but there is an unknown co-owner and you cannot obtain everyone's agreement — here you use the share-disposal system. The court may, on the request of a co-owner, make a ruling granting that co-owner the authority to transfer the unknown co-owner's share to a specific person (Civil Code Article 262-3, paragraph 1). However, it is a condition that all the other co-owners transfer the whole of their respective shares to the same specific person (the buyer). In other words, it is a system to move the entire property to a single buyer.

If, within two months after the ruling granting this authority takes effect (or within the period the court extends), the transfer of the share based on the authority does not take effect, the ruling loses its effect (Act on Procedures for Non-Contentious Cases, Article 88, paragraph 3). You need to settle the buyer, the price, and the closing arrangements first.

Item	Acquisition of the share (262-2)	Disposal of the share (262-3)
What it does	The requesting co-owner acquires the unknown co-owner's share	Grants authority to transfer the unknown co-owner's share to a third party
Condition	The requesting co-owner acquires (pro rata if several)	All other co-owners transfer their whole shares to the same buyer
Time constraint	—	Transfer must take effect within two months of the ruling's effect (extendable)
Claim for payment	The unknown co-owner claims the market value (same Article, para. 4)	The unknown co-owner claims the market value pro rata to the share (262-3, para. 3)

How is the deposit amount (the market value) determined?

In either system, before making the ruling the court orders the applicant to deposit, for the unknown co-owner, an amount of money the court fixes with the deposit office and to report that it has done so (Act on Procedures for Non-Contentious Cases, Article 87, paragraph 5; applied mutatis mutandis to the disposal ruling by Article 88). If this deposit is not made, the application is dismissed (same Article, paragraph 8). The deposit is a mechanism to secure the consideration the unknown co-owner should receive.

The court fixes the amount to be deposited, but the basis is, for acquisition, the market value of the share to be acquired, and for disposal, the portion of the market value of the whole property corresponding to the unknown co-owner's share. To show the market value, valuation materials for the property (an appraisal or assessment, etc.) become necessary. The deposited money may be claimed back (refunded) by the unknown co-owner (the person or their heirs) after the ruling becomes final (materials of the Ministry of Justice on the system, accessed 2026-11-01).

System	Basis of the deposit amount
Acquisition of the share (262-2, para. 4)	The market value of the share to be acquired
Disposal of the share (262-3, para. 3)	The portion of the whole property's market value corresponding to the share

The application of the valuation and the deposit amount varies with the specific circumstances. This article stays with information on the framework and does not judge specific amounts.

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Who handles the application representation, the registration, and the deposit (division with a lawyer and a judicial scrivener)?

This system chains together investigation, application, deposit, registration, and sale. The roles are divided as follows, and each contracts and proceeds separately as an independent business.

• Investigating the family register, registration record, and supplementary family register, and organising the materials on the co-ownership and inheritance relations → Yotsuba Administrative Scrivener Office (administrative scrivener). We carry out the fact investigation and provide information and materials only, and do not make specific legal judgements, file applications with the court, or prepare court-submission documents
• Representation in the application to the court → a lawyer. The procedural representation and legal arguments are made by the lawyer
• Preparing documents submitted to the court, such as the application itself → a judicial scrivener (or a lawyer). Our office does not prepare court-submission documents
• Registration of transfer of ownership after the ruling becomes final → a judicial scrivener
• The deposit procedure → the Legal Affairs Bureau (deposit office). The procedure follows the court's order, including that the depositor is the applicant
• Brokerage of the sale of the co-owned property → Yotsuba Real Estate Co., Ltd. (licensed real estate broker), a separate business from Yotsuba Administrative Scrivener Office. It handles this under a separate contract as an independent business

Consultation on the sale of the co-owned property is handled by Yotsuba Real Estate Co., Ltd., a separate business from Yotsuba Administrative Scrivener Office, under a separate contract as an independent business. Representation in the application is for a lawyer, and preparing court-submission documents and the registration are for a judicial scrivener, each contracting separately as an independent business. Each field is on the premise that you contract separately with each counter or qualified professional, and our office receives no referral fee. Even at the stage where the procedure is stalled because a co-owner's whereabouts are unknown, we can help from the fact investigation. For the flow of engagement, see Engagement Flow; for fees, see Fee Schedule; for inheritance work, see Guide to Inheritance Services; and for a general guide to inheritance, see Inheritance Consultation. As related articles, see also The estate-liquidation administrator and the absentee's-property administrator when no heir can be found, How to prepare an estate-division agreement, and How to start inheritance procedures and the family-register investigation.

FAQ

Q. If there is a co-owner I cannot reach, can the property not be moved at all?
A. No. Civil Code Articles 262-2 and 262-3, enforced on 1 April 2023, created a system under which, through a ruling of the district court where the property is located, you can acquire the unknown co-owner's share or sell the property including the share to a third party. However, you must show that the whereabouts cannot be ascertained after exhausting the necessary investigation and go through procedures such as depositing the market value the court fixes.

Q. How does this differ from appointing an administrator of an absentee's property?
A. The administrator of an absentee's property (Civil Code Article 25) is a system to manage the absentee's property as a whole, and the appointment and management take time and cost. Articles 262-2 and 262-3 are systems to advance the acquisition or disposal to a third party, targeting only the unknown co-owner's share in co-owned real property, so the procedure is narrowed to the share. Which is suitable depends on the circumstances, so confirm with a lawyer.

Q. What happens to the deposited money if the vanished co-owner comes back?
A. The deposit is made for the unknown co-owner, and after the ruling becomes final the person or their heirs may claim a refund from the deposit office (materials of the Ministry of Justice on the system, accessed 2026-11-01). The court fixes the amount to be deposited on the basis of the market value of the share to be acquired, etc. (Act on Procedures for Non-Contentious Cases, Article 87, paragraph 5). If the deposit is not made, the application is dismissed (same Article, paragraph 8).

Q. Does an administrative scrivener also file the application with the court?
A. We do not. Representation in the application to the court is for a lawyer, and preparing court-submission documents such as the application and the registration are for a judicial scrivener. Our office (administrative scrivener) assists within the scope of investigating the family register, registration record, and supplementary family register and organising the materials on the co-ownership and inheritance relations. The lawyer, the judicial scrivener, and the real estate company each contract separately as an independent business. Our office receives no referral fee.

Sources (Primary Information)

• e-Gov Law Search, "Civil Code," Article 262-2 (acquisition of the share of a co-owner whose whereabouts, etc., are unknown: the court's ruling to have a co-owner acquire the share on request, the restriction by an objection to a partition/estate-division demand, the requirement of ten years since inheritance began for an estate share, and the claim for payment of the market value), Article 262-3 (grant of authority to dispose of the share of a co-owner whose whereabouts, etc., are unknown: the condition that all other co-owners transfer, and the claim for the market value pro rata to the share) (enforced on 1 April 2023, accessed 2026-11-01)
• e-Gov Law Search, "Act on Procedures for Non-Contentious Cases," Article 87 (the acquisition ruling: jurisdiction of the district court where the property is located, public notice for a period of not less than three months, the deposit order of the amount the court fixes and dismissal if not deposited, and effect upon finality) and Article 88 (the disposal-authority ruling: application of Article 87 mutatis mutandis, and loss of effect if the transfer does not take effect within two months of the ruling's effect, extendable) (accessed 2026-11-01)
• Ministry of Justice, materials on the reformed co-ownership system under the "Act partially amending the Civil Code, etc. (Act No. 24 of 2021)" (the acquisition and disposal of the share of a co-owner whose whereabouts, etc., are unknown, and the handling of the deposit and its refund) (accessed 2026-11-01)

This article is general information and does not guarantee or judge which procedure can be used for a particular co-owned property or how much must be deposited. Because the requirements, procedures, and periods change with amendments to law and practice, always confirm with the latest provisions and the guidance of the Ministry of Justice and the courts. Representation in the application to the court is for a lawyer; preparing court-submission documents such as the application and the registration of transfer of ownership after the ruling becomes final are for a judicial scrivener; the deposit procedure is at the Legal Affairs Bureau (deposit office); and brokerage of the sale of the co-owned property is for Yotsuba Real Estate Co., Ltd. (licensed real estate broker), a separate business, each as an independent business under separate contracts and procedures. Our office receives no referral fee. Specific legal judgements are made by a qualified professional such as an administrative scrivener after a meeting. Written by Joji Uramatsu, administrative scrivener and licensed real estate broker.