ursuant to Article 643 Civil Code 2015 regulations:

Validity of testament

1. The testament takes effect from the time the inheritance is opened.

2. A testament is not valid in whole or in part in the following cases:

a) The heir under the testament dies before or at the same time as the testator;

b) The agency or organization designated as the heir no longer exists at the time of opening the inheritance.

In cases where there are many heirs under the testament and one person dies before or at the same time as the testator, one of the many agencies and organizations designated to inherit under the testament no longer exists at the time of the testament. If an inheritance is opened, only the part of the testament related to this individual, agency or organization testament is not valid.

3. The testament is not valid if the inheritance left to the heir no longer exists at the time of opening the inheritance; If only part of the inheritance left to the heir remains, the testament regarding the remaining inheritance testament still be valid.

4. When a testament has an illegal part that does not affect the validity of the remaining parts, only that part is invalid.

5. When a person leaves multiple testaments for a property, only the last testament is valid.

Besides, in Clause 1, Article 623 Civil Code 2015 regulations:

Inheritance period

1. The statute of limitations for an heir to request division of the estate is 30 years for real estate, 10 years for movable property, from the time of opening the inheritance. At the end of this period, the estate belongs to the heir who is managing that estate. In case there is no heir managing the estate, the estate testament be resolved as follows:

a) The property belongs to the current possessor as prescribed in Article 236 of this Code;

b) Heritage belongs to the State, if there is no possessor specified in Point a of this Clause.

2. The statute of limitations for an heir to request confirmation of his or her inheritance rights or rejection of another person's inheritance rights is 10 years from the time of opening the inheritance.

3. The statute of limitations for requiring heirs to fulfill obligations regarding the property left by the deceased is 3 years from the time of opening the inheritance.

From the above provisions,the testament takes effect from the time of opening the inheritance (the time the person leaving the testament dies) and is valid throughout.

However, this testament is only effective in establishing the inheritance rights for the heirs within the following period:

- For movable property, it is 10 years from the time of opening the inheritance.

- For real estate, it is 30 years from the time of opening the inheritance.

Past the above time limit, if the beneficiary under the testament does not carry out the procedures to inherit the property left under the testament, he or she will not be entitled to establish ownership of the estate according to the content of the testament. The estate testament belongs to the heir who is managing that estate.