Recognition of inheritance as dead

Inheritance relations in any legal state of the world never lose their relevance.

This is primarily because the vast majority of citizens in their lives face issues of property inheritance after the death of the testator.

In addition, in this area, there are always questions regarding acceptance of inheritance, refusal of inherited property, determination of deadlines for submitting relevant applications for acceptance of inheritance, and many others. What is the relevance of the chosen topic for today?

Therefore, in this article, we will talk about the peculiarities of recognizing the legacy as dead, with an analysis of the current provisions of Ukrainian legislation.

What is a dead inheritance?

A deceased inheritance should be understood as a case in which the inheritance is recognized as deceased based on the court establishing the existence (or non-existence) of several legal facts (in addition to the fact of the testator’s death itself, such facts can be: the absence of heirs according to the will and the law, the removal of heirs from inheritance, etc.) and execution of the necessary procedural (procedural) actions by the relevant local self-government body (LOG) aimed at acquiring the rights and responsibilities of the deceased person by the territorial community.

Therefore, to recognize the inheritance as dead, it is necessary to apply to the court and establish the relevant legal grounds.

What are the grounds for recognizing an inheritance as dead?

• There are no legitimate heirs by will and by law. This fact must be determined from the moment when the local government applied to the court to recognize the inheritance as dead.
• Legal heirs were removed from their right to inherit. For example, citizens do not have the right to inherit property if: they intentionally took the life of someone from the list of heirs or the testator directly, and also committed an attempt on their life; they prevented the testator from drawing up a will on his own and determining the appropriate circle of heirs, tried to forcefully cancel it; they are the parents of a child for whom they were deprived of parental rights and they were not renewed at the time of the opening of the inheritance; they concluded a marriage between themselves, which was declared invalid; they evaded their duty to help the testator, and the latter was in an advanced age and had a helpless condition.
• The legal heirs did not accept the inheritance. If persons have not applied for acceptance of inheritance within 6 months, they are considered to have not accepted it.
• The legitimate heirs refused to accept the inheritance. If within 6 months, persons have applied to refusal of inherited property.

  Importantly! The above-mentioned list of reasons for recognizing an inheritance as dead is exhaustive and is not subject to a wider interpretation.

If you still have questions about inheritance recognition-deceased, contact the Prikhodko and Partners law office.

Our company employs qualified specialists in various fields of law who are always ready to provide clients with comprehensive answers to various issues in the field of jurisprudence. So don’t delay and contact us!