Statement of claim for determination of an additional period of time sufficient for filing an application for acceptance of inheritance

The lawyer of the NGO “Institute of Analysis and Advocacy” Vladyslava Lomakina was approached by an internally displaced person Natalia with a question about receiving an inheritance in case of a missed deadline provided for by law due to the person's stay in the territory not controlled by the government of Ukraine.

Ms. Natalia stayed in the non-government controlled area due to the need to care for her mother and mother-in-law, so she was unable to leave. Natalia's mother died, and she was the heir of the first line of succession.

Pursuant to Articles 1268-1272 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, the period of six months for acceptance of the inheritance is set, which starts from the date of opening the inheritance. If the heir has not filed an application for acceptance of the inheritance, he is deemed not to have accepted it.

Ms. Natalia did not have time to accept the inheritance because she did not file an application for acceptance of the inheritance within the time limit established by law, as she continued to care for her mother-in-law. After her mother-in-law's death, Natalia moved from the non-government controlled area to Kyiv, where she applied to a notary and filed an application for inheritance to obtain a Certificate of Inheritance by Law to her mother's property, including:

1) an apartment located in the Donetsk region

2) funds placed on an account with Oschadbank.

The notary refused to provide his services because the woman had missed the deadline for filing an application for inheritance. Subsequently, Natalia turned to the lawyer of the NGO “Institute of Analysis and Advocacy”, who supported this case. In order to obtain an additional period of time sufficient to file an application for acceptance of the inheritance, the lawyer drafted a statement of claim and collected the necessary documents for the court.

After successful support of the case by the lawyer, the court granted the claim and set an additional period of two months for filing an application for acceptance of the inheritance, starting from the day after the decision came into force. Based on the court's decision, Ms. Natalia has now inherited her deceased mother's property.

It is worth noting that paragraph 24 of the Resolution of the Supreme Court of Ukraine No. 7 “On Judicial Practice in Cases of Inheritance” dated 30.05.2008, when deciding on the issue of granting an additional term to a person, it is necessary to proceed from the fact that the reasons related to objective, insurmountable, significant difficulties for the heir to perform these actions are valid. Pursuant to the provisions of the Supreme Court's resolution dated 26.06.2019, case No. 565/1145/17, the rules of part three of Article 1272 of the Civil Code of Ukraine on granting an additional term for filing an application for acceptance of the inheritance may be applied if: the heir had obstacles to filing such an application; these circumstances are recognized by the court as valid. This legal conclusion was expressed by the Supreme Court of Ukraine in its Resolution No. 6-1320цс17 dated August 23, 2017. In view of the above, if the heir missed the six-month period for filing an application for acceptance of the inheritance for valid reasons, the law guarantees him the right to apply to the court for an additional period for filing such an application.

The provision of free legal aid was made possible through the cooperation of the NGO “Institute for Analysis and Advocacy” with the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) and funding from the European Union's civil protection and humanitarian assistance.