Inheritance of property by Ukrainian citizens abroad

Inheritance is a painstaking process that requires a lot of effort and time, and consists of several interrelated stages - acceptance of the inheritance and its registration.

Thus, by virtue of Part 2 of Article 1269 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, an application for acceptance of an inheritance both by law and by will may be submitted in two ways: personally by the heir to a notary or by mail to the notary's address. In this case, the authenticity of the heir's signature on such an application must be notarized.

Submission of an application for inheritance by a representative under a power of attorney is not allowed.

If the heir is abroad and is unable to come to Ukraine to file an application for inheritance within the time limit set by law, but wishes to accept the inheritance, he or she should take the following steps:

• apply to any notary of the country where he/she is located or contact a consular office of Ukraine to file an application for inheritance;
• find a notary in Ukraine to whom to send a duly executed application for acceptance of the inheritance, on the basis of which an inheritance case will be opened.

These actions must be taken by the heir before the expiration of 6 months from the date of the person's death. In this case, the day of submission of such an application will be the day of mailing, regardless of when it was delivered and handed over to the notary.

It is important to know that applications for inheritance, where the authenticity of the heirs' signatures is certified by foreign notaries, must be apostilled or subject to consular legalization. It will also be necessary to certify the accuracy of a translation from a foreign language into Ukrainian made by a translator whose signature is authenticated by a notary.

The best way out is to apply to the consular office of Ukraine to file an application for acceptance of the inheritance, because in this case, the application will be immediately drawn up in Ukrainian and will not need to be apostilled (legalized), translated and certified as correct.

In order to obtain a certificate of inheritance, the heir must submit an application for a certificate of inheritance to a notary. When issuing a certificate of inheritance, the notary must verify: the fact of the testator's death, the time and place of opening the inheritance, the existence of grounds for calling for inheritance if there is inheritance by law, the heir's acceptance of the inheritance in the manner prescribed by law, the composition of the inheritance property for which the certificate of inheritance is issued.

To confirm these circumstances, the heirs are required to provide documents confirming these facts.

It is worth noting that the issuance of a certificate of inheritance to heirs who have accepted the inheritance is not limited by any time limit. Unlike the stage of acceptance of the inheritance, which requires the personal participation of the heir, the interests of the heir may be represented by his representative under a power of attorney during the inheritance process.