Inheritance

Kyiv attorney, inheritance — error-free administration of an estate

A Kyiv attorney in inheritance matters is a necessity for the error-free administration of an estate, in order to prevent disagreements, disputes, family conflicts and lengthy court proceedings. Legal assistance and the correct distribution of the estate among the heirs. Filing by a Kyiv attorney of a statement of claim with the court in the event of an incorrect distribution of the estate.

Inheritance arises after the death of a person, who is called the testator, and is established in favour of the heir. Inheritance may be by will or by law.

Heirs are persons who acquire the right to the estate — that is, individuals who are alive at the time of the opening of the succession, as well as persons conceived during the testator's lifetime and born after the opening of the succession. Legal entities and the state may also be heirs.

In the absence of a will, each subsequent class of heirs at law acquires the right to inherit where there are no heirs of the preceding class, where they are excluded from the right to inherit, or where they have not accepted the estate or have renounced it.

A citizen may become an heir regardless of age, sex, state of health and so on. Accordingly, both persons with and without legal capacity may be heirs. In the latter case the actions necessary for accepting the estate are performed by their legal representatives — parents, adoptive parents or guardians.

There are five classes of heirs:

Class 1: the children of the testator, including those conceived during his lifetime and born after his death, the surviving spouse, and the parents.

Class 2: the testator's full brothers and sisters, and his grandmother and grandfather on both the father's and the mother's side.

Class 3: the testator's uncle and aunt by blood.

Class 4: persons who lived with the testator as one family for at least five years before the opening of the succession.

Class 5: other relatives up to the sixth degree of kinship, and the dependants of the testator who were not members of his family.

Class 6: the state.

There is also the concept of inheritance by right of representation (this is inheritance by grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nephews and nieces, and cousins):

1. Grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the testator inherit the share of the estate that would have belonged by law to their mother, father, grandmother or grandfather had they been alive at the time of the opening of the succession.
2. A great-grandmother or great-grandfather inherits the share of the estate that would have belonged by law to their children (the testator's grandmother or grandfather) had they been alive at the time of the opening of the succession.
3. The testator's nephews and nieces inherit the share of the estate that would have belonged by law to their mother or father (the testator's sister or brother) had they been alive at the time of the opening of the succession.
4. The testator's cousins inherit the share of the estate that would have belonged by law to their mother or father (the testator's aunt or uncle) had they been alive at the time of the opening of the succession.
5. Where inheritance by right of representation is exercised by several persons, the share of their deceased relative is divided equally among them.

The estate consists, as a rule, of the deceased citizen's right of private ownership of various property (a house, a land plot, vehicles, household items).

In addition to the right of private ownership, other rights of the deceased citizen may form part of the estate:

• the right to receive amounts of wages, pension, scholarship, maintenance and other social payments which were due to the testator but which he did not receive during his lifetime;
• the right to receive insurance payments, if no beneficiary was specified in the insurance contract;
• the right to compensation for losses caused to the testator in contractual relations;
• the right to recover a penalty and to compensation for moral damage which were awarded to the testator during his lifetime, and others.

Not only rights but also the obligations of the deceased pass to the heirs: to compensate the damage caused by the testator to another person; to compensate the moral damage awarded during the testator's lifetime; to repay debts, and so on.

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