How to enter into an inheritance? Inheritance by will. Deadline for accepting an inheritance

Not so many years have passed since citizens of Russia and other CIS countries were allowed to privatize apartments, land plots, and other property. So, imperceptibly, almost everyone became the owner of something more or less worthwhile. Time passes, generations succeed each other, and sooner or later each of us faces the question “how to enter into an inheritance”, especially since there are not so few pitfalls in this.

General provisions

Today, on the territory of Russia, all issues related to the inheritance of a particular property are regulated by the Civil Code, or rather, the third part of it.

In the generally accepted sense, inheritance means the process of transferring property rights from the deceased to other persons. And if you don’t go into all the legal subtleties, you can make a small cheat sheet on how to enter into an inheritance, and what you need to know first:

First of all, you need to make sure that there is (or is not) a will, since it is he who is given preference.
The day of death of the testator (testator) is determined by the day of the opening of the inheritance.
The place of opening of the received inheritance is the place of the last residence of the testator, and in the event that he lived abroad - the actual location of the inherited property.
The succession of heirs is established by law.
The term for accepting an inheritance is determined by law as 6 months from the date of death of the testator (testator). That is how much time is given to relatives to declare their claims and submit an application to the notary's office.
During the same period, each of the heirs may voluntarily renounce his share in favor of the others.

Of course, in practice, everything is much more complicated, since there are a lot of subtleties. Let's try to understand some of them.

Types of inheritance

First of all, you should know that the inheritance after the death of a person can be accepted in two ways: by will and by law. The first option allows the testator to independently determine the circle of persons worthy, in his opinion, to receive property. The testator has the right to decide for himself how and in what shares the property will be divided, put forward certain conditions for its receipt, or simply list the recipients. In the latter case, the property is divided equally among them. An inheritance by will cannot be received by persons not included in it, with the exception of some cases, which we will discuss below.

If the will is absent or declared invalid in court, inheritance by law comes into force, which assumes the order of applicants depending on the degree of kinship.

Who can be the heir

All relatives will not be able to accept the inheritance after the death of a person at the same time. For this, the legislation provides for a sequence, that is, a certain list according to which applicants can claim their rights. The next of kin can be the first to claim the inheritance of the deceased: children, parents and spouses. All of them are considered heirs of the first stage.

Only if they refused to enter into inheritance rights, or they simply do not exist, the right to receive property passes to the heirs of the second, third and subsequent stages. There are eight such steps (queues):

parents, children, spouses of the deceased;
maternal and paternal grandparents, sisters, brothers;
sisters and brothers of the father and mother of the testator (aunts and uncles);
great-grandmothers, great-grandfathers of the deceased;
cousin granddaughters and grandchildren, grandparents (children of nephews, siblings of grandparents);
great-great-grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews, uncles, aunts (i.e. children of cousins, brothers, grandchildren and granddaughters, grandfathers and grandmothers);
stepmother, stepfather, stepdaughter, stepson;
disabled persons dependent on the deceased.

The right of each category of applicants comes in the event that there are no previous beneficiaries, renounced the inheritance, were deprived of it by law, excluded from receiving or do not have the right to inherit. Heirs belonging to the same line accept the property of the deceased in equal parts, and if the applicant died at the same time as the testator or before the legal opening of the inheritance, his share is transferred to the descendants and divided by them equally.

Testament: is everything going smoothly?

Many people think that inheritance by will is the only way to resolve all disagreements during the lifetime of the testator. However, this is not always the case. In practice, disadvantaged relatives almost always seek to challenge the will of the deceased and invalidate the will. I must say that this is not so rare. In addition, there are categories of heirs who have the right to claim their share, regardless of the content of the will. These are disabled dependents, minors, children of the testator who have reached retirement age, and the disabled. All these relatives, whether named in a will or not, are entitled to their obligatory share in the inheritance, which is half of what would be due to them by law.

Another pitfall can be inheritance with a condition. This means that the testator can make a demand, after the fulfillment of which the right to inherit arises. But orders can be either ordinary - living in a certain place, getting married, having a child, and so on, or the most exotic. Moreover, a person bound by a condition cannot demand the cancellation of such a condition on the grounds that the requirement is impossible to fulfill, does not depend on him or he did not know about it. The condition specified in the will must exist at the time of opening the inheritance and can only be canceled if its implementation is associated with a violation of the law or violates the moral principles of society.

Documentation

So, with the rights and types of inheritance sorted out a little. Now let's talk about what documents are needed for the inheritance. Depending on what the property of the deceased consists of, and who are his heirs, the required list of documents may vary slightly.

In general, you will need:

original and copy of the death certificate;
passport;
an extract from the house book, which indicates all the persons registered together with the testator (testator) at the time of his death;
if the heir is disabled - a certificate from the VTEK;
documents certifying the fact and degree of family relations - a certificate of marriage (or its dissolution), the birth of children, a change of surname, etc.;
for those who are not working by age - a pension certificate.

If the object of inheritance is an apartment, then you must additionally provide:

the original and a copy of the warrant or certificate of ownership of the premises;
a copy of the personal financial account;
floor plan;
appraisal report of the BTI on the value of the apartment on the date of death of the testator (testator);
a certificate stating that there are no outstanding utility bills.

In order to inherit a car, you need:

the original and a copy of the vehicle valuation report on the date of death of the owner;
original title document - registration certificate (PTS), registration certificate (STS), certificate from the traffic police.

To issue an inheritance to a piece of land, you need to have:

a resolution on the allocation of a land plot or house ownership or a registered certificate of ownership;
technical passport of the BTI, made no earlier than 5 years before the date of death of the testator (testator);
act of valuation of land ownership on the date of death of the owner;
certificate of no debts to the tax service;
cadastral plan of the site indicating all arrests (prohibitions) or their absence.

If the inheritance includes securities and bank deposits, you will have to prepare:

an agreement with a bank on a deposit (or other deposit);
savings book;
all securities available;
extracts from the register of shareholders.

Registration of inheritance case

You should know that the inheritance case is drawn up only once and only by one notary. Therefore, if one of the applicants applied to a specific notary institution to formalize the inheritance, then all other prospective heirs are forced to apply there, regardless of their desire.

To check the absence of duplicate appeals before the opening of the inheritance, an extract will be requested on their presence. The notary will receive such an extract from the Unified Inheritance Register on his own, but you will have to pay for it. In the event that the answer is positive, you will be denied the establishment of an inheritance case and redirected to the desired address. It is not necessary to apply for inheritance in person. If you are unable to come to the opening of the case on your own, send your application by mail. At the same time, be sure to make sure that the signature of the heir, as well as the document itself, is notarized.

Do I need to hurry

According to Article 1154 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the period for accepting an inheritance is 6 months from the date of death of the testator (testator). However, there are exceptions to every rule, and there are exceptions in this case.

For example, if a person is declared missing, and the court considers it possible to start the inheritance procedure, the date from which the six-month countdown begins is also determined by the court.

If it is established that one of the heirs did not have time to declare his rights within the time allotted by law, the issue can be resolved in two ways:

To issue a written consent of other heirs to the entry into the inheritance of the “latecomer”. After his registration by a notary of his application, the applicant will also be considered an heir.
If at least one of them refuses to sign such an agreement, you will have to act through the courts. When the reasons for the delay are recognized by the court as satisfactory (long-term business trip, serious illness), and also if you can prove that the plaintiff did not know (could not have known) about the death of the testator, the court may extend the terms for accepting the inheritance and restore your rights.

Also, you will have to act in court if you are the only successor, and the inheritance was recognized as escheated and passed to the state.

If the contender for the inheritance is an unborn child, then the terms for entering into inheritance rights are postponed to the time of birth.

If for six months no one has declared their rights, and the inheritance has not been accepted, it is considered escheated (that is, there is no one to inherit from the deceased) and will be alienated in favor of the state.

So, all the deadlines have passed, the heirs have been safely determined. And what should be done after the entry into the inheritance? Now you need to get another very important document, without which you will not be able to register the property for yourself. In order to take a certificate of inheritance, or rather, the right to it, you must again contact the notary's office, where you will be issued with the original and a copy of the document. Everything, the property is practically yours, now it must be registered with the Rosreestr (Cadastral Chamber), where, after reviewing all the documents provided, a certificate of ownership will be issued after a 30-day period.

How to avoid problems

Sometimes minor mistakes and misunderstandings occur during paperwork, which can lead to big problems. For example, how to enter into an inheritance if there are discrepancies in the name or surname indicated in the will and passport of the heir by at least one letter? In this case, long legal proceedings are ahead, during which you will have to prove that the property was assigned to you.

If the person named in the will did not have family ties with the deceased, then the disadvantaged relatives are likely to try to challenge it. Therefore, it is worth worrying in advance about how to minimize the likelihood of recognizing the will as invalid.

To do this, you need to pay special attention to some issues:

Carefully observe the form of the will and the procedure for its preparation.
Invite two witnesses (not necessarily acquaintances) to be present when the will is drawn up. The ideal option would be if one of them is a psychiatrist.
You can also take a certificate stating that you do not suffer from any mental disorders and are not registered in a neuropsychiatric dispensary on the day the will is drawn up. It should be placed in the same envelope as the will itself, this will protect the document from damage or loss.
Try to use the services of the notary who videotapes the reception. The presence of such a record of the process of drawing up and certifying the will in the future will help confirm the fact that the person was fully capable.

Legacy debts

Before entering into an inheritance, it is worth knowing for sure what exactly is included in it, and deciding whether you need it or not. The fact is that you can only accept the inheritance in full, this is where the catch often lies. Why? Because not only incomes go to the heirs, but also the expenses of the testator, or rather, his debts (consumer loans, mortgages, debts for utilities, etc.). Sometimes the inheritance of parents can become simply an unbearable burden for children. Unfortunately, the legislation does not provide for an option in which, for example, you get an apartment, but you will not pay off the mortgage, since the person who issued it has already died, and the debts for the “communal apartment” sometimes reach exorbitant amounts. There are times when the amount of debts of the deceased significantly exceeds the amount of the inheritance. True, and here there is a small "spoon of honey" - you will not have to pay extra for the part of the debt that exceeds the amount of the inheritance.

Expenses: stamp duty and inheritance tax

If you still decide to enter into inheritance rights, you still have to pay. You will need to pay for the services of a notary who draws up documents. There is also a fee for registering ownership of the property. In addition, you will have to pay a state duty, the amount of which depends on the degree of relationship with the deceased. According to Article 333.24 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, 0.3% of the value of the property (but not more than 100 thousand rubles) will be paid by the parents, children (as well as adopted children), full sisters and brothers of the testator (testator).

Heirs of a different degree of kinship are forced to pay 0.6% of the value of the inheritance, but not more than 1 million rubles. The cost of the inheritance, on the basis of which the amount of the fee is calculated, is determined by the BTI certificate or an independent expert's assessment, and such documents are provided by the heir, and the notary is not entitled to demand an increase in the amount. It is worth noting that minor heirs are exempted from paying the state duty on their share of the property, regardless of which line of heirs they are.

But you won’t have to pay inheritance tax, which is directly stated by Federal Law No. 78-FZ of July 1, 2005. Citizens are also exempt from paying personal income tax on income that they received by inheritance. However, this does not apply to those cases where the subsequent sale of the inheritance is carried out earlier than 3 years after the death of the testator.

The tax on the sale of inherited property is 13% of the inventory estimate as of January 1 of the current year and is determined by the tax service at the location of the property. If the sale of the inheritance is carried out by a person who has tax benefits (disabled people of the 1st and 2nd groups, pensioners, etc.), and also when the transaction is made more than 3 years after the death of the testator (testator), the tax is not charged at all .