When the spouse has no inheritance rights

The surviving spouse does not have the right to inherit and the right to a preliminary share, if the testator before his death
filed a claim for divorce or gave written consent to the dissolution of the marriage, as well as if the testator at the time of his death was entitled to demand recognition of the marriage as invalid and filed an appropriate claim to the court.

Heirs of the third order according to the law

The heirs of the third order, in accordance with the law, are the grandparents of the testator and their descending relatives.

If all grandfathers and grandmothers are alive by the time of the opening of the inheritance, they will inherit all the inheritance in equal shares.

If by the time of opening of inheritance the grandfather or the grandmother on the father’s, or on the mother’s side of family is not alive, his/her the descending relatives take his/her place. If he/she does not have any relatives, his/her share is inherited by the grandfather or grandmother on the same side, respectively.

If the second grandfather or grandmother is not alive, his/her descending relatives inherit. If at the time of the opening of the inheritance there is no alive grandfather and grandmother on the father’s, or on the mother’s side of family and there are no descending relatives, then the grandfather and grandmother on the other side of family or their descending relatives inherit.

If the descending relatives take the place of their parents, the provisions relating to the heirs of the first order shall apply.

Heirs of the first order according to the law

The heirs of the first order, in accordance with the law, are the descendant relatives of the testator.

If, at the time of the testator’s death, the descendant relative of the testator is alive, the descendant relatives of that relative who are related to the testator through him, are not called on to inherit.

The place of the descending relative who died before the testator, take the descending relatives who are related to the testator through the deceased descending relative.

If the testator and the heir die on the same day and it is not possible to determine which one of them died earlier, they are considered dead at the same time. In this case, neither of them shall be the heir of the other, and the provisions of part 3 of this article shall apply.

The children of the testator are heirs in equal shares. Children who take the place of the deceased parent inherit in equal shares the part of the inheritance that would be due to their deceased parent.

Who cannot be the heir?

Persons who are considered unable to inherit:

• intentionally and unlawfully caused the death of the testator or tried to do so
• intentionally and unlawfully put the testator in a situation when he was deprived of the opportunity to express or change his last will until his death
• by coercion or deception, they prevented the testator from expressing or changing his last will, or in the same way forced him to express or cancel his last will, if the testator was not able to express his actual last will
• intentionally and unlawfully removed or destroyed the will or deed of succession, if the testator was no longer able to renew it
• forged the testator’s will or deed of succession or part thereof

A parent of the child cannot be the heir-at-law after the child, if this parent was deprived of the rights to activity of guardianship by court.

If the heir is unable to inherit, another person is called on to inherit, specifically the one who would inherit in case of death of a person unable to inherit before the opening of the inheritance.

In case of a dispute, the court may, at the claim of the person concerned, declare the person incapable to inherit.

Who can be the heir?

The ability to inherit is the ability of a person to inherit. A person having ability to inherit is any person with legal capacity.

A heir may be a private person who is alive at the time of the testator’s death, or a legal entity existing at that time. A liveborn child born after the opening of the inheritance is considered to have the ability to inherit at the time of the opening of the inheritance if this child was conceived before the opening of the inheritance.

A fund, established on the basis of a will or a deed of succession, is considered to exist at the time of the opening of the inheritance, if later this fund will acquire the rights of a legal entity.

What is inheritance?

Inheritance is the property of the testator. Inheritance is not the rights and obligations of the testator, inextricably linked to the personality of the testator by law or in its essence.

Inheritance is the devolution of a person’s property in the case of his death to another person, i.e. the testator is a person whose property in the case of his death passes to another person.

Do the things acquired by the spouse by inheritance or by gift belong to the joint property?

Things acquired by spouses during their marriage for free use, including by gift or by inheritance, are not included in the joint property. Also, the disposal of these things does not require the consent of the second spouse.