What is an apostille?

Apostille is a standardized certificate, issued as an annex or supplement to a document, which confirms the competence of the person who signed it. Apostille issued in Estonia is a document drawn using special blank, which is attached to the apostilled document.

Documents certified this way do not need any additional legalization, and they must be recognized at any state level in the countries-participants of the Hague Convention, abolishing the requirement of legalization of foreign official documents. A list of states that have acceded to the Convention can be found here.

The official document must be apostilled if it is to be used in a state that has acceded to the Hague Convention on the abolition of requirements for the legalization of foreign official documents. The document must be apostilled in the state in which it is issued. If an official document is once apostilled, it can be used in all states that have acceded to the Convention.

Only an official document, or a notarized or officially certified copy, as well as a printout or extract can be apostilled. An official document is an administrative document (certification, certificate, diploma), a document issued by a court or an official institution related to it (a copy of a court decision, an extract from the register, a document of a bailiff), a notarial document or a document issued by a sworn translator.

WHICH OFFICIAL DOCUMENT DOES NOT NEED TO BE APOSTILLED?

Documents not subject to apostille:

• Any official document that is intended for use in the state with which the Republic of Estonia has concluded a legal assistance agreement. Such states are the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
• Any official document which is issued by the competent authority of the country which has acceded to the Convention on the abolition of the requirements for the legalization of documents between EU member states of 25.05.1987. Therefore, the public document of Estonia does not need to be additionally apostilled for presentation in Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Ireland, Latvia and France. Documents issued in these countries are acknowledged in Estonia without apostille.
• Multilingual extracts from acts of civil status issued by registry offices or other competent institutions of the countries which have acceded to the Vienna Convention of the International Commission on Civil Status of 08.09.1976. In addition to Estonia, countries such as Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey, France, Croatia, Montenegro, Switzerland have acceded to the Convention.
• Documents issued by diplomatic or consular authorities

ASSISTANCE IN OBTAINING THE APOSTILLE

Our office offers its clients assistance in obtaining the apostille for any necessary official document. Service cost – EUR 50 for one document. The price includes possible notary fees.

You can receive additional information on issuance of the apostilles in the territory of the Republic of Estonia by calling (+372) 6775544 or by sending an e-mail tonotar@kalashnikov.ee

Notarized will

The notary certifies the will drawn up by him according to the will of the testator or presented to him for certification by the testator. The testator signs the will in the presence of a notary.

The testator can make a will in another way – he personally hands his last will in a sealed envelope to the notary for deposit and confirms to the notary that this is his will. The notary draws the notarial act on the will transfer for deposit, which is signed both by the testator and the notary.

The testator may revoke the will deposited at the notary’s at any time. In this case, the notary draws the notarial act on revocation of the will, which is signed by the testator and the notary.

Testament

A testament is an unilateral deal by which the legator (hereinafter the testator) gives instructions regarding the inheritance in case of his death. The will is made personally by the testator.

Wills may be notarial or domestic. A notarial will may be a notarised will or a will deposited at the notary’s. A domestic will may be signed in the presence of witnesses or written personally by the testator

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.

Spouse as the heir-at-law

Together with the relatives of the testator, the surviving spouse inherits by law, along with the heirs of the first order, in equal shares with the children of the testator, but not less than one fourth of the inheritance. Along with the heirs of the second order, half of the inheritance. If there are no relatives of either the first or the second order, the spouse of the testator inherits the entire inheritance.

The spouse of the testator may, in addition to his/her inheritance share, demand the establishment of the proprietary interest, under article 227 of the Proprietary Interests Law, to the real estate asset that was the common house of the spouses, provided that the financial position of the testator’s spouse may deteriorate as a result of the inheritance.

If the surviving spouse inherits together with the heirs of the second order, he/she receives, in addition to the hereditary share, in the form of a preliminary share, also the furnishing and the household items from the common house of the spouses, if the latter do not belong to the accessories of the immovable thing.

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 second order according to the law

Heirs of the second order, in accordance with the law, are the parents of the testator and their descending relatives.

If at the time of the opening of the inheritance both parents of the testator are alive, they will inherit the entire inheritance in equal shares.

If at the time of the opening of the inheritance the father or mother of the testator is not alive, the place of the deceased parent shall be taken by his descending relatives in accordance with the provisions related to the heirs of the first order.

If the deceased parent has no descending relatives, the entire inheritance is inherited by the other parent of the testator. If the other parent dies, his/her descending relatives will inherit according to the provisions related to the heirs of the first order

What should you pay attention to when selling or buying a garage?

The lawyers of Kalashnikov Law Office remind you that when preparing for and carrying out the deal of purchase and sale of the garage, first of all, pay attention to the following circumstances:

• Whether the garage is part of the joint property with the spouse or is a separate property of the seller. In this case, the decisive role is the time of garage purchase by the seller. If the garage was purchased outside or before the marriage, it is the personal property of the seller, if purchased during the marriage, it is likely to be the part of the joint property (excl. is the presence of a marriage contract or a regime of separate property) and for the alienation of the garage the notarized consent of the spouse is required.
• Whether the garage (garage box) is a separate object of real estate, separately entered in the land register, or is the part of the garage partnership/co-operative (est. garaažiühistu or hooneühistu). In the first case, proof of ownership of the seller is a valid extract from the land register, and in the second case – the internal documentation of the partnership and the corresponding confirmation from the chairperson of the garage partnership.

In any case, the deal of purchase and sale of the garage is associated with certain legal and organizational difficulties and nuances, therefore, the most correct decision is to entrust the preparation of the deal to the specialists. Our lawyers have many years of experience in organizing and conducting the real estate deals.

The cost of organization and preparation of the purchase and sale deal of the garage, worth no more than EUR 10 000, by lawyers of our company, is EUR 150.

The price includes legal advice, preparation of all necessary documentation, booking a convenient time at the notary’s, notary fee and state fee.

For more information, please call +372 6775544 or e-mail: klienditugi@kalashnikov.ee