What to do next after receiving a certificate of inheritance?

Moment of inheritance

The moment of inheritance is considered to be the day when a person receives a notarial certificate confirming the transfer of property rights. Such a certificate is given to each heir no earlier than six months after the death of the testator.

Attention! The Civil Code provides for the possibility of issuing such a certificate earlier than the specified period, but only if the notary is completely confident that other people will not make their claims to the property. That is, after confirming that there is only one candidate for the property.

Despite the fact that the right to inheritance arises with the receipt of a notarial certificate, it will be possible to dispose of the property only after the re-registration of property rights to the object. And after the re-registration of property rights, a person will receive a confirming document allowing full use and disposal of the property. Including selling it, donating it, passing it on by inheritance, renting it out.

List of documents for receiving a formalized inheritance

The documentation will vary depending on the type of inheritance object. This could be a house, car, garage, etc. Below is a general list.

Documents confirming ownership of property:

1. Agreement of purchase and sale or privatization, exchange, gift.
2. Certificate of inheritance, jointly acquired property.
3. Court decisions or notarial certificate recognizing ownership of property.

Technical documents:

1. Cadastral plan for the land.

1. Technical passport of the residential premises.
2. Technical passport of the vehicle.
3. Certificate of ownership.
4. Vehicle registration certificate.

1. A document with the estimated value of the property. Important: the assessment must be carried out by an appraiser with a certificate of membership in a self-regulatory organization of appraisers.

Additionally, they may request a will, if available, and other documents.

Registration of property rights

The legislation establishes a list of property to which property rights must be re-registered. These include:

• a private house;
• apartment;
• part or share of a house;
• a room in a communal apartment;
• dorm room;
• land plot (including those intended for private construction, farming, going along with a private house);
• vehicles;
• bank accounts.

The legislation does not limit the period during which the heir must apply to the competent authorities to re-register property rights. This can be done at any time after receiving a notarized certificate of inheritance. But it is necessary to remember that if property rights are not re-registered in a timely manner, then, if necessary, it will not be possible to fully dispose of the objects.

The problem of de facto inheritance of property is particularly acute. If the deceased testator had only one relative claiming the inheritance and after the death of the testator he continued to care for the property, guaranteed its safety, monitored repairs, supported repairs, he has the opportunity to obtain ownership of the object regardless of the execution of a notarial certificate for the property. In the future, the actual heir, in any case, will have to contact a notary to obtain a certificate for re-registration of property rights.

In practice, there are cases when the actual heir received property and continued to dispose of it without re-registration. Further, after the expiration of the six-month period, the notary, in accordance with the law, recognized the specified property as escheated and transferred it in favor of the state. Thus, a dispute arises between the actual heir and the state, which can only be resolved in court. Therefore, it is better not to delay the deadlines, but to begin re-registration of property rights as soon as possible.

For an apartment

Article 131 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation provides that property rights to real estate must be registered in a unified register. All information is stored electronically in the unified state real estate register EGRN. The re-registration procedure is carried out by employees of Rosreestr, which is located in almost every locality.

Important! The heir is obliged to contact Rosreestr located at the location of the property.

To complete the procedure, you must submit the following documents:

• heir's passport;
• notarial certificate;
• technical documents for property;
• real estate passport;
• receipt for payment of state duty.

Attention! In 2021, the state fee for re-registration of property rights to real estate is 2,000 rubles.

When carrying out the procedure, the following nuances must be taken into account:

• the process takes about a month;
• upon completion of the procedure, the person receives an extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate, which is confirmation of property rights;
• Each heir who inherits a share of real estate receives a separate extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate.

For house and land

Acceptance of inheritance of a house is re-registered in a similar way, since a private house is a piece of real estate. This means that the re-registration of property rights takes place in Rosreestr. As for a land plot, you can inherit not only the plot of land that is in your possession, but also the land plot that is under perpetual lease.

Required documents:

• passport;
• receipt of payment of state duty;
• certificate of inheritance;
• cadastral plan;
• cadastral passport;
• handwritten application for re-registration.

An application for re-registration of land ownership rights is submitted to Rosreestr, after which the applicant will have to wait up to 30 days until the re-registration procedure is completed.

For car

Re-registration of ownership of a vehicle is carried out at the traffic police department located at the place of registration of the heir. In addition, you can contact any traffic police department operating on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Important! Property rights to cars and other vehicles must be registered with the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate within 10 days from the date of receipt of the notarized certificate. Violation of this deadline will result in an administrative fine.

The procedure for re-registration of property rights consists of the following stages:

• Carrying out technical inspection of the machine;
• obtaining a diagnostic card confirming serviceability;
• registration of an insurance policy;
• preparation of necessary documents (passport, car passport, notary certificate, insurance policy, receipt of payment of state duty);
• waiting for the traffic police to make changes to the register, which takes up to one working day.

As for the MTPL insurance policy, the heir does not have to re-issue a new document. The following options are allowed:

• inheriting a vehicle policy;
• transferring the current policy from one car to another.

To a bank account

Re-registration of property rights depends on the content of the agreement with the bank. So, if the agreement includes a person receiving a bank deposit in the event of the death of the depositor, then the bank is obliged to transfer the money to a specific person. To do this, the heir must submit a handwritten application from the financial organization, which is confirmed by the following documents:

• passport of a Russian citizen;
• death certificate of the testator;
• a copy of the application for opening of inheritance;
• notarial certificate, if the six-month period allotted for inheritance has already been completed.

A bank employee reviews the appeal, agrees on it with the contents of the deposit agreement, and then transfers the amount of money to the heir’s bank account.

If the banking agreement does not provide for the person to whom the money will be transferred in the event of the death of the depositor, then the division of property is carried out by a notary in the order of legal order on the basis of a drawn up will. In the absence of a will, the amount of the contribution is divided in equal parts among all heirs who have acquired property rights.

Debentures

A person cannot formalize property rights only to valuables, ignoring debt obligations. In order to protect the property rights of creditors, as well as to guarantee the repayment of the testator's debts, it is provided that each heir is transferred a portion of the debts equal to the share of the property received.

Important! The amount of debt cannot exceed the value of the property received.

When calculating the debt obligations of established heirs, the following rules are taken into account:

• after the death of the testator, the creditor stops calculating fines and penalties, that is, the heir is obliged to repay only the amount that was formed on the day of the death of the testator;
• if there are several heirs, the debt is divided between them;
• in the presence of a will, by which one claimant receives all the valuables, and the second only debts, is declared invalid;
• the heir is not obliged to independently contact different banks in order to find a lender.

In practice, the credit institution is obliged to independently find the notary who opened the inheritance proceedings in order to report that there are outstanding debts of the testator and they need to be divided among the heirs. This takes into account the statute of limitations, under which the creditor can only demand compensation for the debt for the past three years. If the bank misses the deadline, it can no longer demand repayment of the debt.

Division of an apartment between several heirs

Often one single apartment is inherited by several people. It’s good if it’s a spacious three-room apartment for three sons. But what if this is a small studio with several heirs?

It is impossible to live in such a studio apartment, so there are two ways out of the situation:

• The heirs sell the apartment, and the money is divided according to each person’s share.
• One heir buys out the shares of the others and remains to live in the apartment.

Remember that any sale will be possible only after registration of ownership of all heirs.

The notary refused to issue a certificate

Quite often, notaries refuse to issue a certificate of inheritance to heirs.

The reasons can be very different:

• incomplete package of documents;
• data inconsistency;
• missing deadlines;
• lack of indisputable evidence of actual acceptance of property;
• violation of the established order;
• removal from inheritance.

In most cases, citizens have to go to court. The procedure and deadlines for filing an application are determined by the provisions of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation.

The hearing of the case may take place within the framework of special or action proceedings. The second option is usually used when there is a dispute between relatives or if the actual heir cannot provide the necessary documents to the notary.

When preparing a claim, it is advisable to use the services of a specialized lawyer. If the court satisfies the claims, then subsequent registration of property rights will take place by court decision.

The heir just needs to wait until the procedural document comes into force. You are given a month to appeal.

Recognition of ownership of property in court excludes the possibility of re-applying to a notary. However, a judicial act, like a certificate issued by a notary, is a document of title.

The plaintiff/heir will have to visit the MFC or Rosreestr in the general manner. Otherwise, it will be impossible to dispose of property (donate, sell).

Inheritance rights to an apartment after death

Any property that belongs to the testator by right of ownership can act as an inheritance. One of these objects can be an apartment.

The composition of legal successors depends on the method of accepting the inheritance. For example, a testator may make a will.

Features of having a will for an apartment:

1. The property will go to the persons indicated in the document.
2. The order may contain the size of the shares of each heir.
3. The testator may include a clause regarding the deprivation of property from one of the relatives or an obligation to support the legatee.
4. If at the time of opening the inheritance a compulsory heir is identified, then such a person is entitled to a part of the property. The rule applies regardless of the content of the administrative document (Article 1149 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).
5. If, after submitting documents on acceptance of the inheritance, one of the applicants dies, then his share will go to his relatives by way of transmission. (Article 1156 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

The principle of inheritance of privatized residential property

Inheritance of part of privatized residential real estate must occur in accordance with established rules. The share of the deceased testator is divided in equal parts among his heirs. However, if the deceased is married, then certain difficulties may arise with the inheritance of his property, especially if he privatized the apartment with his other half and it is joint property.

Important! Regardless of the existence of a will, the spouse of the deceased testator will receive his share according to the law. If, during his lifetime, the testator transferred into possession a part of the joint property that belonged to his other half, then this clause in the testamentary act will be declared void.

Expert commentary

Kireev Maxim

Lawyer

If the apartment was privatized before marriage, then the spouse will inherit part of it according to the law, that is, parts of the housing will be divided among all heirs, including him/her in equal shares.

However, one should take into account the fact that the privatization rules have changed several times. One of them was a provision that made it possible to transfer ownership of residential real estate to citizens free of charge, whose area did not exceed established standards, and the area above the limit had to be purchased. If in practice there is a similar situation, then the successor can increase his part of the inheritance upon receipt.

A situation often arises when an heir gets a share in a non-privatized apartment. In this case, everything will depend on whether the testator intended to privatize his living space during his lifetime. It is impossible to inherit a non-privatized apartment, so the notary will not be able to issue a certificate of inheritance rights to legal successors. In order to still receive your legal share of the property, you should go to court with evidence that the testator intended to privatize the housing.

As evidence of such intentions, you will need to submit a statement from the testator and a collected package of documents. If this evidence is considered plausible, then the property will be included in the general inheritance mass, and accordingly it can be inherited. Persons living with the deceased testator will be able to contact the municipality and enter into a social rental agreement, and then privatize the housing.