Establishing a fact of legal significance. How to correct errors and inaccuracies in legally significant documents

Misprints in legally significant documents actually limit people's rights. If there are inaccuracies in the entries in the work book - they will not confirm the length of service, there is an error in the registration documents for the land plot - you will not be able to dispose of the plot. When receiving any document, it is extremely important to study it carefully. A mistake made not through your fault, but in your documents, will create difficulties primarily for you, and sometimes also for your heirs. Not all errors can be corrected by contacting directly the authority that issued the document or made the recording; often the only option is to go to court. For these cases, civil procedural legislation provides for such a procedure as establishing a fact of legal significance. For example, the fact that a title document belongs to a person whose name, patronymic or surname indicated in the document does not coincide with the name, patronymic or surname of this person indicated in the passport or birth certificate. Also, the issue of making corrections or changes in civil status records can be resolved in court.

Let's take a closer look at how to correct this or that typo or establish the fact that a document with an error belongs to its owner.

Establishing a fact of legal significance

A fact of legal significance is understood as a circumstance on which the emergence, change, or termination of personal or property rights of citizens or organizations depends. The subject of proof in this case is to establish the fact that a document with an error belongs to a specific person.

The court establishes facts of legal significance in two cases:

• if this cannot be done in any other order;
• if it is impossible to restore lost documents.

Thus, if a clerical error in a document cannot be eliminated by contacting the authority that made the recording or issued the document, or if the document is missing altogether, you should go to court. If it's not a passport; certificate issued by the civil registry office; military document - an application is submitted to establish a fact of legal significance.

For example, if in your passport you are “RustEm”, and in the certificate of registration of property rights you indicated the name “RustAm” by mistake, or “Kazakov” suddenly became “KOZAKOV”, and “AbduLLovich” accidentally changed to “AbduLovich”, you will not be able to make any registration actions with your property. If the property right was registered a long time ago, Rosreestr may refuse the application to correct the clerical error. In this case, it is possible to establish the fact that the document belongs to its real owner only by applying to the court with an application to establish a fact of legal significance.

The court decision will confirm the fact that the document with the error belongs to its owner, and in relation to the fact subject to registration, will serve as the basis for such registration.

List of legal facts established through court proceedings

A list of special facts is provided that the court should consider when conducting special proceedings. Similar facts include:

• ownership of a certain building or plot of land by the owner;
• responsible and, as a result, permanent ownership of your own real estate for fifteen years;
• responsible and, as a consequence, permanent possession of property other than one’s own real estate for a period of more than five years;
• implementation of the procedure for registering an organization in a specific period of time and in a specific place.

What facts can be established in court?

Due to errors and inaccuracies, facts can be established in court (Article 264 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation):

• family relations;
• registration of birth, adoption, marriage, divorce, death;
• ownership of title documents to a person whose name, patronymic or surname indicated in the document does not coincide with the name, patronymic or surname of this person indicated in the passport or birth certificate, etc.

This list is not exhaustive; other facts of legal significance may be established. For example, quite often they go to court upon retirement to confirm their work experience, which, due to some inaccuracies, cannot be established on the basis of available documents. In this case, the applicant can present in court certificates from the archives, petition to call witnesses, and present other evidence confirming his work experience.

In addition, the court may establish facts that are not related to errors in documents: the fact of being a dependent; the fact of recognition of paternity; the fact of ownership and use of real estate; fact of an accident; the fact of death at a certain time and under certain circumstances in the event of a refusal by the civil registry authorities to register the death; the fact of acceptance of the inheritance and the place of opening of the inheritance, etc.

Currently, the case of establishing the fact of permanent residence in the territory of the Republic of Crimea or in the territory of the federal city of Sevastopol is widespread. In accordance with the Resolution of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dated October 4, 2016 N 18-P, if it is impossible for a citizen of Ukraine to submit to the authorized body registration documents confirming the fact of his permanent residence in the territory of the Republic of Crimea or in the territory of the federal city of Sevastopol as of March 18, 2014, such the fact may be established by a court of general jurisdiction on the basis of other legally permissible evidence.

Establishing the fact of ownership of a building by right of ownership

When documents for a house are lost, the fact of its ownership is confirmed in court. This category of cases belongs to special proceedings. Within this framework, the court considers the case and makes its decision within two months.

In order to establish the fact of ownership of real estate, it is necessary to prove that the title documents could not be obtained in any other way. Otherwise, the court may not accept the application for consideration.

Applications whose contents suggest that the house, land or other property are registered in the name of another person are not subject to consideration within the framework of special proceedings. The same applies to objects erected without permission.

Correction of typos in passports, certificates (issued by the Civil Registry Office) and military documents

The above-mentioned article of the Civil Code also clarifies that correcting typos in passports, certificates issued by civil registry offices, and military documents does not relate to establishing facts of legal significance, since it is possible to correct errors or make corrections in civil registry records out of court.

Correcting a typo in a passport

If there is a typo in your passport, you should simply apply for a replacement document. In accordance with the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 07/08/1997 N 828 “On approval of the Regulations on the passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation, a sample form and description of a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation,” a passport is replaced if inaccuracy or error in the entries made in the passport is detected. To do this you should prepare:

• application for passport replacement in Form No. 1 P;
• passport to be replaced;
• two personal photographs measuring 35 x 45 mm.

Correction of a typo in the certificate issued by the registry office

If you need to make changes to a document issued by the Civil Registry Office:

1. We draw up an application for a correction or change in the civil status record according to Form No. 23.
2. We attach to it:

• identification document;
• the document to which the change needs to be made;
• a document confirming the need for changes; For example, if there is a spelling mistake in the surname on the child’s birth certificate, you can attach a copy of the father’s passport.
• a document confirming authority (if a legal representative or authorized representative applies);
• a document confirming relationship or interest and a death certificate (if corrections need to be made to the document of the deceased).

The state fee does not need to be paid if corrections or changes are made to civil status records due to errors by civil registry office employees. You need to contact the registry office that issued you the certificate to which you need to make a correction, or the registry office department at your place of residence.

If the registry office receives a refusal, you should contact the court at your place of residence with an application to make corrections or changes to the civil status record. The court decision will serve as the basis for correction of the record by the registry office.

Statement on establishing a fact of legal significance

An application to establish a fact of legal significance is submitted in accordance with special proceedings (Chapter 28 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation). The main difference between special proceedings and the usual lawsuit is that it is one-sided. There is no dispute and, therefore, no disputing parties. The participants in the process are: the applicant and the interested party. Nevertheless, the court is competent to consider this case. The application contains the following information:

• about the court to which the application is being filed;
• about the applicant;
• about the person concerned.

An interested party could be, for example:

• a notary who refused to perform a notarial act due to a typo in the document;
• the local Administration, which refused to make changes to the title documents;
• The Rosreestr Office, which did not register the transaction;
• Administration of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, which did not count the length of service, etc.

Such a statement is not a claim! The title states: “Statement to establish a fact ... (states the fact that needs to be established)”

After this, the essence of the case is stated, what inaccuracies and errors were made, in which documents, what fact should be established.

Must be indicated:

• For what purpose is it necessary to establish this fact? For example: to open an inheritance case, to complete a purchase and sale transaction, to register rights, etc.
• Reasons for the impossibility of establishing this fact out of court. Evidence must be provided to support your arguments. For example, a notary’s refusal to perform a notarial act or Rosreestr’s refusal to amend the title documents is attached.

Having examined the totality of all available evidence, the judge will make a decision on the basis of which changes can be made to the title documents.

State duty for establishing a fact of legal significance

As we said earlier, cases of establishing facts of legal significance are considered in a special proceeding. Paragraph 8 of Article 333.19 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation stipulates that when filing an application in cases of special proceedings, a state duty of 300 rubles is paid.

Jurisdiction of statements to establish facts of legal significance

District courts are competent to consider such applications. As a general rule, an application should be filed with the court at the place of registration of the applicant. The exception is when it is necessary to establish the fact of ownership and use of real estate; the application is submitted to the court at the location of the real estate.

How to establish the fact of a family relationship?

Inheritance disputes September 28, 2015

Citizens know their relatives - parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, or know that they had such relatives. They also know about their more distant relatives, for example, great-grandparents and second cousins. However, when a situation arises in which citizens may have rights, including property rights, on the basis of kinship, it turns out that knowledge about the degree of kinship is not enough - they need to be documented. The most striking example is the calling of a citizen to inherit as an heir by law. It is here that it turns out that the submission of documents confirming kinship is required, and in their absence, obtaining inherited property is impossible.

If a citizen finds himself in such a situation, then his main task at the initial stage of registering his rights is to submit to the notary, who must conduct the inheritance case, an application for acceptance of the inheritance within the 6-month period established by law . This application must be accepted by the notary even if no other documents are attached to it . It seems logical to require the notary to attach to the application a copy of the testator’s death certificate, as well as a certificate of his residence in a residential building at a specific address (as a general rule, these documents can be received by the heirs). However, if a notary requires documents confirming kinship to be attached to the application for acceptance of an inheritance, and in the absence of such documents refuses to accept the application itself, then such an action by the notary is illegal, since because of it the citizen risks missing the deadline for accepting the inheritance, which jeopardizes receiving the inheritance .

In this regard, in such a situation, citizens should resolutely insist that their application for acceptance of the inheritance be accepted by the notary, registered, and on the basis of this application (if the citizen was the first of the heirs to make such an application), an inheritance case is opened.

Sometimes notaries explain the need, before filing an application to accept an inheritance, to apply to the court to establish the fact of a family relationship. In general, this recommendation is correct, however, an application for acceptance of an inheritance can and should still be accepted by a notary before the relevant trial.

If the notary refuses to accept the application, then it must be sent by registered mail with acknowledgment of receipt. Another option is to submit to the notary who must conduct the inheritance case an application for acceptance of the inheritance through any other notary. In any case - when sending an application by mail or through another notary - you must first notarize your signature on the specified application.

If the notary persists, it is advisable to indicate the intention to write a complaint about this to the notary chamber of the relevant subject of the Russian Federation.

If a citizen needs to establish the legal fact of a family relationship with the testator, he needs to go through 3 stages in sequence:

1) collection and assessment of all documents at his disposal that directly or indirectly confirm his relationship with the testator;

2) collecting the necessary documents by contacting the civil registry office;

3) applying to the court to establish the fact of family relations.

Violation of this sequence of actions is undesirable, since the court can consider an application to establish the fact of a family relationship only if it is impossible to obtain confirmation of this fact in any other way. If a citizen has not submitted requests to the civil registry office, then the court has the right to refuse to accept and consider such an application.

The collection and assessment of all documents available to a citizen are necessary in order to determine what circumstances need confirmation.

Documents belonging to one of two groups are of primary importance:

1) documents of origin - birth certificates, as well as court decisions on the establishment of adoption, on recognition of paternity;

2) documents confirming the change of surname, name, patronymic - certificates of marriage, divorce, change of name.

The specified certificates issued by the civil registry office, in case of their absence, can be issued in the form of duplicates by the civil registry office that issued them initially; copies of these court decisions can be issued by the courts that issued the decisions. To do this, interested citizens must contact the relevant institution (registry office or court) with an application, and this is the second stage.

The place of birth of persons (and therefore the civil registry office) for whom it is necessary to obtain a duplicate birth certificate is determined by the interested person either on the basis of information known in the family, or on the basis of documents in which the place of birth is indicated (passport, in the absence of a passport - extract from the house register).

If the necessary documents need to be obtained in the same locality, then it is advisable to personally apply to the registry office and receive an answer in person. If you need to contact a civil registry office located in another locality, you can send a written request for the necessary data there. If the required data is available in the archives of the civil registry office, then a duplicate of the relevant certificate will be sent to the civil registry office at the applicant’s place of residence, where it can be obtained after paying the state fee and presenting a receipt for this. If the archive does not contain the required information, then an archival certificate confirming this circumstance (lack of data) will be sent to the applicant by mail.

When receiving documents from the civil registry office, a state fee is charged.

In judicial institutions, it is necessary to contact the court office or (if the case was considered and resolved a long time ago) the court archive with an application for a copy of the decision or other judicial act (ruling or resolution). It should be noted that a copy of the judicial act can be issued either to the person participating in the trial or to his representative on the basis of a valid power of attorney.

If, with the help of applications to the civil registry office, citizens managed to collect documents confirming the unbroken line of relationship between them and the testator, then there is no need to go to court. The specified documents must be presented to the notary in charge of the inheritance case, and if the notary recognizes these documents as sufficient to confirm the family relationship, he can issue a certificate of the right to inheritance by law.

If the available and additionally collected official documents are not enough to confirm the relationship of the heir and the testator, it is necessary to go to court.

This appeal is not controversial in nature and, as a general rule, is considered in a special proceeding as a matter of establishing facts of legal significance. The procedure for special proceedings is regulated by subsection IV of section II of the Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. One of these facts that can be established in a special proceeding is the fact of family relations.

Article 265 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation names the conditions necessary to establish facts of legal significance. These conditions are that the court establishes facts of legal significance only if it is impossible for the applicant to otherwise obtain appropriate documents certifying these facts, or if it is impossible to restore lost documents. It was this circumstance that was meant when they talked about observing a certain sequence of actions. Accordingly, such an application can be filed with the court only when requests to the civil registry office have not helped the heir obtain documents irrefutably confirming his family relationship with the testator.

According to Article 266 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, an application to establish a fact of legal significance is submitted to the court at the place of residence of the applicant, that is, at the place of residence of the heir who wants to establish the fact of his relationship with the testator.

The application must indicate for what purpose the applicant needs to establish this fact, and must also provide evidence confirming the impossibility of the applicant obtaining the appropriate documents or the impossibility of restoring lost documents (Article 267 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation). The goal will be to formalize inheritance legal relations, for which the heir needs to confirm the relationship. The impossibility of obtaining the appropriate documents in any other way than going to court is confirmed by responses from the civil registry office.

The application must indicate the interested parties. They are either the tax authorities or the heirs who accepted the inheritance (that is, who submitted an application to accept the inheritance). It should be noted that sometimes the court may involve heirs who did not accept the inheritance as interested parties in the case.

The following documents must be attached to the application:

— copies of the application for interested parties;

— receipt for payment of state duty (original);

— a copy of the death certificate of the testator;

— certificate from the place of residence of the testator;

— a notary’s certificate confirming the heir’s acceptance of the inheritance and the opening of an inheritance case;

- copies of all available (collected) documents confirming the relationship of the heir to the testator (in the amount necessary for the court and all interested parties).

It is advisable to attach a pedigree chart to the application indicating the line of relationship between the applicant and his relative, whose heir he is.

Consideration of a case in a special proceeding is possible only if there are no disputes - neither regarding the composition of the heirs called for inheritance, nor regarding the property to be divided between them . If there is any dispute, then instead of a statement in a special proceeding, a claim is filed, and establishing the fact of a family relationship will be one of the claims.

The statement of claim must also be accompanied by a pedigree diagram indicating the line of relationship between the plaintiff, who requires recognition of the fact of family relations, and his relative-testator.

After the case has been accepted for proceedings, it is necessary to continue to collect evidence of the relationship of the heir to the testator.

The following evidence may be presented to support this fact:

1) written evidence;

2) witness testimony.

In addition to the above documents - certificates issued by civil registry offices and court decisions - a wide variety of written evidence (documents) can be requested and obtained with the help of the court to confirm the sought fact. To do this, it is necessary to file a petition before the court to request these documents from the institutions in which they are located. The petition must indicate the body, enterprise, institution or organization to which the request is made, the document that is in their possession, and the circumstances important for the consideration of the case that can be confirmed with the help of this document. In most cases, the court grants such requests, but only when these documents cannot be obtained by the citizens themselves.

The most common way to obtain information of interest is from the following bodies and organizations:

1) housing authorities at the place of residence of the testator;

2) passport and visa service authorities;

3) place of work of the testator, heir or their common relatives.

From the housing authorities (DEZ, REU) you can obtain documents related to the family relationships between the testator and members of his family with whom he lived. The main such document is a copy of the financial personal account, which indicates who the responsible tenant is, indicating family relationships and persons living with him; For residential premises owned by citizens, such a document is the owner’s card. These documents are also valuable because they make it possible to establish family relationships not only between the tenant or owner and members of his family, but also between family members of the tenant or owner of the property.

Archival extracts from the house register, which indicate all persons living in a given residential premises for a certain period of time, are also important. In this case, an evidentiary factor that indirectly confirms the relationship may be a common surname and a combination of names and patronymics of relatives, showing the origin of the children from the father.

The passport and visa service authorities can obtain information about documents and information provided by citizens when performing various operations related to a passport - its receipt or replacement.

At the place of work of the testator, heir or one of their common relatives, documents from the personal file (if it is preserved), such as an autobiography, a questionnaire, copies of various kinds of statements, can be obtained. In these documents, the testator can indicate a list of his relatives, as a result of which either the heir or one of the relatives (for example, one of his parents) may be listed there.

The place of work is of particular importance as a source of information when it is of a so-called security nature (banks, military-industrial complex enterprises, law enforcement agencies). In the relevant documents (application forms and autobiographies) it is required to indicate not only parents, spouse and children, but also siblings, and sometimes more distant relatives. These documents are of an official nature; accordingly, their copies can be requested and presented to the court for inclusion in the case materials.

In addition to these official documents, unofficial documents of a personal nature can provide significant assistance in proving kinship. These may, in particular, include:

- personal correspondence (both letters from the testator and letters addressed to him; in addition to the letters themselves, this also includes greeting cards, telegrams);

- notes;

- memoirs, memoirs, autobiographies;

- dedicatory inscriptions on books and various objects, both made by the testator and addressed to the testator.

If personal documents are in the possession of the applicant, he can submit them to the court as written evidence. The only recommendation regarding correspondence is that it must be submitted to the court with the consent of all living recipients. If personal documents are in the possession of other people, the applicant can contact them with a request to provide these documents.

In relation to all written evidence, it can be recommended to submit original documents to the court with copies for the court and all participants in the trial. In this case, the originals are presented to the court, and a copy is attached to the case materials. For this category of cases there are no documents that must be included in the original. However, the court, at its discretion, may attach the original document to the case materials. In this case, at the end of the trial, upon the application of the participant in the process, the original document may be returned to him.

Witness testimony in the case is no less important, since it always complements written evidence, and sometimes, in the absence of the latter, can replace it.

It is advisable to invite a wide variety of people to testify in this category of cases:

— common relatives of the applicant and the testator;

- relatives of the applicant;

- relatives of the testator;

- neighbors of the testator;

- friends of the testator.

Common relatives of the applicant and the testator are the most valuable witnesses, since they can directly testify not only to the fact of relationship, but also to its degree, since due to family relations they have the most complete information.

The applicant's relatives can be witnesses if they know, either from the applicant, or from the testator, or from some other sources (from other persons), what kind of relationship the testator and the applicant were in. However, most often such witnesses can confirm the very fact of relationship, but do not have the opportunity to clarify the exact degree of relationship between the testator and the applicant. True, in many cases, even confirmation by a witness of the fact of a family relationship is already a very positive moment for establishing the fact of a family relationship.

At the same time, it should be noted that inviting common relatives of the applicant and the testator or relatives of the applicant who are not related to the testator to testify sometimes causes the court to suspect that the information they provide at the court hearing is unreliable. In most cases, these suspicions are unfounded, but this circumstance must be taken into account. As a result, the court will have the greatest confidence in witnesses who are relatives of the testator, but not relatives of the applicant. If they are aware of the relationship between their deceased relative and the applicant, who is forced to establish the fact of relationship in court, they can most objectively confirm this relationship.

The testator's neighbors are valuable witnesses only if they often communicated with the testator, not formally, but were aware of his family affairs, for example, took part in family holidays. Under such conditions, neighbors can be very knowledgeable witnesses.

A petition must be filed to summon and question a witness before the court. When questioning witnesses, it is necessary to correctly pose questions to them, so that they are understandable to them, but at the same time not too primitive. You should not count on the fact that the witness himself will tell all the information known to him, since he may forget some information or confuse it and therefore not express it before the court. Witnesses must be asked questions. The applicant knows the information that a particular witness can provide (since otherwise there is no point in inviting this person to testify). In this case, a series of several consecutive small questions is better than one large question, because it is more difficult for the witness to answer. And one more recommendation: if the witness himself does not know the degree of relationship thoroughly, but in principle can confirm the presence of family relationships, then it is better to ask him about such general (without details) confirmation. At the end of the trial, the court makes a decision that either satisfies the applicant’s claim or the plaintiff’s claim, if we are talking about legal proceedings, or refuses to satisfy these claims.

If the outcome of the case is positive, it is necessary to obtain from the court office a copy of the decision to establish the fact of a family relationship (or to satisfy the corresponding claim), and have this copy certified with a note indicating that the decision has entered into legal force. This decision in such a certified form must be presented to the notary who is conducting the inheritance case, so that on the basis of this decision the heir will be issued a certificate of the right to inheritance by law.

Can the court refuse?

The court may refuse to recognize a legal fact if:

• there are other extrajudicial ways to establish it;
• during the consideration of the case, the existence of a dispute about the law is established;

For example, other heirs of the deceased are announced. In this case, the court issues a ruling to leave the application without consideration. At the same time, in the ruling, the court explains to the applicant and other interested parties their right to apply to the court with a statement of claim for similar requirements.

• the fact has no legal significance;
• jurisdiction is incorrectly determined.

State duty in special proceedings

For consideration by the district court of an application to establish a fact, the person applying to the court must pay a state fee in the amount of 300 rubles.

If the case concerns the protection of the rights and legitimate interests of a child, then the state duty is not paid (Part 2 of Article 23 of Law No. 124-FZ of July 24, 1998).

In cases specified by law, benefits are provided for the payment of state duty, i.e. the applicant is exempt from paying state fees, for example, a disabled person of group I or II.

When applying to the arbitration court to establish a legal fact, the applicant will need to pay a state fee in the amount of 3,000 rubles.

NOTE : if it is impossible to pay the state fee at the time of filing the application, you can apply to the court with a request for a deferment in payment of the state fee, watch the video on this issue

A typo in the court decision

The final authority in correcting typos and inaccuracies is the court, but what if there was also a typo in the court decision?

Article 200 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation stipulates that the court does not have the right to change its decision, but it can correct a typo in it, on its own initiative or at the request of the participants in the process.

In the application for correction of a clerical error, it should be stated in detail: in the decision on which case, what specific clerical errors were made, and how they should be corrected.

An application to correct a clerical error is considered by the court within ten days from the date of its receipt without holding a court hearing and without summoning the participants in the process. However, if necessary, the judge can still notify and summon the persons involved in the case.

Be careful! Until October 1, 2021, a different procedure for considering applications to correct clerical errors was in effect (this issue was considered in a court hearing with notification and summoning of the participants in the process).

Based on the results of consideration of the application, the court issues a ruling to correct the clerical error. Within 3 days from the date of its issuance, it is sent to the persons participating in the case; after 15 days it enters into legal force. It should be attached to the court decision as confirmation of the corrected inaccuracies.