Is a will really written by hand?

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A will is nothing more than a written statement of the posthumous dispositions of the testator. It becomes a legally significant document only after a certain procedure has been completed. And responsibility for its correctness and legality rests with notaries. Authorized specialists ensure compliance with all established rules, certify the document and enter information about it into a specialized register.

But in real life, citizens do not always have free access to a notary. Due to a remote location, serious illness, or being in extreme, life-threatening conditions, the testator objectively cannot resort to the services of a notary, but this should not become a basis for a violation of his legal rights. That is why the law provides exceptions.

What should a will be in theory?

The standard procedure for probating property is as follows:

1. The testator contacts a notary office or calls a specialist to your home.
2. Then he draws up the will itself. The declaration of will can be written in the presence of a notary or in advance. In the first case, the statement of the citizen’s last will is not necessarily carried out by him personally - a notary can do this instead of him. But this requires certain reasons, for example, poor eyesight of the testator, illiteracy or general physical weakness.
3. The notary explains the key legal provisions to those present.
4. The document is signed by the testator in the presence of a notary. However, if the testator is objectively unable to sign with his own hand, a specially invited person (a hand-appler) can do this instead.
5. An authorized person (notary) makes the certification - puts a personal signature and seal, and indicates the necessary notes.
6. The testator receives his own copy of the will, with which he is free to do as he pleases.

In addition, when registering a declaration of will with a notary, it is important to consider the following points:

• The will is drawn up in two copies.
• A citizen may not present title documents for bequeathed property, since he has the right to dispose of his future property.
• There should be no unspecified corrections, cross-outs or blots in the text of the will. If the notary or the testator made a technical error, its correction must be certified separately.
• If you want to make significant amendments to the document (cancel or change some orders, or even completely cancel the expression of will), corrections in the already written text are not made. To do this, the testator draws up a new act with instructions that are relevant to him or simply a statement to cancel the will.
• Any discrepancy between the will and the established form entails its nullity (any notary has the right to recognize such an act as invalid without the participation of a judge).
• For certification of the act of last will by a notary, a citizen must pay a state fee and for notarial services of a legal and technical nature.

Some of these instructions are significant not only in cases of notarial execution of a will. Read more about this below.

Making a will: what you need to know

Many people, when they hear the word “will,” immediately think of old people, which is fundamentally wrong. A will can be made at any age. Unfortunately, no one is safe from accidents. Therefore, sooner or later the question arises: how to dispose of your property in the event of death? After all, everything that was acquired through back-breaking labor will in any case be distributed among the heirs. But with a will, you decide who gets what property.

What is a will

A will is the disposition of property in the event of death <1>. The main purpose of a will is to determine the procedure for transferring all or part of the inherited property to certain persons. Those. When making a will, a person specifically states what and to whom he is going to leave after his death - this is the main difference between a will and inheritance by law.

Example A grandmother has a son and a grandson. At the same time, she owns an apartment and a dacha. If she does not write a will, then in the event of her death all property will pass to her son <2>. And in the will, the grandmother can, for example, indicate that she leaves the apartment to her grandson and the dacha to her son.

The will must be:

- personal. You cannot make a will through a representative or make one will for two people <3>;

- free. The principle of freedom of will is multifaceted. So, you can dispose of your property as you wish (and not only those that you already own, but also those that you can acquire in the future). You can disinherit without explanation. You can change and cancel your will <4>.

Note! You are not obligated to anyone, including a notary, to communicate and/or explain your decisions in the will. In this case, the notary is obliged to keep the will secret <5>;

- competent. Only a fully capable citizen can make a will. That is, one who is 18 years old (or 15 years old in the case of marriage, or 16 years old in the case of emancipation) and who is aware of his actions <6>.

Note! If potential recipients of the inheritance prove in court that the person was mentally ill at the time of drawing up the will, the document will lose legal force <7>. Therefore, before going to a notary, we advise you to undergo a psychiatric examination.

Regardless of the terms of the will, a portion of the inheritance is received by the obligatory heirs

Minor children, disabled parents, spouses and children have the right to the so-called obligatory share of the inheritance. It is 50% or more of the share of the inheritance that would be due to each of them if inherited by law <8>.

Note Disabled persons include age pensioners, disabled people of groups I, II and III <9>. Minor children are children under 18 years of age <10>.

To determine the size of the mandatory share, you need to calculate the legal share:

The cost of inherited property also includes household items <11>.

Example U Gripa V.P. I have a retired daughter and a niece. He owns an apartment and a dacha. Grip V.P. wants to write a will and indicate in it that he is leaving the apartment to his niece and the dacha to his daughter. The cost of an apartment with household items is 100,000 BYN. RUB, and dachas - 40,000 BYN. rub. That is, the cost of the inherited property is 140,000 BYN. rub. In the absence of a will, the retired daughter is the sole heir. This means that she would have received both an apartment and a dacha. The legal share is 140,000 BYN. rub. (140,000 BYN / 1 heir). In this regard, the obligatory share in this case is 70,000 BYN. rub. (140,000 BYN / 2). With such a will, the niece will have to pay Grip’s daughter V.P. 30000 Bel. rub. (70,000 BYN rubles - 40,000 BYN rubles (cost of the dacha)).

Only the court can reduce the size of the obligatory share <12>.

A will can be open or closed

The testator can write an open will himself or dictate it to a notary in the presence of a witness. The notary can familiarize yourself with the contents of the will and check that it complies with the law. After certification, the notary gives one copy of such a will to the citizen, and leaves the second copy in his archive <13>.

Note: An open will, at the request of the testator, can be signed by another citizen in the presence of a notary. In this case, the will will indicate the reason why the testator could not sign the will with his own hand. This may be due to physical disability, illness or illiteracy <14>.

The testator hands over the closed will to the notary in a sealed envelope in the presence of two witnesses who put their signatures on the envelope.

Note! The testator writes and signs the closed meeting in his own hand. If this rule is not observed, the will is invalid <15>.

The contents of a closed will remain a secret to the notary and witnesses. This is its main difference from an open will.

What to include in a will

The data included in the will can be presented in free form. But the law has two main requirements for the contents of a will:

1. The document should be filled out with special care, paying attention to the fact that all points of the document are clear, understandable and interpreted unambiguously <16>.

Note! If any data in the will has an ambiguous meaning, then its meaning may be disputed by the heirs. In this case, when making decisions, the court will proceed from the literal meaning of the words and expressions contained in the will <17>.

2. When bequeathed property is distributed among several persons, the will must clearly define to whom what is bequeathed and/or to what extent. You can do this in one of the following ways <18>:

- indicate specific things that pass to each heir;

— indicate the shares due to the heirs.

Note: The testator must not present documents confirming his rights to the bequeathed property when certifying the will <19>.

If the will is written by the testator, then it must contain confirmation that the testator wrote it personally and that he is familiar with the content of the Civil Code regarding the mandatory share <20>.

Notaries usually offer their own forms of wills. They may include the place and date of preparation, the name of the testator, the address of his place of residence, etc.

Example of a will:

Conditions that should not be included in a will

In a will you cannot <21>:

- impose on the persons appointed heirs in the will the obligation, in turn, to dispose of the property bequeathed to them in a certain way in the event of their death;

- include in the will conditions for his behavior in order to receive the inheritance that are unlawful or impossible for the heir to fulfill due to objective reasons.

Where can I certify a will?

As a general rule, a will must be certified by a notary <22>. To have a will certified by a notary, you can contact any notary office (notary office) in Belarus, regardless of your place of residence.

Reference information for the Notary can be found on the website of the Belarusian Chamber of Notaries in the “Find a Notary” section.

In an area where there is no notary office (notary office), a citizen’s will can be certified by an authorized official of the local executive and administrative body. Outside Belarus, a will can be certified at diplomatic missions or consular offices of Belarus.

However, there are situations in life when a notary is physically unable to witness a person’s last will. In such cases, the “most important boss” can certify the will in front of witnesses. For example, the chief physician of a hospital can certify the will of a citizen being treated in this hospital, the commander of a military unit can certify the will of a serviceman, etc. But at the first opportunity, such a will must be transferred and certified by a notary in the notary office at the place of permanent residence of the testator <23>.

Note! Only notaries have the right to certify closed wills <24>.

Cost of probate

For notarization of a will and other actions of a notary, the following fee is charged <25>:

The specified fee must be paid before contacting the notary <26>.

Reference information Payment can be made through the “Settlement” system (ERIP). Detailed instructions can be found on the website of the Belarusian Notary Chamber.

Who is present at the certification of the will?

In addition to the testator, in some cases, witnesses <27> must be present at the certification of the will:

- one - if you dictate the will to a notary;

- two - if you are certifying a closed will.

In addition, if the testator cannot sign the will himself, then the certificate must be taken by a citizen who will sign the will for him <28>.

In this case, the witness and the person who will sign the will instead of the testator cannot be <29>:

1) a notary or other person certifying the will;

2) the person in whose favor a will was drawn up or a testamentary refusal was made, the spouse of such a person, his children, parents, grandchildren and great-grandchildren;

3) heirs by will or law;

4) citizens who do not have full legal capacity;

5) illiterate;

6) persons with a criminal record for giving false testimony;

7) citizens with such physical disabilities that do not allow them to fully understand the essence of what is happening;

persons who do not sufficiently speak the language, with the exception of cases where a closed will is accepted by a notary.

A citizen who signs a will instead of the testator cannot simultaneously be a witness. Also, a witness cannot sign a will for the testator <30>.

What documents to bring to the certification of the will?

Depending on what kind of will you make (open or closed) and whether other persons will be present when the will is certified, the list of documents may be as follows <31>:

To save time, before going to the notary, you can make an appointment with him. This can be done, for example, on the website of the regional notary chamber or in person. You can also invite a notary to your home.

Is it possible to write a will without a notary?

It is definitely possible to write a will without a notary. The testator has the right to even involve a lawyer in this matter in order to avoid mistakes and use the powers granted to him to the fullest. The main thing is to sign the document in the presence of an authorized person. But even at this stage, the services of a notary are not at all necessary.

Strictly speaking, it is not always permissible to fully execute a will without a notary. To do this, certain circumstances must exist, namely:

• absence of a notary at the place of residence of the testator;
• the presence of a serious threat to the life of a citizen who wishes to leave posthumous orders;
• limited physical capabilities of the testator;
• bank deposit will.

Depending on the conditions that prevent the receipt of notarial services (permitting their absence), the following may certify a will instead of a notary:

1. Heads or other officials of administrations of remote settlements or inter-settlement areas where there are no notaries.
2. Consuls of the Russian Federation's missions abroad.
3. Directors, chief or duty doctors of homes for the disabled or elderly.
4. Chief or duty doctors of medical institutions.
5. Captains of ships sailing under the flags of the Russian Federation.
6. Heads of intelligence, scientific, research bases, expeditions or stations.
7. Heads of prisons.
8. Commanders of military units.
9. Authorized bank employees.

However, according to Art. 1127 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, if a citizen still wants to certify his posthumous orders with a notary, the persons specified in paragraphs 3–8 are obliged to take the necessary measures for this (if there is an objective possibility).

Is a will valid, not certified by a notary, written by hand?

The absence of a notarization does not always invalidate a will. A declaration of will that was drawn up under the circumstances described above is equivalent to a notarized declaration. But for this it is important to comply with the following conditions:

• presence of the signature of an authorized person (acting notary specified in the previous block);
• the presence of witnesses (their number depends on the specifics of the act);
• subsequent transfer of the document to a notary at the place of residence of the testator or to the notary chamber.

Wills, which by law must be executed exclusively in notarial form, may be declared invalid without a notary’s certification. This applies to all property orders of the testator that do not relate to bank deposits and those that he can independently and at the right time formalize with a notary. For example, a closed will (transferred by the testator in a sealed envelope) without the notarial actions necessary in this case is void.

As for acts of last will written out by hand, doubts about the validity of the document are absolutely unfounded. The “Methodological Recommendations for Certifying Wills”, approved by the Board of the Federal Chamber of Notaries, repeatedly mentions the freedom of the testator in choosing the method of writing the act. Orders written by hand or by means of technical writing media (PC) will be equally valid.

Moreover, when making some types of wills, the text written by the testator’s hand is a criterion for the validity of the will. This applies to documents drawn up in closed form or drawn up in emergency circumstances.

Requirements for a will

Civil legislation provides for the opportunity for the owner to independently dispose of his property in the event of death, by drawing up a will. Ch. 62 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation is entirely devoted to the rules for drawing up a document and its features. With its help, a citizen can distribute objects that belong to him by right of ownership between any individuals and legal entities at his own discretion.

Possibilities of a will:

• choose any citizens, legal entities or state as legal successors;
• deprive legal heirs of a share in property;
• establish a testamentary refusal or assignment (actions that the heirs must perform to receive property);
• oblige the notary to create an inheritance fund;
• distribute your property among legal successors;
• dispose of property that has not yet been acquired.

The only restriction for the testator is the right to an obligatory share. This is the legal right of the deceased's dependents to a share in property equal to ½ of the share that is required by law. In this way, the rights of disabled or retired parents, spouses and children, as well as minor children, are protected.

One of the important requirements for a will is its written form. Also, the document must be certified in the manner prescribed by law. As a rule, this is a notarized certificate.

However, a citizen does not always have the opportunity to visit a notary office. And in some localities such a service is not available at all.

In such a case, the law provides for alternative methods of identification.

How to make a will without a notary (sample)

As mentioned above, a citizen has the right to write his posthumous orders in advance, before his visit to the acting head. O. notary. In most cases, he can use a computer and then print out the typed text. And only when making a closed will is the last will of the testator expressed by hand.

However, the above does not deprive the testator of the right to choose a different method of drawing up the document - directly during execution. An authorized person can even help with this and transfer the essence of the will onto paper instead. In this case, the contents of the act are written down by him under dictation, after which a mark is placed next to it stating that the will was written according to the words of the testator, as well as the reason for such execution.

In the case of a will being presented from the words of a citizen, it is important that the testator re-read what was written, but he can also entrust this task to an authorized specialist, who records this circumstance with the phrase “read out loud to the testator for a reason (name of a physical disability or other feature of the will-maker).

After the preparatory stages, the certification procedure begins. It consists of signing the document by the testator and an authorized person, affixing a seal indicating special powers, etc. O. notary, and registration of the deed.

Serious illness, infirmity or illiteracy of the testator frees him from the need to personally sign the will. In such situations, a person who is capable of action and, no less important, is not interested in the inheritance is needed. He signs instead of the testator, and next to it indicates his full name and permanent address.

Attention! If the property dispositions of the testator are certified not by officials of local administrations and consuls, but by other authorized persons, the signature of the testator must be made by him personally and always in the presence of a witness. The witness also puts his signature on the paper.

Design rules, form, content

Writing a declaration of will begins with the words “Will”. If the text is typed on a computer, this inscription can be written in capital letters (Caps Lock).

The next line indicates the date of the act in words, for example, “December tenth two thousand and seventeen.”

Next, the testator needs to introduce himself - write his full name (in full), date of birth, place of registration and passport details. After this, you can move directly to the essence of the expression of will. Here you can specify:

• desired heirs and persons who can inherit in their place (in case of refusal, non-acceptance or death of the former);
• objects of inheritance separately or all property belonging to the day of death (this will include even that which was not the property of the testator at the time of drawing up the will);
• the size of the shares due to the specified successors (if this is not done, the property will pass to them in equal parts), or the full name plus a brief description of the individual objects that the citizen intends to bequeath;
• orders regarding the disinheritance of specific heirs by law;
• the obligation to fulfill a testamentary refusal (a material service that the heir will have to provide to the appointed person at the expense of the property received);
• testamentary assignment (actions aimed at achieving a generally beneficial goal of a property or non-property nature, which the successors will have to fulfill);
• executor of his last will, a list of tasks assigned to him and recommendations for their implementation.

At the end of the will, it is necessary to note the features of writing the will - whether it was done personally, or from the words of the testator by the certifying person, who read it, and, of course, the signature of the testator (in the cases provided for this, also the signature of witnesses and the executor).

A will executed without a notary may look something like this:

Will made in emergency circumstances

In exceptional cases, posthumous orders of a citizen may be recognized as valid even without the identification of authorized persons. This applies to acts of expression of will committed under emergency circumstances.

The very concept of emergency situations is not directly disclosed by the legislation of the Russian Federation. As legal practice shows, this means that the testator is in conditions that clearly threaten his life and prevent him from contacting a notary or other authorized persons. In this case, it does not matter whose fault the extreme situation arose, the only important thing is that the testator found himself in the very epicenter of it and acted of his own free will.

Will made under emergency circumstances:

1. It is stated in simple written form, necessarily in the hand of the testator.
2. Signed personally by the testator in the presence of two witnesses.
3. Contains direct and unambiguous instructions regarding the future fate of the testator’s property.

But that is not all. To become a legally significant document, the will of the testator must be recognized as valid. And this can be done in two different ways (the procedure depends on whether the testator remained alive or died within a month after the will was made).

If a citizen who has expressed his own will in extreme conditions manages to survive, he must secure the legal force of the act within a month with a notary or another person replacing him. Otherwise, such a will will be revoked.

The death of the testator before the specified period entails other consequences. The text he wrote will be recognized as a legal expression of will by his heirs or other interested parties in court. They will have to prove the existence of extraordinary circumstances, the impossibility of the now deceased turning to a notary and his freedom of will when presenting posthumous orders. And only after receiving the appropriate court decision do they receive the right to inherit under a will.

Testamentary disposition

Another type of will that can be written without a notary is a testamentary disposition for a bank deposit. The testator has the right to make it directly at the branch of the credit institution where the deposit was opened.

The powers of the person certifying the act are vested in the bank specialist, and otherwise the procedure for drawing up the document is identical to the execution of the act of last will by a notary (another authorized person). In general, the testator’s algorithm of actions is as follows:

1. Visit to the branch of the bank that opened the deposit.
2. Notice of intention to leave a testamentary disposition.
3. Writing an order by hand or using office equipment. You can also involve a bank employee in the process (ask him to type the text of the declaration of will on the computer).
4. Certification of what is written with a personal signature and transfer to an authorized specialist for certification.

The text of the testamentary disposition must contain the following information:

• location and name (number) of the bank branch;
• date of certificate;
• testator's registration address;
• Full name of the individual or name of the legal entity to whom the contribution is bequeathed, as well as their place of residence or legal address;
• number of the bequeathed account(s);
• an indication of the shares due to the heirs (you may not indicate them, but in this case the funds will go to them equally);
• conditions for issuing money (if desired, you can determine the age at which the rights to the deposit will be transferred to the successor).

At the end of the registration procedure, the authorized specialist registers the document in the book of testamentary dispositions, gives one copy of the testamentary disposition to the testator, and places the second in a fireproof cabinet.

How to write a will for an apartment?

Everything is simple here: prepare the documents and go to any notary office, regardless of where you live and where the property being bequeathed is located.
The notary will check everything, the will is signed in his presence. If you sign it yourself while sitting at home, it will not have legal force. The text of the will can only be written, printed or handwritten on paper. The Civil Code defines the following registration rules:

• citizens draw up a document only in person; the involvement of representatives is not allowed;
• a will can be drawn up by only one person (the exception is a marital will (when both spouses participate in the drafting), the possibility of execution of which was added in 2019);
• you can choose and involve two witnesses to be present when the will is made. They must be disinterested persons and fully capable (Article 1124 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation);
• the will must contain the date of execution and the signature of the testator.

Now about what a will can be:

1. An open will is the most common type of administrative document. A person draws up a will independently or with the help of a notary and has it approved by a notary. The notary gets acquainted with the content in advance and can eliminate all legal and other errors.
2. A closed will is a type of document whose contents are not revealed even to a notary. The approval takes place in a closed envelope in the presence of at least two witnesses.
3. Wills equivalent to notarial wills. This category includes administrative documents drawn up in cases where it is impossible to attract a notary. The document is approved by an official who has the authority to sign the will. These are the chief doctors of medical institutions, leaders of scientific expeditions, leaders of military formations, and captains of sea vessels.
4. Distribution document issued in emergency circumstances. This concerns the occurrence of a danger to a person’s life, which forces him to draw up a will. After the end of the dangerous circumstances, the will must be approved by a notary.

Contents and sample

Regardless of the type of will, it must contain the following information:

• date of registration;
• the city where the will is made;
• your passport details, full name;
• registration address;
• the address of the apartment you want to inherit;
• Full name, date of birth of the heir;
• signature and date of preparation.

You can transfer property in your will to one or more heirs. In the latter case, you need to indicate who gets what share. If this is not done, the property will go to them in equal shares.

Sample will with appointment of executor

List of documents

To make a will you will need:

• passport;
• extract from the Unified State Register for the apartment;
• a document on the basis of which you have ownership of real estate: a contract of sale, exchange, donation, rent, certificate of inheritance, etc.;
• receipt of payment of state duty.

It is important to know! To make it more difficult for other people to challenge the will in the future, you can additionally bring a certificate from a drug treatment clinic stating that you are not registered due to alcoholism or drug addiction. But in general it is not required by law.

Who can become a testator

All capable citizens have the right to bequeath their property. By law these are:

• adults (over 18 years old);
• emancipated (children over 16 who were granted full legal capacity due to marriage or in accordance with a decision of the guardianship and trusteeship authority or the court).

However, these categories of persons may be deprived of the opportunity to independently dispose of their property and bear responsibility for their actions (at least within the boundaries of the legal space). This occurs when a citizen is diagnosed with a severe mental disorder - a disease that makes a person unable to think logically and clearly, be aware of his actions and soberly assess the environment.

There are also milder degrees of deviations, when a person is partially deprived of these abilities, due to a less serious deviation or unhealthy psychological dependence. In this case, he will be recognized as having limited legal capacity. But this does not in any way affect the ability to dispose of one’s property—a citizen with limited legal capacity also does not have the right to draw up a will.

A court can deprive or limit a person of legal capacity based on an application from relatives or other interested parties. The full scope of civil rights is restored in a similar manner (when the patient’s mental health has returned to normal).

The capacity of the testator at a personal reception must be verified by the person certifying the expression of will instead of a notary. This is done not on the basis of the presence or absence of an official document on deprivation of legal capacity, but on the external signs of the applicant. Since a testator may be incompetent or partially capable, regardless of whether he is recognized as such by the court. And, if something in the behavior of the testator arouses the suspicions of the authorized person, he has the right to demand from him a certificate from a psychoneurological dispensary or refuse the certificate.

Pros and cons of a will for an apartment

If there is no will, the inherited property is divided between the first or subsequent heirs in equal shares. That is why many people prefer to register it if they want the property to go to someone specific.

Let's look at the main advantages and disadvantages:

Be careful when making a will, even for a close relative. For example, in practice in criminal cases, there are cases when people died quite quickly immediately after signing a will, and not without the “help” of the heirs.

Consider the requirements for testators

In accordance with the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the testator can be a citizen of Russia, a national of another state, a stateless person who meets the following requirements:

• full legal capacity (attaining 18 years of age, obtaining legal capacity through emancipation);
• the absence of a psychological disorder that prevents you from fully realizing your actions;
• absence of temporary incapacity, which may arise due to abuse of alcohol, drugs or psychotropic drugs.

Minors and unemancipated children cannot act as testators (clause 2 of Article 1118 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

Requirements for heirs are more lenient

Heirs under a will can be all citizens, foreigners, and stateless persons, regardless of their place of residence. You can also transfer an apartment by will to an incapacitated person with a mental disorder or a minor child. Their interests will be represented by parents, guardians or other legal representatives.

A will can transfer property to individuals, legal entities and charities.

Witnesses

Certification of the property dispositions of the testator without the participation of a notary in most cases requires the presence of witnesses. They are needed:

1. When making a will in emergency circumstances.
2. In cases where the certifiers are ship captains, commanders of military units, doctors, directors and heads of places and expeditions, while staying in which the testator was deprived of access to receive notarial services.

In the first case, two witnesses are required, in the second, one is sufficient. And in each of them, the persons present must meet the following requirements:

• literacy;
• full legal capacity;
• knowledge of the language in which the expression of will was made;
• obvious disinterest (the heir or legatee under the will, their parents, children and spouses, as well as the person certifying the deed cannot be chosen as a witness);
• adequacy and sobriety.

All requirements presented to witnesses are equally relevant for the person who committed the assault (if his participation is provided for by law).

When making posthumous property dispositions, the availability of documents for the testator is important, regardless of whether a notary is involved in the procedure or not. The only exception is a will in emergency circumstances, which, for already known reasons, is made in a special manner.

In all other cases, the testator is required to provide identification. This document does not necessarily have to be a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation. Instead, it is allowed to present:

• passports of a sailor or military personnel;
• passport of a citizen of another country;
• resident card;
• temporary residence permit on the territory of the Russian Federation;
• another document that allows you to reliably establish the identity of the applicant.

And about. A notary in a locality or outside the Russian Federation may require a certificate from a psychoneurological dispensary from the testator, but the testator is not obliged to provide it. At the same time, when refusing to provide a medical report, the testator (especially those over 70 years of age) must keep in mind that this may be followed by a refusal of the certificate and even a subsequent challenge to the act due to “incomplete legal capacity of the testator.”

Witnesses or the person presenting the hand must also carry identification and, upon request, provide documentary evidence of their own legal capacity.

It is important for all will-holders to pay attention to the following point: they are not required to provide any title documents for the bequeathed property, since they have the right to order the posthumous transfer of all their property or individual objects that they intend to acquire in the future. More than one year may pass from the moment the will is certified until his death, and during this time the personal material assets of the testator may be significantly replenished or, conversely, reduced. Therefore, sales contracts, donations and certificates of inheritance do not have much significance at this stage.

Expenses under a will made without a notary

Some believe that the absence of notary services completely frees testators from material costs. However, this opinion is only partly true.

Persons making a posthumous expression of will in emergency circumstances and persons performing the powers of a notary on a temporary and irregular basis (doctors, commanders, captains, etc.) are exempt from paying state fees and notarial services of a legal and technical nature. In other cases, the testator will have to pay a state fee and the State Property Certificate for certifying the will.

According to Art. 333.24. Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the state duty for this service is only 100 rubles. In addition, additional payment may be required, which is charged for the provision of legal and technical services. The exact amount is established annually by the notary chamber of each subject of the Russian Federation, but its value is 10–20 times higher than the amount of the state duty.

What else does the testator need to know?

In addition to all of the above, general rules apply to all types of wills, the essence of which is as follows:

1. Free will of the testator. This means the absence of any external pressure - a citizen has the right to freely express personal property orders without regard to the opinions of others. Violation of this clause may become grounds for challenging the will.
2. Clarity of consciousness of the testator and other participants in the procedure (certifier, witnesses, handicapper). Intoxication with alcohol, drugs and chemicals is a sufficient reason to invalidate a document in court.
3. Individuality of will. A will made on behalf of two or more persons is void.
4. The secret of the will. Regardless of how the last will of the testator was stated, persons who did not participate in the certification process should not learn about its contents before the death of the testator. Disclosure of a secret may result in administrative liability and the collection of a fine from the violator. The ban does not apply to the testator - he has the right to share such information at his own discretion.
5. Possibility of cancellation and modification. The testator has the right to cancel the expression of will at any time after its completion by drawing up a document with instructions that are similar in essence, but different in content (example: in the previous act one recipient of the apartment was indicated, and in the new one - another) or by filing an application for cancellation. Individual orders can also be annulled, while the legal force of the will as a whole will be preserved.
6. The right to make multiple wills. A citizen is in no way limited in the number of statements of will drawn up. And, if they contain completely different instructions, each of them will be valid (example: the content of one document is the transfer of a land plot, another - an apartment, the third - the appointment of a testamentary refusal, etc.).
7. Invalidity of acts of last will. A will, as well as an application for its cancellation, can be declared invalid - void (declared by a notary when opening an inheritance case) or voidable (by a court decision). The reasons for this: the inconsistency of the form and order of the act, as well as some of the rules described here.
8. Mandatory share. When bequeathing his property, a citizen must remember the legal holders of the obligatory share of the inheritance - his disabled parents, children, spouse and dependents, who, even if the testator is unwilling, will receive their part of the inheritance, albeit half as much as they could have received by law.
9. Marital share. In addition to the personal property of the testator, the estate may include the property of his legal spouse. The marital share takes up exactly half of the material assets and funds acquired by the husband and wife during marriage (even if only one of them was the acquirer, in the truest sense of the word). The only exception is inherited and donated property. It belongs only to the heir or donee and cannot be removed from the estate by the surviving spouse. The rest is separated from the inheritance or, conversely, included if part of the joint property of the deceased was registered in the name of a widow or widower.
10. Executor of the will. The testator has the right to order the appointment of an executor - a person who will implement or monitor the execution of his last will. It should be taken into account that the executor, in the course of performing the tasks assigned to him, may incur certain expenses, which will be reimbursed from the inherited property.

The absence of a notary does not negate compliance with the rules and regulations necessary when making an expression of will. Moreover, the importance of knowing the current legislation and its application in such cases increases markedly. Not all persons replacing notaries have sufficient competence to explain to the testator the legal consequences of his actions. As a result, the risk of the will being declared invalid increases, and the testator is not fully aware of the rights and opportunities granted to him.

Even if you do not have access to a notary, you can contact the lawyers of the website ros-nasledstvo.ru through an online form and receive competent advice on drawing up a will and other issues that interest you.

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Don't trust what was bequeathed

There are no exact statistics on how many wills are disputed in our courts, but judges do not hide the fact that there are many such cases and their number is increasing every year. Usually, heirs go to court after they find out that the deceased did not leave everything acquired during his lifetime to them. That's when the problem arises - how to cancel a will. There are actually only two cancellation options. If the will is a forgery or if it was written by a person who does not understand what he is signing.

Of these two, the most common option is to recognize the testator as an unhealthy person who does not understand the meaning of his actions. This is the option that the Krasnodar judges were faced with.

It all started when the district court received a claim from a woman to whom her grandmother left an inheritance in accordance with her will. For seven years, the granddaughter was sure that she was the sole heir to all movable and immovable property of her grandmother. But after the death of the elderly woman, it turned out that several months before her death she had written another will - with the same text, but the son of the deceased, the uncle of the previous heiress, was appointed heir. So the granddaughter filed a lawsuit against her uncle. Well, the court asked to declare the last will invalid, since a couple of years before her death, the grandmother suffered a stroke and, according to the granddaughter, was not aware of her actions. And the signature under the second will seemed suspicious to her.

The district court rejected the granddaughter's claim. But the next authority, the Krasnodar Regional Court, overturned this decision and declared the second will invalid.

The uncle now went to the Supreme Court and asked to recognize the second will as legal, and him as the real heir. The Judicial Collegium for Civil Cases of the Supreme Court re-read the case and declared that the regional court was wrong.

This is what the high court saw in the case.

In 2009, a notary certified a will according to which the grandmother leaves everything she has to her granddaughter. And in 2015, the same notary certified another will, according to which the woman leaves everything to her son. My grandmother died a year after the second will. The son accepted the inheritance, and the granddaughter only then realized that the will for her was an empty piece of paper.

The district court, in response to the claim of the granddaughter, who stated that the grandmother was not herself when she wrote the second will, ordered a post-mortem forensic psychiatric examination. Its implementation was entrusted to specialists - experts from the regional psychiatric clinic. They conducted a study and wrote a conclusion that they could not say anything about the woman’s mental state, since there was no information for them in her medical documents and she had never been observed in the relevant dispensaries. And the words of the witnesses are “uninformative.” As a result, the district court decided that the woman was completely mentally healthy at the time of writing the will. And the signature under the will, as experts confirmed, was hers.

But the appeal, overturning this decision, stated that the grandmother could not understand her actions, had physical disabilities, suffered from a serious illness and “could not consciously perform the actions of drawing up a will (in favor of her son).” To this, the Supreme Court stated that it could not agree with such conclusions.

Judges make no secret of the fact that there are many cases of will revision, and the number of them increases every year.

According to the Civil Code (Article 1118), you can dispose of your property after death only by writing a will. Another article of the code, 1131, states that a will can be declared invalid by the court. The Civil Code (Article 177) states that a transaction made by a legally capable citizen, but at that time in a state where he cannot understand his actions, may be declared invalid by the court.

A legally important circumstance in such cases will be the presence or absence of mental disorders at the time of writing the will, and the severity of the illness. According to the law, if special knowledge is required to answer a question, the court appoints an examination. If the court does not agree with the experts’ conclusion, then it must write about this with reason in its decision. And the court, by law, must evaluate the conclusion of experts and reflect this in its decision.

The court must describe and evaluate the expert’s work in detail if it does not agree with it. And one more thing - the expert opinion should be assessed by the court not arbitrarily, but in conjunction with other evidence. In our case, the experts said that my grandmother’s mental health was apparently normal, since she never complained about it. The regional court did not agree with the experts, but took the testimony of witnesses as a basis - when signing the second will, the lady was poorly oriented. But the Supreme Court objected to this: a witness is a person who knows the circumstances of the case. And if a witness tells something, but cannot indicate the source of his knowledge, then this is not a witness. Whether a woman was mentally incompetent, according to the Supreme Court, can only be stated by a person with special knowledge. But witnesses, including a notary and the court, do not have them.

The Judicial Collegium for Civil Cases also said that if the court had doubts about the first examination, it could order another one - a repeat one. But the appeal did not do this, but, having no special knowledge, made a categorical conclusion about the mental state of the elderly woman at the time of drawing up the will. In this case, the court was guided only by the testimony of witnesses, which, according to the Supreme Court, cannot replace the opinion of experts.

The inheritance dispute will have to be reviewed by appeal on a new basis.

Proving the legality of a will can sometimes be difficult. Photo: Sergey Mikheev/RG