Will for an apartment between relatives: pros and cons

Author of the article: Elena Petrenko Last modified: January 2021 15677

According to the law, citizens can inherit any property to both relatives and strangers. This right is regulated by Art. 1119 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. No one has the right to interfere with this, and a will for an apartment to a non-relative allows you to distribute shares in the property as the testator needs, while he can deprive family members of their inheritance if they are not allocated the obligatory part.

Legislation

Peculiarities of inheritance are regulated by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. According to the law, receiving an inheritance is possible in two ways - by will and by law, and there are significant differences between them:

Important! Any will can be challenged in court if there are grounds, therefore, before drawing it up, you must make sure that there are no relatives who have the right to allocate the obligatory part of the property after the death of the testator. If the apartment is in shared ownership, you can only transfer your share by inheritance.

There are also separate legal provisions regarding inheritance by will:

Advantages of drawing up a will for the testator

A written will allows you to:

1. Live in an apartment, use all the property.
2. Change the terms of inheritance at any time.
3. Refuse inheritance, appoint new successors.
4. Form the inherited mass at your own discretion.
5. Assign a testamentary refusal or assignment.
6. Require legal successors to execute orders.

The testator loses all this if he decides to donate the property.

How to make a will for an apartment for a non-relative?

The rules for drawing up a will are established by Art. 1124 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation is the same in all cases:

• The document must be drawn up in simple written form and certified by a notary.
• The will cannot contain significant blots or errors that distort information.

Article 1124. Civil Code of the Russian Federation

“General rules regarding the form and procedure for making a will” (more details)
If desired, the testator can draw up a closed will. Neither the notary nor other persons will know about its contents. It is packed in an envelope, which is signed by two witnesses and sealed, and opened within 15 days from the date of death of the testator.

To draw up a will, you only need a passport, but in general the entire registration procedure looks like this:

1. The testator independently determines who will inherit what and to whom, then applies to the notary’s office with a passport.
2. Certification takes place in one visit. One copy of the document is given to the testator, and the second remains with the witness.

Expert commentary

Leonov Victor

Lawyer

The standard cost of certifying a will is 100 rubles. If a citizen is unable to come to the office in person, he can arrange a home visit with a notary, but he will have to pay an increased fee for this.

Subsequently, opening a closed will will cost the legal successors 300 rubles, and an inventory of the inherited property for its safety will cost 600 rubles.

Additional information

Sometimes additional documents may be required.

• Elderly persons. For testators over 75 years of age, a medical certificate of legal capacity and sanity is often required;
• If a share in an apartment is bequeathed. In this case, the consent of other owners may be required. Especially if it is indivisible property (which includes an apartment and a house), as well as property acquired jointly during marriage.

In addition to all the above documents, you will need a receipt for payment of the state duty. The notary will issue a receipt form, but without a paid copy, he will not register the will for the apartment.

Acceptance of inheritance

Citizens specified in the will must enter into inheritance within six months from the date of death of the testator. If the deadline is missed, you will have to restore it through the court, but the claim will be satisfied only if there are good reasons:

• Stay of the legal successor on a long business trip in another country or city.
• Ignorance of the death of the testator or the inclusion of a candidate in the list of heirs.
• Serious illness or long-term treatment in a sanatorium or hospital.

To restore the deadlines, you will have to submit an application to the court and attach documents confirming a valid reason for missing the deadlines. This could be a certificate from a medical institution, a travel document, or a copy of a voucher for sanatorium treatment.

If the successors took care of inheritance matters on time, they need to contact the notary at the place where the testator left the will.

You need to have the following documents with you:

• Application (can be written directly at the office).
• Will. Even when drawing up, one copy remains with the notary, and the second with the testator.
• A certificate proving ownership of real estate, registered in the name of the testator.
• Death certificate of the testator.
• Extract from the house register. Needed to check the number and status of citizens registered in the living space.
• Certificate from BTI.
• Act on assessing the value of property (to determine the amount of state duty).

If there are several people named in the will, and they all renounce the property in favor of one of the successors, a written renunciation of them will be required.

Expert commentary

Kireev Maxim

Lawyer

It is important to take into account that if the successor died after the opening of the inheritance case, without having time to register it in his name, the property is transferred to his heirs in the order of hereditary transmission. If he died at the same time or before the testator, the rules of inheritance by right of representation apply.

It may take a notary several weeks or even months to check and register all documents, after which a certificate of inheritance will be issued, which will be needed in Rosreestr to register the apartment as property.

In addition to Rosreestr, heirs can contact the MFC to expedite completion of the procedure with a set of documents:

• Inheritance certificate.
• Statement.
• Passport.
• Receipt for payment of state duty.
• Old certificate of ownership.

The deadline for completing all documents is up to 10 calendar days from the date of submission of the application. Based on the results, a new certificate of ownership of the apartment is issued, issued to the legal successor.

Actual acceptance of inheritance

If the heir did not apply to the notary for a certificate, but took measures to preserve the bequeathed property, spent money on its maintenance and in every possible way ensured order in the apartment, he is considered to have actually accepted the inheritance. In this case, restoration of the deadlines is not required, but certificates, checks and receipts for participation in the maintenance of the home will be needed.

How is the amount of state duty determined?

When receiving an inheritance, a person is required to pay a state fee. Its size is indicated in the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. However, the amount of state duty may differ for different persons. It depends on how related the person is to the owner of the property who is making the will. Let's look at this issue in more detail below.

The amount of state duty for heirs of various degrees and non-relatives

As we have already said, the amount of the state duty will depend on the degree of relationship. It can be defined as follows:

• A state duty of 0.3% of the value of the property must be paid by citizens of the first and second priority. In this case, the maximum amount should not exceed 100 thousand rubles;
• a state duty of 0.6% of the value of the property must be paid by other categories of citizens. In this case, the maximum amount should not exceed one million rubles.

The question arises: how are the queues of citizens determined in this situation? There are seven queues in total:

1. first – husbands/wives, daughters/sons, mothers/fathers;
2. second – grandparents, brothers/sisters;
3. third – aunts/uncles;
4. fourth – great-grandparents;
5. fifth - cousins, great-aunts/grandfathers;
6. sixth - great-cousins, great-aunts/uncles, nephews;
7. seventh – stepsons/stepdaughters, stepfathers/stepmothers.

Deadlines for payment of state duty, declaration

There are certain deadlines within which the heirs must pay the state fee. This must happen before receiving the inheritance certificate. Moreover, this type of duty does not depend on the type of property that is transferred to the heir. Therefore, it does not matter whether it is real estate or material value.

There are situations when royalties and income from a scientific invention are inherited. In this case, a person will have to pay a tax of 13% of the value of the property. To do this, you will need to draw up a tax return (3-NDFL) and calculate the tax in it. The necessary documents must be attached to it.

Document storage period

Civil legislation also specifies the fact that all documents certified by a notary must be kept in the archives. This means that a will made during your lifetime must remain on the will register for at least 75 years. Thanks to this condition, it is possible to contact the archive to obtain a copy of the will. But this is permitted in exceptional cases specified by law. An application to receive a copy is submitted to the Chamber of Notaries, which is authorized to preserve the will.

The shelf life of the paper is also indicated - 75 years. The heir, whose rights were violated during the declaration of the wishes of the deceased, receives access to a copy of the document in order to challenge its legal validity.

Each notary has his own archive. But it happens that a notary leaves work, so he is obliged to provide his archive to the Notary Chamber. This body then deals with the transfer of wills to other specialists. This way, the testamentary paper will not be lost.

Expert opinion

Klimov Yaroslav

More than 12 years in real estate, higher legal education (Russian Academy of Justice)

Ask a Question

If during court proceedings the heirs do not have information about which notary certified the will, they should request the data from the Notary Chamber of the region. You should also submit a request for the disposition of the property under the will. After the register is checked, a notification is sent indicating the address of the notary holding the will.

Cost of notary services

Upon registration and entry into rights, a state fee is paid. There are no tax charges, since a will is a gratuitous transaction that does not involve the transfer of money. But an apartment is an immovable object, and the duty is calculated not according to the price list, but in accordance with its value, which is displayed in the assessment report. These are expenses for the beneficiaries.

Rates

Standard services of a notary office are published on the website. You can clarify the amount of the state fee by phone or online. The cost of notary services depends on the region and workload, so in large cities, such as Moscow, it is slightly higher.

Some law firms provide notary services because they have an active notary on their staff. This is convenient due to the fact that at any time you can get qualified legal assistance and draw up a will.