Inheritance is the transfer of property and certain personal non-property rights and obligations of the testator to the heirs.
The right to inheritance arises on the day of opening the inheritance, i.e. on the day of death or on the day on which the person is declared dead. According to Article 1221 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, the place of inheritance opening is the last place of residence of the testator. If this is unknown, the place of opening the inheritance is the location of the testator’s immovable property or the main part of it, and in the absence of immovable property, the location of the main part of movable property. A person has the right to accept an inheritance, to reject it without any further notice or in favour of another heir, as well as to take no legally significant actions to accept or reject an inheritance.
Under Ukrainian law, inheritance is carried out by law or by will.
Article 1223 of the Civil Code of Ukraine provides that the right to inheritance is granted to persons designated in a will. In the absence of a will, its invalidation, rejection or refusal of the inheritance by the heirs under the will, as well as in the event that the testator fails to distribute the entire inheritance, inheritance is carried out by law, in the order of priority, in accordance with Articles 1261-1265 of the Civil Code of Ukraine.
There are five lines of heirs by law.
Each subsequent line acquires the right to inherit in the absence of the heirs of the previous lines, if they do not accept the inheritance or refuse to accept it, or if they are disqualified from inheritance.
The first line of heirs by law: children, spouse and parents of the deceased.
Second line of heirs by law: siblings, grandparents of the deceased.
The third line of heirs by law: the deceased’s uncle and aunt.
Fourth line of heirs by law: persons who lived with the testator as a family for at least five years before the opening of the inheritance.
Living as a family is confirmed by registration at the same address as the deceased. In cases where the heir lived with the testator as a family and was not registered at the same address, the fact of living as a family is established through a court in a separate proceeding.
After the court decision is issued and enters into force, the heir may proceed with the inheritance.
The fifth line of heirs by law includes other relatives of the testator up to and including the sixth degree of kinship. In this case, relatives of a closer degree of kinship exclude relatives of a more distant degree of kinship from the right of inheritance. In this case, the degree of kinship is determined by the number of births that distance the relative from the testator, without taking into account the birth of the testator himself. The fifth line of succession by law also includes the testator’s dependents, even if they were not members of the testator’s family. Ukrainian inheritance law also has a concept of inheritance by right of representation. Its essence is that the testator’s grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nephews, cousins, great-grandparents, although not belonging to any of the lines of succession by law, may become heirs as if representing a close relative of the testator, if that relative has died at the time of opening the inheritance.
Thus, they can claim the part that their mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, brother, sister, uncle, aunt would have inherited if they had been alive at the time of the inheritance opening.
According to Article 1267 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, the shares in the inheritance of each of the heirs are equal by law. These shares may be changed by agreement between the heirs, either verbally in the case of movable property or in a notarised written agreement in the case of immovable property or vehicles.
It should be noted that the law provides for the possibility of changing the order of inheritance by entering into a notarised agreement between the heirs concerned. Such an agreement may be concluded after the opening of the inheritance and should not violate the rights of an heir who is not a party to the agreement, as well as an heir entitled to a compulsory share in the inheritance.