The Civil Code of the Russian Federation regulates the rights of heirs in terms of receiving the property of the deceased. However, the priority condition does not apply if the deceased left a will and wanted to transfer the property to one or several very specific persons. Most often we are talking about transferring an apartment after death to relatives or third-party citizens. The will of the deceased becomes a priority. If a person wants to independently determine his heirs, he must figure out in advance how to draw up a will for an apartment. We'll talk about this today.
When does it make sense to make a will?
According to the law, the apartment of the deceased is divided between close relatives. Children, spouses and parents have priority rights. In their absence, the values are divided among more distant relatives of the same line. Things are completely different if the deceased leaves behind a will. This document allows you to:
- transfer the apartment to a specific person or divide it between several people;
- prevent specific relatives from taking possession of their property after death.
However, we must not forget about the presence of the so-called obligatory share. If the deceased has children, disabled parents or dependents, they have the right to receive half of the property due to them by law.
For example, if the testator has two children, but no spouse or parents, then it makes no sense to divide the apartment equally between the children - it will go to them anyway. But you can leave it to one of the children. Moreover, division can occur in several ways:
- if the children are minors or disabled, then they have the right to a compulsory share, that is, ¼ of an apartment each;
- if the children are able to work and have reached the age of 18, then nothing will go to the second child in the will and he will not be able to claim anything through the court.
Therefore, before going to a notary, you need to figure out whether it makes sense to draw up a will and whether it will change the division of the apartment between the heirs.
Features of a will for a child
Making a will for a minor is carried out according to the same rules as for an adult. How to draw up a will for an apartment and other property was described in the article earlier. In inheritance law, a child is considered a person under the age of 18. In some cases, childhood ends earlier, for example, if a minor became a father and was registered as a parent.
The only thing a testator needs to know about how to draw up a will for a child is that a minor cannot independently accept an inheritance. This will be done for him by his legal representatives: parents or guardians. Therefore, if the purpose of a will for a child is to exclude the participation of his parents or guardians in the division of the inheritance, the will must specify the procedure for its execution, bypassing the legal representatives of the heir and appoint a worthy executor of the will.
Registration procedure
So, you decided that it makes sense to leave a will for the apartment. It is drawn up by a notary; without his certification, the document will not be valid. The order will look something like this:
- Direct contact with a notary. He needs to communicate his desire to make a will. It is not at all necessary to fill out the document in advance - a specialist will not only advise on the correctness of filling out the papers, but will also provide a standard form in which all legislative nuances will be taken into account.
- Drawing up a will. It is important that the document displays the required information. So, this includes personal information about the testator (full name, passport details, date of birth, place of residence), the apartment transferred after death and the heir. The absence of at least one of the points gives the right to other legal heirs to challenge the decision on inheritance in court.
- Signing. You cannot bring a will already signed. This procedure takes place exclusively in the presence of a notary. Actually, it is the certification of the authenticity of the signature that is one of the main tasks of the specialist.
- Certification of the document. Before this, the notary once again studies the text of the will. If there are any comments, the document is modified and signed again. If everything is in order, the notary affixes his signature and seal.
- Registration of a will. Notaries have another important function - they enter information about all wills into a single register. Why is this necessary? So that after death, the heirs can find out the last will of the deceased by contacting a notary office.
Download a will for an apartment (sample)
Only after all actions have been completed does the testator pay for the notary's services. This will complete the procedure and the will will become legal. It will not come into force until the death of a person. What does it mean? That the apartment will still belong to the testator. And the heirs will be able to receive it only after the death of the owner of the property.
When making a will, it is important to remember that it can be open or closed. The second format allows you to hide the name of the heir from everyone until the moment of death.
What services does a notary provide on location?
When visiting a client at home, the notary has the right to perform any notarial act, just as in the office. Each specialist has his own personal seal, which certifies the issued document, the necessary tools for work: a laptop, printer, modem or other communication device. When a notary travels to the client’s place of residence, the cost of the notary service (state fee for performing the action) does not change.
In practice, a notary’s visit to your home is most often required:
- for issuing a power of attorney for the sale of real estate, a car, receiving funds from a bank or other organization, representing the client’s interests in court;
- for attestation by a notary at home of wills, annuities, gift agreements, as well as purchase and sale transactions;
- to submit an application for acceptance of inheritance, issuing a completed certificate of title;
- to prepare a paper document equivalent to an electronic version;
- to certify legal facts: the presence of a citizen alive in a certain place;
- for the notary to submit an application to the tax office and other government bodies, documents to individuals and legal entities.
Moscow notary Kolganov I.V. comments:
“The convenience of the notary’s home visit service is that the client saves time, has all the necessary documents at hand, and can receive help from relatives and witnesses present during the notarial act. The issued document is absolutely equivalent to the one that is drawn up directly at the notary’s workplace.”
In Moscow, a notary's visit is often required not only to a home, but also to a hospital, especially when treating citizens from other regions of the country.
List of required documents
Before contacting a notary, many people wonder what documents are needed to draw up a will. If we are talking about transferring an apartment, then the following will be mandatory:
- Russian passport of the applicant (he will also be the testator). Necessary for identification of the client by a notary. The latter carefully studies the document and compares the person with the photo in the passport.
- Documents for the apartment. Usually we are talking about papers confirming the ownership of housing, for example, this could be an extract from Rosreestr. What are they needed for? So that the notary is convinced of the competence of the testator to transfer the apartment to third parties. Naturally, if the housing does not belong to him or belongs partially, then he cannot bequeath it in full (in the first case he cannot bequeath it at all, in the second - only his share).
Often, elderly people who are concerned about their well-being turn to notary offices to draw up a will. They want to leave the apartment to a specific person or several people. Unfortunately, as a person ages, various diseases can develop. Therefore, many notaries require older people to confirm their legal capacity before drawing up a will. This is necessary to:
- eliminate the possibility of transfer of housing by an incapacitated person;
- have evidence of the client’s legal capacity in advance to avoid litigation to challenge the will.
Confirmation of legal capacity can be a certificate from a psychotherapist or a doctor’s report on the state of mental health.
Will form
Most often, a will is found in notarial form, but in some cases it is allowed to be certified by persons and even executed in simple written form.
It is important to know that a notary or other authorized person certifies the signature of the testator, and not the text of the will. And therefore, it is not responsible, and in some cases technically cannot be responsible, for the contents of such a document. Therefore, before signing, you need to find out how to correctly draw up a will and make sure that its text is understandable not only to you, but also to your executor, or at least to the notary himself.
Expenses
The testator may be concerned in advance with the question of how much it costs to draw up the document. There is no one size fits all. However, there is a list of tariffs for paying state fees for notary services. So, certification will cost 100 rubles. But technical actions are paid based on regional indicators. Usually everything together costs about 1,000 rubles. However, the cost of services may increase in some cases ().
For example, this is provided if the testator cannot come to the notary in person and asks him to come to a certain place. In this case, transportation costs and a 1.5-fold increase in tariff will be added to the standard payment.
If necessary, the testator can make changes to the will or cancel it altogether. There are no restrictions on the number of such actions in the legislation. Moreover, the testator does not have to give any reasons or grounds - his desire is enough to change the text of the will. However, you will have to pay for such “adjustments” every time.
In general, the costs of drawing up a will today are not high. Not only a wealthy person, but also an elderly citizen with a small income can bear such expenses. True, for the latter such costs will be more noticeable. But he will be able to leave his apartment to a specific person if his desire differs from the norms of the law. And today this happens quite often. For example, grandparents leave apartments to their grandchildren, not to their children, so that they have a place to live.
Read: What is the best way to formalize an inheritance: a will or a deed of gift?
Cancellation and amendments of a will: price
In accordance with Article 1130 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the testator has the right to modify the will and make adjustments. Moreover, the owner of the property can completely cancel such a documentary order. When drawing up a new testamentary act, a mandatory condition is the cancellation of the previous one, which becomes invalid.
A certificate of cancellation of a testamentary disposition will cost the testator 500 rubles.
This amount, as well as the state duty for registration, is established by the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. The total price that you will have to pay for re-certifying a testamentary document, as a rule, does not differ from the cost of the initial execution of the will.
Thus, the total amount of expenses when drawing up a testamentary disposition cannot be known in advance. To establish the final amount, you will need to thoroughly discuss the details with a notary.
Text of the will
The will is written in free form. The main thing is to comply with the basic requirements. It must indicate all the information about the heirs to whom the testator wants to bequeath his rights and obligations. Namely - first names, last names and patronymics, who is related to the testator, as well as, if possible, tax number and passport data. Such scrupulousness will help avoid confusion in the future.
For example, a man bequeathed all his property to Ivan Petrov from the village of Kukuevo. And in the village of Kukuevo there are three Ivanov Petrovs, all of them are relatives of the testator, and everyone wants everything at once. If you make a will to several heirs, it is advisable to indicate the shares of each in the will, and if we are talking about real estate, you can indicate the desired division of the house by the heirs.
When drawing up a will for an apartment, you also need to understand that along with the rights to such property, responsibilities are also bequeathed. So, for example, if the apartment is under a mortgage, the heir under the will will be obliged to fulfill such a mortgage agreement.
