Inheritance Without Extra Applications: Two Cases When Receive Property Automatically

Under Ukrainian law, inheriting a house, apartment, or other real estate usually requires visiting a notary and filing a formal application. However, the Civil Code of Ukraine (Article 1268) outlines two clear exceptions — cases when an heir is considered to have accepted the inheritance without any additional paperwork. This “automatic acceptance” is especially relevant for those dealing with residential property.

The law provides two main paths for succession: by will (where the deceased personally decides who receives what) and by legal order. If there is no will, the estate passes to relatives according to a strict five-tier priority system:

1. First in line: children (including those conceived during the deceased’s lifetime and born after death), the surviving spouse, and parents.

2. Second in line: full siblings and grandparents on both sides.

3. Third in line: aunts and uncles.

4. Fourth in line: individuals who lived with the deceased as a family for at least five years (for example, unmarried partners).

5. Fifth in line: other relatives up to the sixth degree of kinship, as well as dependents who are not family members.

Each subsequent line can only claim the inheritance if there are no eligible heirs in the previous line or if they have formally renounced their rights.

When can a notary application be skipped completely?
Despite the standard procedure, Ukrainian legislation defines two situations in which the estate is treated as automatically accepted — provided no official refusal has been filed within the statutory timeframe:

1. The heir lived permanently with the deceased at the time of death. If a person shared a home with the deceased (for instance, the same apartment or house) and does not submit a written renunciation within the established deadline, they are considered to have accepted the inheritance by default.

2. The heir is a minor, a legally incapacitated person, or an individual with limited legal capacity. In such cases, the inheritance is deemed accepted unless the heir or their legal guardian (custodian or trustee) actively declines it.

It is critical to remember the six-month deadline that applies even in these automatic scenarios. The six-month period starts from the date of the deceased’s death, and it is the window during which an heir — including those covered by the exceptions — can formally renounce the inheritance. For everyone else, the standard rule remains: within six months after the property owner’s death, an application for acceptance must be submitted to a notary office.