Lawyers for inheritance cases and disputes in Moscow

The difference between a lawyer and a notary and lawyer

Sometimes situations arise in a person’s life that cannot be resolved without the help of legal experts. In some cases, people find it difficult to decide who to contact with their questions. Many citizens do not distinguish between concepts such as “lawyer”, “attorney” and “notary”. However, these professions differ significantly from each other.

You can read about who lawyers are and how they handle inheritance cases in the article “Inheritance Lawyers.”

Many people confuse the actions performed by a lawyer and a notary. A lawyer is a specialist in the field of law. His powers directly depend on the chosen specialization - judge, lawyer, legal adviser, and so on.

A notary is an official who performs notarial actions, including actions aimed at citizens receiving an inheritance.

To understand how his powers differ from the rights and responsibilities of other specialists in the field of jurisprudence, read the material “Notaries in inheritance matters”.

What does a probate lawyer do?

An inheritance lawyer must have knowledge not only in the field of inheritance law, but also understand the provisions of civil, family, land and housing legislation. In his practice, the specialist provides services that will inevitably require knowledge in these industries.

So, an inheritance lawyer provides citizens with the following types of services:

registration of inherited property and documents for it;
appealing against the actions/inactions of a notary in court and declaring them illegal;
consultation on inheritance disputes;
recognition of the rights of heirs who have an obligatory share of the inheritance mass by law;
challenging the will and invalidating it;
restoration of deadlines for entry into rights if they were missed;
resolution of conflict situations between relatives in the process of distribution of inherited property;
deprivation of the rights of other heirs, including recognition of heirs as unworthy;
registration of inheritance in the interests of the principal;
establishment and proof of actual acceptance of inheritance;
establishment of a mandatory share;
establishing the degree of relationship in court;
establishment in court of legally significant facts giving the right to receive an inheritance;
registration of inherited property in ownership, including in court if necessary;
determination of the obligatory share in the inheritance;
challenging a notarial refusal to issue a certificate of right to inherited property;
collection of debts of the testator from the heirs;
establishing the fact that the testator has dependents.

These types of services can only be obtained by contacting a competent inheritance lawyer. To consult with an expert, call the phone number listed on the website. The initial consultation is free of charge.

When to consult

It is important to remember that the law allows a short period for the heirs to declare their rights. You can get detailed advice from a specialist when:

a family member or another person who could leave an inheritance has passed away;
the deadline for entering into inheritance has been missed;
the will was drawn up not in favor of the legal heir, but of a stranger;
the inheritance case was complicated by certain circumstances;
there is a desire to foresee everything in advance, but it is not known how to act correctly.

If the will was drawn up in secret, it is better to find out the necessary information yourself rather than entrust the matter to people with their own interests.

Consultation with an inheritance lawyer may be required when registering ownership of property, executing, amending or canceling a will.

But most often, a specialist is contacted when inheriting an apartment and to draw up an agreement for the division of inherited property.

What real estate transactions need to be notarized?

1. The participation of a notary is necessary when alienating real estate owned by a minor child or a citizen recognized as partially capable or incompetent.

For children under 14 years of age, real estate transactions can be made on their behalf only by their parents, adoptive parents or guardians. Minors aged 14 to 18 years make such transactions with the written consent of their legal representatives - parents, adoptive parents or guardian. On behalf of a citizen declared incompetent, transactions are carried out by his guardian.

2. Transactions on the alienation of shares in the right of common ownership of real estate. A notary’s signature is also required when all participants in shared ownership sell their shares simultaneously in one transaction.

3. Will. A type of unilateral transaction when the current owner, after death, transfers his property rights to the new owner. When drawing up a will, the consent of the heir is not required. The notary certifies the will and reads it out during the procedure for opening the inheritance.

4. Inheritance contract. A transaction that resembles a will in form. A distinctive feature is its double-sidedness. The agreement is drawn up with the mutual consent of the testator and heir and certified by a notary. The transaction can be paid or gratuitous.

Where to go for inheritance matters

In large cities, people can easily choose where to seek legal assistance. However, in small localities, many do not know where they can get advice on inheritance, since at best there is only one state notary office for the entire district.

State notaries serve a circle of people living in the territory under their jurisdiction. Linking to a specific notary is carried out by the first letter of the surname and registration of the deceased, when it comes to a large area. But where there is a single database, linking to registration for inheritance is excluded.

Any notary has the right to open a inheritance case when an interested person approaches him. Legal advice on inheritance issues can be provided either by a local specialist or by a private notary licensed to provide legal services.

Regardless of affiliation, a notary provides a standard set of services: drawing up an application, opening an inheritance case, protecting property until the heirs take possession and issuing a certificate of inheritance.

Rules for free consultation

You can receive legal assistance in inheritance cases in accordance with current Russian legislation for free - through the website online.

Free legal advice on inheritance issues helps solve problems related to the preparation of the documentation necessary for entering into an inheritance and its execution. In most cases, one free consultation is sufficient.

To conduct this type of consultation, a careful selection of lawyers is carried out. If you have not received an answer to a specialist’s question, you need to duplicate it on the website in the comments to the article on the topic of interest.

The main purpose of the free service is to provide assistance on inheritance law issues. At the same time, contact and personal information of clients is not indicated on the portal pages.

What questions does the specialist answer?

The lawyer provides complete information about the legal regulation of the situation that has arisen in connection with inheritance, about practical steps and all possible options for action. It also helps to develop a legal position, guaranteeing the client complete confidentiality.

Based on the results of the consultation, a decision can be made to represent the client’s interests in court.

A probate lawyer will competently draw up a statement of claim and also solve all problems in the process of registering an inheritance. For example, it will help to exclude participation in the inheritance of persons not entitled to inheritance and get rid of the debts of the testator.

Consultation with a specialist provides answers to questions related to the timing of inheritance and the possibility of its restoration, the inclusion of property in the inheritance, recognition of ownership of property, and will provide guidance in other issues of inheritance law.

Lawyers for inheritance cases in Moscow

The point is advantages in inheritance. How to inherit property without shares. A client came to our office, it seems, with a fairly standard situation - her husband died, her inheritance included an apartment, a plot of land in the Moscow region with a house, a car, money in accounts. But the testator also had a son from his first marriage, and he did not leave a will. As soon as the inheritance case was opened, the son began to lay claim to his shares in the entire inheritance, threatening his stepmother that he would move into the apartment and country house, start selling his shares, come and go whenever he wanted as a full-fledged owner and dispose of his inheritance as he pleased. The trouble for the principal was also that the son did not enter into any negotiations, refused to take money for his share, and was determined to ruin the future life of the principal.

Result

But after carefully studying all the documents in the case, I came to the conclusion that a way out of this situation can be found. Indeed, the heir, having formalized his rights to the inherited property, becomes its full owner with all the ensuing rights. However, legislation (and judicial practice) provides exceptions to this general rule, or rather, the advantages of some heirs over others. These benefits can be both specific and general. And in this particular case, I was able to successfully put them all into practice. Firstly, I drew up and sent to the opponent a written proposal on behalf of the client to buy out his shares in the inheritance from him, having previously assessed them with an independent appraiser. When I did not receive an answer to it, realizing that the negotiations had reached a dead end, I filed a claim in court to terminate the defendant son’s right of ownership of the inheritance and recognize the ownership of it as the principal. The claim was based on special articles of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (Articles 1168 and 1170) and paragraph 54 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation No. 9 of May 29, 2012, revealing the advantages of individual heirs over others when registering an inheritance, as well as the general article of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation about the insignificance of the defendant’s share (Article 252). And the most important thing is that in the end both of these norms worked in court. In the course of a long and intense process, I managed to separate the client’s spousal share from the estate, remove it from the division, and then justify to the judge that the spouse who has a share in the common property with the testator has an advantage over another heir who does not have this share has and never had before. In addition, the defendant never used the property, did not have keys to the apartment, house, or car, did not pay taxes or utility bills, and had not previously lived in the apartment, which was also confirmed by a resolution from the Department of Internal Affairs at my lawyer’s request. The court also agreed with me that the shares of the heir-defendant in the amount of 1/3 in the entire inheritance are insignificant, taking into account the technical characteristics of all objects, and therefore, they cannot really be allocated to the property of the defendant. Thus, the court terminated the defendant son’s right of ownership of the inheritance, recognized my client’s ownership of it in the amount of 100% and recovered monetary compensation for this transferred property based on a pre-conducted appraisal examination. It is noteworthy that all this was done forcibly through the court, and no one asked the defendant’s consent to this. As a result, the client remained living in his apartment, continued to use the car, go to the dacha without any problems or obstacles from the second heir - the stepson, and avoided dividing the inheritance according to the standard scheme in equal shares.

Simankov Oleg Mikhailovich Lawyer, Head of Civil Litigation Practice

Cost of legal services

Legal advice on inheritance matters does not have a fixed price. You can find out the prices from a specific specialist, paying special attention to the correspondence of the price to the services described in the price list (the description must be clear and precise). The more expensive the specialist’s services, the more successful experience he has. But even inexperienced lawyers will not work at low prices.

The cost of services depends on the complexity of the case and the type of organization - public or private notary office. In controversial cases involving an expensive estate, a specialist may agree to work for a certain percentage of its cost.

Sometimes it is not so easy to enter into an inheritance; legal advice in the most difficult situations is the only way out.