If identifying changes are made to a person’s death record, the six-month period for accepting an inheritance begins from the date such changes are made - SC CivCC

If information about a deceased person was registered by introducing amendments to a previously created death record of an unidentified person, the time limit for accepting the inheritance is calculated from the date those amendments are made, rather than from the date the original death record was created.

This conclusion was reached by the Supreme Court, sitting as a panel of judges of the First Judicial Chamber of the Civil Cassation Court.

In the case under review, the claimant filed a lawsuit against her former husband. In support of her claims, she stated that in March 2022 their common son was killed, and in May 2022 he was buried as an unknown soldier, whose death was confirmed by a death record dated 6 July 2022.

In August 2022, amendments were made to the death record of the parties’ son, updating the information and details about the deceased person. Specifically, the entries “unknown” and “information unavailable” were replaced with identifying information about him. The death certificate and its duplicate were obtained by the parties in September 2022.

The claimant argued that the defendant had lost the right to inherit by law after their son’s death, and that the certificate of inheritance rights was invalid, since more than six months had elapsed between the date of the death record (6 July 2022) and the defendant’s application to accept the inheritance. Therefore, in her view, the defendant had not accepted the inheritance within the prescribed period.

In dismissing the claim, the court of first instance, whose conclusions were upheld by the appellate court, proceeded from the fact that the defendant, after the registration of his son’s death through amendments made to the death record in August 2022, applied to a notary in January 2023 with a statement accepting the inheritance. Therefore, the statutory six-month period had not been missed.

The Civil Cassation Court of the Supreme Court agreed with the conclusions of the lower courts and made the following legal findings.

The court decisions finding no grounds to satisfy the claim are correct, since the identifying information about the deceased was effectively registered in August 2022 through amendments to the previously created death record of an unidentified person. Accordingly, the defendant, having submitted an application to the notary in January 2023 to accept the inheritance after his son’s death, did not miss the time limit for its acceptance.

The Civil Cassation Court of the Supreme Court noted that paragraph 20 of the “Final and Transitional Provisions” of the Civil Code of Ukraine provides that during the period of martial law in Ukraine and within two years from the date of its termination or cancellation, in cases where the death of an individual is registered later than one month after the date of death or the date on which the person is declared dead, the time limits established by Articles 1269–1273, 1276–1277, 1283, and 1298 of the Civil Code of Ukraine are calculated from the date of the state registration of the person’s death.

Thus, since the information about the death of the parties’ son was registered only in August 2022, and prior to that the state register contained information about the death of an unidentified person, the defendant had no legal grounds to apply to a notary with a statement on accepting the inheritance after his son’s death.

The Supreme Court also drew attention to the fact that the claimant herself applied to the notary with a statement on accepting the inheritance after her son’s death on 1 November 2022, that is, also after amendments had been made to the death record that made it possible to identify the deceased person.

Moreover, the notary issued the defendant a certificate of the right to inheritance by law after the son’s death; therefore, there was no need for him to apply to the court with a claim to determine an additional time limit for submitting an application to accept the inheritance.

Resolution of the Civil Cassation Court of the Supreme Court dated 3 December 2025 in case No. 761/39934/24 (proceedings No. 61-11310св25), available at: https://reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/132431224.

This and other legal positions of the Supreme Court can be found in the Database of Legal Positions of the Supreme Court - https://lpd.court.gov.ua.