Inheritance law. Wills. Ministry of Justice on changes

As reported by the Ministry of Justice in a press release, the draft amendments to the Inheritance Law are currently at the stage of intra-ministerial arrangements.

The ministry's announcement indicated that one of the changes proposed by the Ministry of Justice is to tighten the conditions for making an oral will.

“The new solutions are intended to minimize the risk of forgery of this type of wills. An oral will can be prepared only in situations where preparing a will in writing is impossible or significantly difficult due to special and sudden circumstances (e.g. sudden serious illness). Additionally, it will have to there is a fear of the imminent death of the person making the will. Project of the Ministry of Justice combines these two premises – so far, one of them had to exist in order to prepare an oral will,” the announcement said.

The ministry also wants to regulate the issue of preparing a will in audiovisual form, e.g. by means of a video recording. As indicated, “unlike its 'ordinary' form, an audiovisual oral will can be prepared without the need to involve witnesses.” “The proposed changes will significantly shorten the deadline the content of the oral will is confirmed. According to the proposed regulations, the content of the will is to be confirmed immediately, but no later than within one month of its preparation. If the testator dies, the content of the will can only be ascertained in court, within 3 months of the testator's death,” explains the ministry. It was also indicated that the proposed changes will also apply to validity of special wills (oral, military, audiovisual). “Currently, they remain in force for a maximum of 6 months from the cessation of the circumstances that justified the preparation of such a will. The project of the Ministry of Justice reduces this time to 3 months (1 month in the case of an audiovisual will),” we read in the announcement.

The ministry also announced that the military will, which is currently regulated by the regulation of the Minister of National Defense, will be included in the Civil Code.

“The change will ensure that all forms of wills will be regulated in the Civil Code. So far, there have been constitutional doubts as to whether a military will should be regulated by a regulation. Moreover, a traveling will will be abolished, as this form of will was of little use in practice,” the ministry explains.

It will also be expanded catalog of entities that cannot be witnesses to a will.

“These will include, for example, the partner of a person for whom any benefit has been provided in the will, relatives or in-laws of such a person up to the fourth degree, or a person authorized to represent a legal person for whom any benefit has been provided in the will,” explains the Ministry of Justice.

The Ministry of Justice also indicated that in response to “the request of the Commissioner for Human Rights, which concerns the problem of the so-called double provisions of inheritance”, the Code of Civil Procedure will also be amended.

“The proposed changes will prevent situations in which there are two decisions in legal transactions regarding the acquisition of inheritance from the same person. This caused problems for offices due to discrepancies in the basis of the legal title to the inheritance. The proposed solution gives the court the power to annul – also ex officio and at a closed session – a valid decision confirming the acquisition of an inheritance, if a valid decision confirming the acquisition of an inheritance was previously issued in relation to the same inheritance,” the announcement stated.