Who is the heir of the second priority according to the law is brothers, sisters, grandmothers, grandfathers. But in some cases, nephews are also included in this queue.
Inheritance is a legal tool for transferring property, and inheritance relations are among the most discussed. Most often, first and second priority applicants take part in the inheritance procedure. The first priority is the spouses, children and parents of the testator, the second priority is brothers, sisters, grandparents.
Sometimes you can get confused in the intricacies of family ties, and here a system of existing terms will help.
What the Civil Code of the Russian Federation says
Regulatory framework - Chapter 63 of the third part of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation
If the deceased owner of the estate did not leave a will, then, according to the law, all his close relatives laying claim to his property are divided into several lines. The order is formed based on the proximity of family ties; the heirs of the second order are:
- brothers and sisters, full and half (when there is only one common parent);
- grandparents on both parents' sides.
Only blood relatives and those who have acquired legal kinship without blood ties (adoption) have the right to inherit.
If the parents married while already having children, these children are not blood relatives and are called step-children. Step brothers and sisters are not included in the number of persons to whom the property passes.
The law takes into account another group of candidates who receive a mandatory share of the property of the deceased: disabled people or minor dependents. They have equal opportunities with legal successors of the second circle if they lived together with the owner of the estate for at least a year before his death. Relatives living separately are not dependents.
Who are the heirs of the second stage?
Second-stage heirs include half-brothers and sisters, grandparents.
An important condition for receiving an inheritance is confirmation of a family connection with the deceased testator.
The Civil Code explains who can be considered the heir of this line and what criteria he must meet.
Requirements for heirs
- Brothers and sisters can count on accepting property if they had a common mother or father with the deceased. Half-blooded people have the same father. Fraternals - a common mother. Summary, i.e. having different parents cannot be heirs to property. The fact that they grew up with the deceased in the same family is not taken into account. Because they have no blood relationship.
- Grandparents are considered full heirs of the second stage by law if they confirm their relationship with the deceased. Adopted grandchildren have the same status as their own. Therefore, in this situation, the right to accept the inheritance from the grandparents also arises.
- By representation, this is a relative who accepts property instead of a deceased heir by law. If the primary claimant for the inheritance dies before the death of the testator or together with him, then the right to accept the inheritance passes to his legal heir. If two brothers die and one of them has property left, then it will go to the son or daughter of the other brother.
- Dependents are persons who were supported by the deceased for at least 12 months before his death. This includes disabled adults – the disabled and the elderly.
The prerequisites for calling the heirs of the second stage to accept the inheritance may be the following:
- There are no priority applicants;
- The court found them unworthy;
- The heirs of the first stage formalized a waiver of the right of inheritance;
- The deceased bequeathed some part of the property to second-degree relatives.
Heirs of the first and second priority have priority right of inheritance.
When does the right of second priority come into force?
Representatives of this stage are called upon to inherit only if the primary heirs did not accept the property of the deceased for the following reasons:
- are absent or have died before the person whose property is planned to be divided;
- did not apply to the notary to accept the inheritance within the period established by law;
- officially renounced their inheritance claims;
- they are unworthy and disqualified (deprived of the right to inherit by a court decision).
Rights of second-order heirs
A second-stage heir can claim a share in the inheritance in several cases:
- According to Art. 1147 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, inheritance rights are equalized between blood and legal relatives. Legitimate - adopted, adopted or adopted. In Art. 1143 of the Civil Code there is a remark noting that the property of the testator is equally distributed between full-blood and half-blood relatives. Having a common parent, brothers and sisters have equal inheritance rights.
- If a will is drawn up, but it does not distribute all of the testator’s property, and the first circle cannot accept it. There are also cases when second-order heirs enter into an inheritance because the testator has excluded the children, spouse, and parents from this right.
- Heirs of the second stage living on the territory of a deceased citizen can inherit this property. The main condition is that the persons have nowhere to move; they lived here before the death of the testator. The transfer of property is carried out by court decision.
- Minor citizens have the same rights as others.
Under standard conditions, the heirs of the second circle have identical rights as the first. The conditions for registering an inheritance and the procedure for entering into rights are the same for all citizens.
Right of representation
Heirs by right of representation are subject to a special clause. This is also the second line of inheritance, we will deal with it separately.
If the brothers and sisters of the owner of the property are called to the inheritance division, and one of them died before him or on the same day, then the share of the deceased heir is transferred to his descendants, that is, to the nephews and nieces of the testator. Simply put, in such cases, by the right of representation for deceased parents, their children receive the property due to them.
Distribution of inheritance between legal successors
When a deceased person does not leave behind a document with the last expression of his will, the laws of Russia come into effect. Civil law stipulates that heirs receive their due property of the deceased in order of priority. If there is a will, the notary's representative is obliged to take measures based on its contents.
So, if it is the turn of the second group, but the heirs of the 2nd degree accept the rights:
- Based on Russian laws, i.e. the property will be divided among the relatives of the current line.
- The property is divided in equal proportions. Exceptional situations include the right of representation.
Regarding the question of how the inheritance is divided between the heirs, we note that it looks like this:
- The spouse, child and father and mother of the deceased enter into their rights. This is a first degree queue. Grandchildren and their descendants may assert their interests only by right of representation.
- Grandmother, child, brother, sister. Nephews and cousins by right of representation only.
- The uncle and aunt of the deceased, whether full-born or not, have the right to accept the property estate if there are no successors of the 1st and 2nd stages. Cousins are able to inherit only by right of representation.
When the above-mentioned successors are absent, have written a renunciation of property, and are found unworthy, then other relatives are involved in the inheritance. These are great-relatives, descendants of nephews and grandchildren, etc.
Identification of the obligatory part in the heritage
According to the law, heirs of the second stage may not become the only successors of their category. The Civil Code of Russia provides for situations when you can claim a part in the inheritance, regardless of whether there is a will or not. Such persons are called obligatory successors. They are considered:
- A child who has not reached the age of majority or is disabled, incl. adopted children.
- Husband/wife who is physically unable to work and has documents confirming this
- Father/mother of the deceased.
- Citizens who were dependent on the deceased for more than one year.
The minimum amount of the obligatory share cannot be less than ²/₃ of the part that they would have received. Neither the judge nor the notary's representative can influence the volume.
Second degree successors can also receive an obligatory part of the inheritance if it is documented that they were dependents of the deceased. There is no need to obtain written consent to receive a mandatory inheritance share. The laws do not require such mandatory permission from other relatives.
How is the inheritance distributed?
When there are several claimants to the deceased's estate, it is divided equally between them, in accordance with the law. But the heirs have the right to agree and divide property values in a different manner.
If indivisible property is accepted, the heir who received the more valuable property compensates the others for the difference in value.
If a will has been drawn up, then the order is not taken into account, because the inheritance goes to those indicated in the will.
Sometimes it happens that the testator disposed of only part of the property. In such cases, heirs of the 2nd stage, by law, without a will, can lay claim to the rest of the property. If the will is declared invalid for any reason, then the property is transferred to the heirs according to the rules established by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
What are the ways to receive an inheritance?
As already described above, the testator can leave a will so that after his death the property goes to the persons specified in the text of the document. Like any other document, a will has a number of characteristics:
- The document is drawn up personally by the testator, signed by him, and certified by a notary in his presence.
- The testator himself determines who to appoint as heir. These could be non-relative people, as well as organizations or even the Russian Federation.
- If the heirs, through threats and other illegal actions, force the testator to draw up a document in their favor, such heirs are considered unworthy and do not receive property.
- Persons who know about the contents of the will (notary, representative, executor of the will, etc.) do not have the right to disclose information before the opening of an inheritance case. If the will is closed, then after.
- If a document contains sentences that are interpreted in two ways, the right to clarification is given to the court, the notary conducting the case, or the executor of the will (he can be appointed by the testator).
If the deceased did not make a will, his property becomes the property of his heirs on a general basis, that is, according to the law. The circle of citizens who receive property is also limited by law.
To prevent all the relatives of the deceased from rushing to share his wealth, the law created the concept of “order of inheritance.” There are eight such queues in total. Relatives of one or another line have the right to receive an inheritance only if the heirs of the previous one abandoned the property or they are simply no longer alive.
Inheritance queues
In order to understand which relatives belong to which order, let’s look at an example. Citizen L. Died without leaving a will, which means the property is inherited by law. The citizen is survived by his daughter and wife, his father died long ago, his mother is still alive and also has inheritance rights. First of all are the wife of citizen L., his daughter, wife and mother. They will receive the property divided into equal shares. However, the father of the deceased has a son from his first marriage, who is the testator’s half-brother. It belongs to the 2nd stage. If one of the heirs of the 1st stage refuses the inheritance in favor of this person, he will receive a share of the property. It is also known that the testator’s daughter has been married for a long time and has two children who are the deceased’s grandchildren. Grandchildren inherit property by right of representation, that is, if their mother (daughter of the testator) dies before the opening of the inheritance.
The third line would include the uncle or aunt of citizen L.
By right of representation, only the descendants of the first three orders of heirs receive the inheritance.
The remaining queues, except for the seventh and eighth, are formed according to the same principle as the first three. The seventh stage includes stepchildren: if citizen L. had married a woman who had children from his first marriage, they would have laid claim to the property of the deceased in the order of the 7th stage. This also includes the stepmother and stepfather.
The eighth priority is the state: if the deceased had no relatives, his property becomes the property of the Russian Federation.
There are also compulsory heirs: they receive part of the testator's wealth, even if a will has been drawn up. Their shares are determined by law. Such heirs include minor children (not emancipated), first-degree relatives who are unable to work due to age or disability.
