Tutorial for submission of a land claim in Slovakia
The legal substance of the claim is a petition asking for
inheritance proceeding of the new discovered estate according the
Civic Code. The petition is to be addressed to the Slovak District
Court responsible for the town, where the estate is located.
Usually, the deceased benefactor died typically 50 years before and
he did not write any will. The heirs living abroad (typically the
children of the deceased) were not informed by the communist regime,
that they are eligible heirs. Now also the first generation of the
heirs is dead and the eligible heirs are now grandchildren of the
benefactor.
The inheritance proceeding would start after at least one of the
eligible heirs would submit a petition, in ideal case this could be
done by one of the heirs, who is a Slovak national - this is not
obligatory, but it would spare the cost.
The petition
The petition addressed to the Inheritance Department of the District
Court must contain:
- Identification of the estate - a certified copy of the List
vlastníctva (the electronic version is not sufficient, a hard
copy with stamp of the Land Register Office (Správa katastra) is
requested);
- Certified copy o the benefactors death certificate - the owner
listed in the List vlastníctva;
- The will of the benefactor (if any) and the previous
inheritance decisions related to other estates of the benefactor
(if any);
- The list of the heirs (full name, date of births, parents,
address, description of the kinship, e.g. child, grandchild,
cousin, nephew, etc.) optionally annexed with documents proving
the legibility of the heirs (their birth certificates, etc.)
- Legible signature of the petitioner
The petition must in Slovak language and the supporting documents
must be in original and in Slovak language (or certified copies with
certified translation).
The procedure
The Inheritance Department of the District Court will check the
petition and the documents attached there. If they find all data and
documents consistent, the court will assign a notary public, who
will continue the proceeding on behalf of the court. The notary
public will contact all the heirs and and he will first ask them, if
they want to be heirs. The heirs, who are not interested can resign.
The resignation must be done in writing and the signature of the
resigned heir must be certified by notary public. If the resigned
heir is in USA, he must go to an American notary public, sign there
the English rejection statement. This statement must be than
translated to Slovak by certified translator. In case, the heir in
USA wish to continue, he must either personally come to the notary's
office in Slovakia, or to appoint somebody as its agent. The
appointment (Power of Attorney, POA) must have a certified signature
and must be translated by certified translator to Slovak.
The notary public will not continue, until all heirs clarified
their status, i.e.:
- they reject the inheritance, or;
- they accept the inheritance and they are ready to come to
notary public, or;
- they accept the inheritance and appoint their agent.
The next step is a meeting of all heirs or their agents with the
notary public. He will propose an uniform distribution of the estate
and ask the heirs, if they agree. The heirs can accept the proposal,
or to give alternative proposals. Any of the heirs can resign also
at this stage. After an agreement between the heirs is achieved, the
notary public will write minutes of the meeting and he will record
the agreement achieved.
The next administrative steps are conducted again by notary public.
Finally the court will inform the land record office and the new
owners will be inscribed in the List vlastníctva (LV).
The cost
The following expenditures can be expected:
- The duty stamps for certified copies of List vlastníctva (8 €
per document)
- The notaries fee (about 50 - 100 €)
- The court fee (about 50 - 100 €)
- The fee of certified translator (30 € per page)
- The fee of US notary public (certification of the signatures)
According my experience, the largest part of the cost is the fee of
the certified translator.
In addition there is a need for somebody, who will draft the
petition and communicate with the Slovak Authorities in Slovak
language.
Revision date: 30 January 2010
