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
