How to divide an inheritance among heirs under the law

When this is needed

A pre­lim­i­nary diagram is useful when the de­ceased left no will, or the will does not cover some prop­er­ty, and several rel­a­tives claim an in­her­i­tance under the law. Without a diagram, it is easy to con­flate two sep­a­rate ques­tions: who is en­ti­tled to inherit and what share each person re­ceives once that en­ti­tle­ment is con­firmed.

For a family in Lviv, the prac­ti­cal process does not begin with valuing an apart­ment or di­vid­ing a sum by the number of sur­names. First find out whether an in­her­i­tance case has been opened, who is han­dling it, and which doc­u­ments the notary re­quires to confirm family re­la­tion­ships, ac­cep­tance of the in­her­i­tance, and the estate assets. State and private no­taries apply na­tion­al rules; there is no need to invent a sep­a­rate “Lviv formula.”

This guide covers a narrow case: in­her­i­tance under the law, one already iden­ti­fied order, equal root po­si­tions, and, where ap­plic­a­ble, the right of rep­re­sen­ta­tion. If there is a will, a com­pul­so­ry share, a change in order, re­nun­ci­a­tion, failure to accept, dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion, trans­mis­sion, or a dispute about a family re­la­tion­ship or prop­er­ty, re­cal­cu­late only after re­view­ing the doc­u­ments.

Applicable deadline and procedure

Under Ar­ti­cles 1217 and 1223 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, in­her­i­tance takes place under a will or under the law. The right to inherit under the law arises when there is no will, the will has been de­clared invalid, the heirs under the will have not ac­cept­ed the in­her­i­tance or have re­nounced it, and for any prop­er­ty not covered by the will.

The orders are set out in Ar­ti­cles 1258–1265 of the Civil Code of Ukraine. Each sub­se­quent order becomes en­ti­tled only if there are no heirs in the pre­ced­ing order, they have been dis­qual­i­fied, they have not ac­cept­ed the in­her­i­tance, or they have re­nounced it, except for lawful changes in order. A cousin there­fore cannot simply be added to the cal­cu­la­tion along­side the chil­dren or the sur­viv­ing spouse.

Article 1267 pro­vides for equal shares among people in the same order. Article 1266, however, es­tab­lish­es the right of rep­re­sen­ta­tion: certain de­scen­dants inherit the share their rel­a­tive would have re­ceived if alive when the in­her­i­tance opened. If there is more than one rep­re­sen­ta­tive, they divide that share equally.

It is useful to draw a family tree and mark:

1. living people in the root gen­er­a­tion who inherit di­rect­ly;
2. people who died before the in­her­i­tance opened and for whom the law permits rep­re­sen­ta­tion;
3. the rep­re­sen­ta­tives within each such branch.

Each living person in the root gen­er­a­tion and each branch forms one po­si­tion. If there are N po­si­tions, each exact share is 1/N. If a par­tic­u­lar branch has R rep­re­sen­ta­tives, each person’s share is 1/(N × R). Use the in­her­i­tance di­vi­sion cal­cu­la­tor under the law to check frac­tions and es­ti­mat­ed amounts.

Do not confuse this model with in­her­i­tance trans­mis­sion. If a po­ten­tial heir was alive when the in­her­i­tance opened but died later without ac­cept­ing it, Article 1276 applies and a dif­fer­ent analy­sis of dead­lines and suc­ces­sors is needed.

Steps to take

1. Find out who is handling the inheritance case

If a case has already been opened, submit doc­u­ments to the notary han­dling it or to whom it was trans­ferred under the ap­plic­a­ble pro­ce­dure. If not, agree on the per­mit­ted way to apply with a state or private notary. The address of an in­her­it­ed apart­ment does not by itself tell you which office to visit; do not rely on random online di­rec­to­ries.

2. Identify the estate

List the assets and the doc­u­ments for each. Check prop­er­ty ac­quired during mar­riage sep­a­rate­ly: first de­ter­mine the per­son­al share of the spouse who sur­vived the de­ceased; only the de­ceased’s portion enters the estate. If own­er­ship or a share is dis­put­ed, do not enter the full value of the asset into the formula.

3. Confirm the order and acceptance of the inheritance

Build the chain of family re­la­tion­ships from civil-status records, not only from what rel­a­tives say. Check whether each person ac­cept­ed the in­her­i­tance prop­er­ly and on time. If the dead­line is in ques­tion, use the in­her­i­tance ac­cep­tance dead­line cal­cu­la­tor sep­a­rate­ly and read the guide to an ad­di­tion­al dead­line.

4. Map the root positions

Example for a family in Lviv region: one child of the de­ceased is alive. A second child died earlier, leaving two chil­dren, and a third child died earlier, leaving three. If the right of rep­re­sen­ta­tion is con­firmed, there are three root po­si­tions:

• the living child;
• the branch of the second child;
• the branch of the third child.

Each po­si­tion re­ceives 1/3. The two rep­re­sen­ta­tives in the first branch receive 1/6 each, while the three in the second receive 1/9 each. If the es­tab­lished estate is worth 1 800 000 UAH, the in­dica­tive amounts are 600 000 UAH, 300 000 UAH, and 200 000 UAH per person, re­spec­tive­ly. The frac­tions are exact; the amounts depend on cor­rect­ly iden­ti­fy­ing and valuing the estate.

5. Give the notary documents, not only a table

A family diagram can reveal a missing re­la­tion­ship, but it does not prove that re­la­tion­ship. The case re­quires civil-status records, ev­i­dence of ac­cep­tance, asset doc­u­ments, and proof of the death of people through whom the right of rep­re­sen­ta­tion arises. Only after check­ing these ma­te­ri­als can the notary de­ter­mine whether in­her­i­tance cer­tifi­cates may be issued.

6. Formalize any agreement to change the shares separately

If the heirs want to depart from the statu­to­ry cal­cu­la­tion, an oral agree­ment is not enough. Part two of Article 1267 of the Civil Code of Ukraine pro­vides for a written, no­ta­rized agree­ment to change shares in in­her­it­ed real estate or ve­hi­cles. Agree sep­a­rate­ly on the di­vi­sion of spe­cif­ic items in kind, com­pen­sa­tion, and tax con­se­quences.

What to check before filing

Check the se­quence of events. For the right of rep­re­sen­ta­tion, the rel­e­vant rel­a­tive must have died before the in­her­i­tance opened. If they died later, this may be trans­mis­sion. Also verify names, dates of birth, surname changes, and every in­ter­me­di­ate civil-status record: a single dis­crep­an­cy can break the doc­u­ment­ed chain of family re­la­tion­ships.

Ask the notary these ques­tions sep­a­rate­ly:

• which order has ac­tu­al­ly been called to inherit;
• whether the will covers all the prop­er­ty or only part of it;
• whether anyone may be en­ti­tled to a com­pul­so­ry share;
• who filed an ap­pli­ca­tion, who lived with the de­ceased, and whether there are any re­nun­ci­a­tions;
• which prop­er­ty has been doc­u­ment­ed and what portion per­son­al­ly be­longed to the de­ceased;
• whether the doc­u­ments are suf­fi­cient for each rep­re­sen­ta­tion branch;
• whether another in­her­i­tance case has been opened and who is au­tho­rized to handle it.

Do not use an ap­prox­i­mate market price as proof of what belongs to the estate. A value is useful to the cal­cu­la­tor only as a mon­e­tary es­ti­mate; en­ti­tle­ment to a share is de­ter­mined by law and proven legal facts, not by price.

If the file con­tains a promis­so­ry note, agree­ment, or other ev­i­dence of a debt owed by the de­ceased, put the cred­i­tor issue on a sep­a­rate time­line. Iden­ti­fy the spe­cif­ic heir who ac­cept­ed the in­her­i­tance and prove the legal trigger; the prac­ti­cal route is set out in the guide how a cred­i­tor can file claims against heirs. After de­ter­min­ing their share, an heir can sep­a­rate­ly check their own limit of li­a­bil­i­ty for debts, without mixing it with other people’s prop­er­ty.

When to consult a lawyer

Sep­a­rate legal analy­sis is needed when heirs de­scribe the family tree dif­fer­ent­ly, a civil-status record is missing, another person dis­putes the spouses’ joint own­er­ship, or the notary cannot issue a cer­tifi­cate because en­ti­tle­ment has not been proven. The same applies to a will, a com­pul­so­ry share, a missed dead­line, dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion from in­her­i­tance, in­her­i­tance trans­mis­sion, foreign prop­er­ty, or an in­her­i­tance that opened before January 1, 2004.

If missing records prevent you from con­firm­ing a family re­la­tion­ship, first check whether the doc­u­ments can be ob­tained or re­stored, then review the con­di­tions for es­tab­lish­ing the fact of kinship. If you have already re­ceived a written refusal order, sep­a­rate­ly review how to chal­lenge a notary’s refusal.

For a case in Lviv or Lviv region, bring the lawyer copies of the notary’s file, a family diagram, and a sep­a­rate list of dis­put­ed facts. This avoids re­peat­ing the arith­metic and focuses the review on whether the order, ac­cep­tance, right of rep­re­sen­ta­tion, and estate assets are sup­port­ed by ev­i­dence.