Home » Inheritance » Statement of claim to establish the fact of family relations in 2023
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According to Articles 262 and 264 of the Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, an application for the establishment of family relations is considered by the court as a special rather than a lawsuit proceeding.
This is due to the fact that the subject of the case is not a dispute, but confirmation of a fact of legal significance, in this case - paternity, birth registration, adoption, marriage.
The trial process in this case occurs according to an established algorithm with specific requirements regarding the conditions for opening a case, filing and content of the application, as well as the meaning of the decision issued by the judge.
Target
Establishing kinship, first of all, is necessary to confirm the property rights of the applicant when entering into inheritance under the law. In accordance with the provisions of Chapter 63.
Civil Code of the Russian Federation, this may be required by persons included in the current line of inheritance: first parents, spouse and children (grandchildren), then, in case of their refusal or absence - brothers, sisters (nephews), grandfathers, grandmothers and further, starting from uncles and aunts and ending with great-great-grandchildren and nephews.
Confirmation of family relationships is also important in the presence of a will in relation to the legal holders of the obligatory share of the inheritance, namely:
- disabled parents, spouse, children;
- other relatives up to the fifth (inclusive) degree of kinship who were dependent on the deceased.
The fact of a close relationship with the testator can also be beneficial for the successors appointed in the will. The state duty they pay to obtain a certificate of inheritance is two times lower than for other categories of heirs and amounts to 0.3% of the assessed value of the property.
Conditions for trial
The conditions for opening a case for special proceedings are established by Art. 265 Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation. There are only two of them: the impossibility of obtaining documents confirming kinship in any other way and the refusal to restore significant evidence due to their loss or damage.
Based on this, going to court should be preceded by attempts to establish family relationships through the restoration of relevant documents.
If the application for a duplicate birth or marriage certificate is refused by the registry office, and the district archive does not store data that could help the case, the applicant has the right to demand a written statement of this circumstance.
The received certificate will be considered the basis for opening a case along with a written request from the interested person.
If the documents were not initially drawn up for good reasons, the judge may take the application for consideration, ordering a genetic examination and the collection of other significant evidence: testimony of witnesses, extracts from archives, and others.
Drawing up and submitting an application to establish family relations
Due to the nature of the proceedings, the interested party does not file a claim, but an application to establish the fact of relationship in court. It must contain the following information in an orderly and strict form:
- Name of the court.
- Personal details of the applicant (full name and address).
- Full name and place of residence of the interested person.
- The essence of the request (here the purpose of the appeal is succinctly and succinctly formulated, the reason why the relationship requires establishment, the basis for opening the case).
- A brief description of the evidence that, in the applicant’s opinion, may affect the outcome of the proceedings (testimony of witnesses, results of genetic testing, extracts from the house register or personal files of relatives, certificates from archives, etc.).
- List of documents attached to the application.
- Date and signature.
Special proceedings in inheritance cases are carried out by district courts of general jurisdiction, namely the instance at the place of residence of the applicant. It is there that an appeal is submitted to establish the fact of family relations.
In addition to the written application, the applicant provides the court with a list of necessary documents:
- Refusal from the registry office.
- Application to call witnesses.
- Proof.
- Receipt for payment of state duty (300 rubles).
- Copies of the application (according to the number of participants in the case).
- Death certificate of the testator.
- Will (if any).
A court ruling confirming family relations with the deceased is not an independent document. This is only the basis for registering a civil status act with a government agency and obtaining the appropriate certificate necessary for accepting an inheritance.
Sample statement of claim to establish the fact of family relations 2023
Please take a look at the example statement:
Download the application form for establishing the fact of family relations
Evidence base
If there is no official data in the registry office indicating a relationship with the deceased, the interested person has the right to seek to establish the fact of family relations in court.
And for a successful outcome of the case, he will need evidence. These can be documents, official certificates and extracts, as well as photo, video materials, witness statements and others.
In general, they can be divided into indirect and direct.
Circumstantial evidence
Indirect evidence can be called evidence of facts that lead to a conclusion about the reliability of the applicant’s position. In other words, they establish a chain of events or circumstances that preceded, accompanied or followed the subject of the trial.
In the process of establishing kinship, they become:
- video recordings or photographs indicating a family relationship between the now deceased and the applicant;
- testimony of witnesses who do not reliably know about the fact of relationship, but based on what they saw or heard earlier, they made conclusions about its presence/absence;
- letters, personal notes, greeting cards and other visual materials that contain references to a relative.
The judge’s decision is rarely based only on indirect evidence, but their totality makes it possible to clarify the case and serve as an additional basis for confirming or refuting the established fact.
Direct evidence
This category of evidence can establish or refute kinship with the deceased, since it clearly indicates its presence or absence. These include:
- records in public registers or archives;
- data from medical records, documentation of other official institutions;
- testimony of witnesses who have known the family for several years and have reliable information about established family ties;
- results of genetic testing;
- extract from the House Register.
Unambiguous and irrefutable evidence of blood ties is the results of a DNA test. It can be carried out not only with the deceased, but also with his relatives.
In any case, modern methods of biological identification make it possible to obtain a reliable result even without exhuming the body of the testator.
The main thing is that the examination center has the appropriate license, and the intended heir has good grounds for conducting the test.
Establishing a relationship through the court is an extreme but necessary measure in the absence of supporting documentation. The whole procedure is fraught with difficulties and can take a lot of effort, time and money from an unprepared applicant. But, most importantly, the outcome of the case remains unpredictable, which means there is a significant risk that the resources spent will not pay for themselves.
Those who want to simplify their task and bring a positive result as close as possible can contact the lawyers of the website https://ros-nasledstvo.ru for a free consultation and the opportunity for in-depth legal study of the current problem.
FREE CONSULTATIONS are available for you! If you want to solve exactly your problem, then :
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Drawing up a statement of claim to establish the fact of family relations
Home»Establishing kinship»Drawing up a statement of claim to establish the fact of kinship relations
Every citizen may need to prove kinship with a deceased family member, because each of us can become the heir of distant great-grandmothers or second cousins. To establish a family relationship, you need to obtain documents confirming it. But what if they were lost and there is no way to restore them?
Conditions for filing a lawsuit
In order to file a claim to establish the fact of a family relationship, the heir must receive a refusal from the registry office. The applicant for the inheritance applies to the registry office in order to request information proving the relationship. If there are no papers in the archives, the registry office is obliged to issue a refusal to issue documents to the heir.
A waiver from the civil registry office can only be obtained by personal appearance. The applicant receives a notification that the documents were not found by mail, but only a written refusal has legal force.
Remember also about the timing of entering into an inheritance: according to Article 1154 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the period for receiving inherited property is 6 months. However, based on certain factors, this period may be reduced to 3 months. Please also take into account that the documents required to establish a relationship in a pre-trial manner take at least 3-4 weeks to search for.
Collecting documents
So, the registry office issued you a written refusal, you decided to write a statement of claim so that your case would be considered in court. In addition to the text itself, the following documents will be required:
- Receipt for payment of state duty;
- Evidence of relationship;
- Refusal in the form of a certificate from the civil registry office.
The statement also states:
- Addresses of the notary and other interested parties, the plaintiff himself;
- On what grounds is the claim filed?
- Why is it necessary to establish a relationship?
- Personal data of the plaintiff and interested parties.
The application is submitted to the court at the place of residence of the applicant. If real estate or other large property is inherited, the claim is filed at its location.
A sample application for establishing family relations can be found on the information boards of court buildings.
The heir also has the right to use the services of professional lawyers: they will help to competently draw up a claim, advise on evidence and other information that needs to be attached to the text of the statement.
A blank sample can also be found on the Internet. To increase the chance of a successful development of the trial, the heir needs to collect as much evidence as possible.
Evidence base
Evidence of relationship is divided into indirect and direct.
Circumstantial evidence
Indirect evidence of the fact of relationship can serve as:
- Joint photographs;
- Notes, parcels, postcards, telegrams from family members;
- Personalized notebooks for telephone numbers indicating the full names of relatives.
Remember, all these facts confirm the family relationship only indirectly; only on their basis the court will not be able to make a positive decision in the case. However, if you provide a large amount of such evidence, it will play an important role in reaching a verdict.
Direct evidence
- Data written out from house books on cohabitation;
- Information extracted from the personal files of family members (indicating marital status, relationship, etc.);
- Witness's testimonies.
Testimony of witnesses is the most significant fact if the relationship is confirmed in court. It is in your best interests to attract as many witnesses as possible in the case.
All evidence found is attached to the text of the application.
How is an application completed?
The statement of claim is written in a certain form. The following information is filled in in the upper right corner of the sheet:
- Name and location of the court;
- Full name of the applicant, residential address;
- Information about interested parties (names, addresses).
Next, we move directly to the text itself. The plaintiff indicates his full name, the testator's full name and degree of relationship. Now it is necessary to explain the circumstances on the basis of which the applicant went to court (most often - loss of documents). Next, we indicate the reason why it is necessary to establish the fact of relationship. Listed below is all the evidence available to the plaintiff of his relationship with the testator. The final paragraph contains the names of witnesses who can testify. After the text of the application there is an appendix in which the names of the documents attached to the application follow a numbered list.
Sample of a completed application to establish the fact of relationship
Note! This sample has no legal force, all data is fictitious.
To the Shatura District Court of the Moscow Region
Applicant: Vasiliev Nikolay Gennadievich
140700, Shatura, st.
Shkolnaya, 19, apt. 16 Interested person: notary Shvykov Yuri Vladimirovich
140700, Shatura, Marshal Borzov Avenue, 9, apt. 31
- STATEMENT
- ON ESTABLISHING THE FACT OF RELATIVE RELATIONS
- I, Nikolai Gennadievich Vasiliev, am the son of Svetlana Stepanovna Vasilyeva (died in 2014).
- However, the documents confirming our relationship were not preserved, as they were burned in a fire.
- It is not possible to independently restore the documents confirming our relationship, since they were not preserved in the archives of the registry office of the Shatursky district.
- The need arose to enter into an inheritance.
Our family relations are confirmed by personal letters with relatives, as well as witnesses T.M. Smirnova. and Konovalov I.S.
- In accordance with Art. 264-267 Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation I ask:
- To establish that I, Nikolay Gennadievich Vasiliev, am the son of Svetlana Stepanovna Vasilyeva, who died on December 19, 2015.
- Call witnesses Tatyana Mikhailovna Smirnova, Ilya Sergeevich Konovalov.
- Application:
- 1. Certificate issued by the civil registry office;
- 2. Receipt for payment of the duty;
- 3. Petition to call witnesses;
- 4. Texts of personal correspondence;
5. Copies of the application.
Signature: Vasiliev
01.02.2016
The number of copies attached to the application depends on the number of interested parties.
Litigation is a long process that does not always lead to a successful resolution of the issue. A correctly drafted application will increase the chances of a decision being made in your favor.
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Application for establishing family relations
Application for establishing the fact of family relations - download sample |
To confirm the relationship between people, an application is submitted to establish the fact of family relations.
Such an application is submitted in cases where it is not possible to document family ties, the documents are lost, have not been preserved, or erroneous entries have been made in them.
In most cases, it is necessary to establish family relationships with the deceased in order to formalize an inheritance, but, in some cases, it is possible to establish this fact between living people.
Grounds for establishing family relationships
It should be noted that it is impossible to establish family relationships with a wife (husband), stepsons and stepdaughters, stepmother and stepfather. Although relationships with these people can be very close, they are still not related, since there is no fact of common descent from one ancestor.
To establish the fact of family relations through the court, it is necessary to determine the legally significant purpose of this action. That is, why is this necessary and what legal consequences will it have.
For example, family relationships are established in order to receive an inheritance after the death of a relative or to obtain a pension on the death of the breadwinner. It will not be possible to simply establish the fact of a family relationship through the court.
The court will refuse to accept such an application.
Another important reason for going to court is the inability to obtain the appropriate documents in another way, for example, through the registry office.
In some cases, there is no need to establish the fact of a family relationship; it is enough to correct a typo in the documents issued by the civil registry office. Or establish paternity.
How to draw up an application to establish the fact of a family relationship
Before drawing up an application to establish the fact of a relationship, it is necessary to obtain documents confirming the impossibility of establishing the fact of relationship in any other way.
To do this, appropriate applications are submitted to the registry office, archives and other authorities. where relevant documents can be stored. Only after receiving official written refusals is an application to the court drawn up.
Note! |
Applications to the registry office |
In the application to establish the fact of a family relationship, you must indicate with whom you want to establish a relationship, who you are related to each other. If the degree of relationship is distant, you need to describe in detail the entire chain of family ties. The application indicates the purpose of going to court, why the relationship is being established, and what consequences the establishment of a legal fact will have.
The application must be accompanied by documents directly or indirectly confirming the relationship.
It is also possible to present correspondence, greeting cards and telegrams, joint photographs, from the content of which it will be clear that there is a family connection between people.
It is allowed to call witnesses who can confirm the existence of family relationships and the degree of relationship. In this case, witnesses will have to indicate the source of their knowledge.
Note! |
Application to call witnesses |
Filing an application to court
An application to establish the fact of a family relationship is submitted to the district (city) court at the applicant’s place of residence. When submitting an application, you must pay a state fee.
The current amount of state duty payment today: |
state fee to court |
Sample application for establishing family relations
- We offer a sample application to establish the fact of a family relationship, taking into account the latest changes in current legislation.
- In ______________________________ (name of court) Applicant: _______________________ (full name, address) Interested person: ___________
- (full name, address)
Application for establishing family relations
I, _________ (full name) and _________ (full name) are relatives of _________ (indicate the degree of relationship). However, documents confirming our relationship have not been preserved due to _________ (specify the reason). It is not possible to independently restore documents confirming our relationship due to _________ (specify the reason).
Currently, there is a need to _________ (indicate the reasons for the need to establish the fact of relationship). Our family relationship is confirmed by _________ (give evidence confirming the existence of a family relationship, full names of witnesses).
Based on the above, guided by Articles 131-132, 264-267 of the Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation,
Ask:
- Establish that I, _________ (full name, date of birth), am _________ (indicate the degree of relationship) _________ (full name, date of birth).
List of documents attached to the application (copies according to the number of persons participating in the case):
- Copy of application
- Document confirming payment of state duty
- Evidence confirming the existence of this legal fact (documents, acts, letters of a business and personal nature containing information about family relationships)
- Evidence confirming the impossibility of the applicant obtaining the appropriate documents or the impossibility of restoring lost documents (certificate from the civil registry office, etc.)
- Date of application “___”_________ ____ Signature _______
- Download a sample application:
- Application to establish the fact of family relations
Questions about drawing up an application for establishing kinship
How many people (witnesses) are needed to confirm a relationship?
Usually, as many witnesses are invited to a court hearing as necessary to establish all the circumstances of the case. If you have witnesses who know the whole situation completely, can tell everything in detail over a long period of time and answer all the questions of the court, then 2 people will be enough.
It is necessary to establish the relationship between me and my son (different spellings appeared in the documents for the common surname). Can this case be considered without my presence?
It is necessary to provide evidence to the court that there is a family relationship between you. Usually, in the absence of documents reliably confirming clerical errors, witnesses are invited to the court.
You can write an application to consider the case without you, but in such cases it is better to be present to answer the judge’s questions.
If the issue is simple, the case will be reviewed in a few minutes; if questions arise, you can quickly resolve them by providing the necessary evidence or explaining the situation.
What documents must be submitted to the court to establish the degree of relationship? I need to submit a document to the migration service, a court decision that my grandson is my grandson. And how much do you need to pay the state fee?
In this case, it is necessary to prove the relationship between the grandmother and the child’s parent, as well as between the parent and the child himself. Obviously, such documents will be birth certificates.
If there are typos in any of these documents, you need to submit other documents (passport, employment, marriage certificate, etc.) where the data is recorded correctly. In addition, family relationships can be confirmed by witness testimony.
The state fee when filing an application to establish the fact of family relations in 2023 is 300 rubles.
Tell me, if I want to prove that I am the grandson of my grandmother, what degree of relationship should I indicate?
Application to establish the fact of family relations
Cases when a person has to confirm kinship and file an application in court to establish the fact of kinship are actually not rare.
And drawing up such a document yourself is not at all difficult if you have an idea of the general rules for preparing statements about establishing a fact of legal significance. Establishing a family relationship will be necessary to register an inheritance, a survivor's pension, or receive other benefits based on the fact of kinship between people.
Family relationships are established using documents: passport, birth certificate, marriage certificate, divorce certificate, etc. If there are typos and errors in the documents of the civil registry office, you can submit an application to the court to correct the registration record.
However, it is not always possible to document family relationships. If the fact of a family relationship is necessary for some one-time action, it is better to fill out an application using this sample.
It is also possible to confirm the fact of a family relationship in relation to a person who has already died.
Download sample:
Application to establish the fact of family relations
Application example
658031, p. Talmenka, st. Zvenigorodskaya, 234 Interested person: Voropaev Vasily Vyacheslavovich 658031, p. Talmenka, st. Dorozhnaya, 32 My mother, Svetlana Aleksandrovna Zarinova, died on November 21, 2023. I am her natural son, she has no other children. My father and I, Vasily Vyacheslavovich Voropaev, are her direct heirs by law. When contacting a notary for the purpose of dividing the inheritance, it was discovered that I had lost my birth certificate, and I did not have other documents on kinship. I applied to the registry office of the Talmensky district, but the employees of this organization refused to issue me a duplicate, since the documents were from the period of my birth (1979) were not preserved due to fire. The fact of family relations can be confirmed by the following persons: Anna Sergeevna Zavyalova, a secondary school teacher (Talmenka village, Druzhny lane, 13), my uncle, Andrey Vyacheslavovich Voropaev (Talmenka village, Pobedy St., 2). Family relationships can be confirmed by medical documents: an extract from the Maternity Hospital, my outpatient card.
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How to correctly write an application to establish the fact of a family relationship
When preparing documents, for example, on accepting an inheritance, it may be necessary to confirm your relationship with the deceased. In this case, you need to submit an application to establish the fact of a family relationship. Such requests often go to court when other official documents that confirm the relationship cannot be provided to the notary for some reason. To do this, you need to fill out a special form - an example of it will be presented below.
What is kinship and degree of kinship
Kinship is a connection between certain people who have common ancestors. In addition, kinship can be confirmed by a marriage certificate, although the spouses do not have a common ancestor. In this case, it will not be possible to establish the degree of relationship.
The degree of relationship is established by counting the number of births between certain people. For example, there were two births between a grandson and grandfather, therefore the degree of relationship here is second.
It is also necessary to take into account that there are two types of kinship:
- blood relations;
- heterogeneous kinship.
You need to be especially careful when preparing documents. It is important to indicate the relationship correctly. For example, in the column “Degree of relationship” you need to enter not “mother”, but “mother”, not “father, but “father”, and so on.
It is also necessary to indicate your full name, not initials.
Grounds for establishing the fact of relationship
Most often, the need to establish a connection between the deceased and the person who submits the application arises in cases of acceptance of inheritance. Kinship is a connection between people that is based on common ancestors. Establishing a relationship is quite simple - the main thing is to find at least some documents that can confirm it. Photo and video materials are also suitable.
Be careful: although the husband and wife are relatives, it is impossible to establish their relationship, because they do not have common ancestors. Many people make a similar mistake when filling out documents.
Degree helps determine relationship. For example, between father and son there is 1st degree of relationship. Therefore, as stated above, the degree is determined by the number of births that separate relatives.
To file an application to establish the fact of a family relationship, you must clearly define the purpose that made you resort to this procedure. As already mentioned, most often the legal purpose is the acceptance of an inheritance.
How to make an application
It is important to consider that before submitting an application to establish the fact of a family relationship, you need to make sure that there are no other opportunities to establish a connection.
To do this, you first need to go to the archives and the registry office - important documents that can help you may also be stored there.
When these structures refuse you, only then is it time to think about going to court.
First of all, you need to indicate in the application with whom you want to establish a relationship, and who you are related to the deceased. For example: “I am Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov’s son.” In the case where the family relationship is not close, you need to draw a so-called chain of family connections.
Establishing the fact of kinship relations in court, how to prove and establish kinship with the deceased + application and documents confirming kinship ties
- Many people in life have a need to establish the fact of family relationships.
- For example, a person claims an inheritance, but he does not have documents confirming family ties with the deceased person or with other members of his family.
- Then the problem will be solved by filing an application to establish the fact of relationship with the deceased, submitted to the court.
- In order to go to court with an application, the subject of which will be the establishment of kinship for receiving an inheritance, a necessary condition is the impossibility of obtaining the relevant information through the registry office.
- It’s good when all relatives are located in a straight line.
- However, when it is necessary to prove the relationship between cousins or second cousins, then the situation is much more complicated.
- It is necessary to collect all possible documents on relatives of each line.
- For example, you may need birth certificates from fathers and mothers, grandparents, and cousins.
In addition, marriage certificates of common relatives can serve as evidence. The testimony of witnesses should also not be discounted.
Establishing paternity in court also fully falls under the recognition of family relationships. It is necessary, first of all, for the subsequent award of alimony.
When it is necessary to confirm kinship with the deceased, it is advisable to meet the six-month deadline. This is the period allotted for accepting an inheritance. Otherwise, litigation may drag on for a long time.
Features of establishing actual family ties
- Since this category of cases should be considered as a special proceeding, an application is submitted to establish the fact of paternity and family relations.
- The parties to it will be the initiator of confirmation of these circumstances and interested parties.
- For example, when the dispute is about the property of the deceased, then the remaining heirs of one or another line will act as such.
- If establishing a relationship is necessary for other reasons, then the people or organizations for which this information will be required are indicated.
A person can go to court at the address of his residence. However, when it comes to inheriting property or land, there is a dispute about the right, then a statement of claim is filed in the court at the place of their location.
This is where the rule of exclusive jurisdiction comes into play.
When a dispute arises about the right, a statement of claim is filed for recognition of kinship, a sample can be downloaded below.
How to fill out an application and prove your relationship with a deceased person
- Anyone who needs it can see the form for filling out this document below.
- The claim to confirm kinship for accepting an inheritance is conventionally divided into several blocks.
- The introductory part indicates:
- name of the court;
- information about the applicant;
- information about interested parties;
- the title of the application itself;
- history of going to court;
- At the end, please establish a relationship.
The main block is devoted to the description of circumstances confirming kinship between people. Here you can also refer to witnesses who can tell in detail about the relationship between the applicant and the deceased person that is relevant to the case.
Next, you should write why you need to prove family ties and the reasons why this could not be done in another way.
At the end of the application, you need to ask the court to certify that the person is a relative of the applicant and indicate who it is. In this case, you must remember to indicate the initials of both people, as well as the exact degree of relationship.
What documents confirm the fact of relationship with close and distant relatives?
Documents to confirm relationship include:
- birth and marriage certificates, as well as name change certificates;
- passport records confirming marriage or presence of children;
- court decisions on adoption, adoption or other recognition of family ties;
- certificates issued by the MFC, registry office or other institution with access to the relevant archival data.
If any of the documents was lost or missing for other reasons, you need to contact the following organizations:
- At the MFC or Civil Registry Office: based on the available records, they will provide a certificate or a duplicate of the certificate.
- To the city archive: if the requested documents were issued a long time ago, then they could be transferred from the responsible institution to the archive.
There are situations when the available evidence is not enough to establish a relationship, and it is not possible to find the lost evidence. In this case, you should go to court with the available evidence.
How additional evidence of family relationships is also considered in court:
- testimony of witnesses, common relatives;
- general family photographs;
- official family tree;
- other indirect evidence of family ties.
Documents confirming the relationship between several people are of great practical importance.
They are of great value, since they are mandatory in some cases and are used as evidence in the event of disputes about property and rights. If they are lost, you can try to restore them.
Application form for establishing the fact of family relations with the deceased
Koptevsky District Court of Moscow
125130, Moscow, st. Zoe and Alexandra Kosmodemyanskikh, 31, building 2
Applicant: Kirilova Anna Evgenievna
Moscow, st. Solnechnaya, 15, apt. 8
Interested parties: 7 notary office of Moscow
Moscow, st. Mashinostroiteley, 15, building 2
Statement
on establishing kinship for accepting inheritance
I, Kirilova Anna Evgenievna (born December 17, 1974) live in the capital at the address st. Solnechnaya, 15, apt. 8. On November 1, 2018, my father, Evgeniy Yuryevich Stepanov (born November 1, 1950), died. He lived in Moscow at the address: Classic Lane, 21, apt. 5.
I submitted documents to Moscow notary office No. 7 in order to register an inheritance for an apartment that belonged to my father, but was refused.
It was caused by an incorrect entry about my father on my birth certificate. In this document he is listed as Evgeniy Viktorovich Stepanov.
To make changes to the vital record, I had to apply to my place of birth - the village of Vinogradny, Kuibyshev region. However, no archival data was preserved there. Therefore, I have to confirm the fact of my relationship with my father through the court.
Evidence of kinship is confirmed by the marriage certificate between my mother, Anastasia Dmitrievna Kirilova and father, Evgeniy Yuryevich Stepanov. In addition, the title documents for real estate are issued specifically to Evgeniy Yuryevich Stepanov.
- The fact of family ties between me and Evgeniy Yuryevich Stepanov can be confirmed by witnesses: my mother is Anastasia Dmitrievna; Father’s sister – Svetlana Yuryevna Stepanova.
- Based on the above, and guided by articles 264-267 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation
- I ask the court:
To establish that I, Anna Evgenievna Kirilova (born 12/17/1974) am the natural daughter of Evgeniy Yuryevich Stepanov (born 11/01/1950) and who died on 11/01/2018.
- Application:
- 1) Bank receipt for payment of state duty.
- 2) A copy of the applicant's birth certificate.
3) A copy of the death certificate of Stepanov E. Yu.
4) A copy of a letter from the 7th notary office in Moscow about the impossibility of registering an inheritance.
5) Evidence of the impossibility of making changes to the birth certificate.
Applicant: Kirilova A. E.
Download a sample application for establishing kinship
It is often difficult to legally confirm the existence of family relationships between members of the same family. This is due to the lack of documents and inaccurate entries in them.
And if this problem cannot be solved in any other way, you have to go to court. To do this, submit an application to confirm family ties. It is necessary when entering into an inheritance or applying for a pension in the event of the loss of a breadwinner.
To file a competent claim in court, you should be guided by these rules:
- The head of the application indicates one or more interested parties (there are no defendants in such cases). These are those citizens and institutions to whom it is required to confirm family ties.
- Be sure to write why it is necessary to establish a relationship.
- The reasons why it is impossible to confirm a relationship with a relative without a trial are specified separately.
- Any evidence of a relationship within the same family may be suitable.
- If a man recognized the child during his lifetime, but did not have time to draw up the documents at the registry office, the fact of recognition of paternity is established.
Based on the results of consideration of the application, the court makes a decision that confirms the fact of relationship with a specific person. Based on it, further actions are taken (application to a notary, to the social security authority).
Application to establish the fact of family relations
5/5 (2)
The statement of relationship can be divided into several parts.
The introductory part contains:
- Name of the judicial authority;
- Information about the applicant;
- Information about interested parties;
- Title of the application;
- The essence of the appeal;
- Request to establish family relationships.
- Main part
- The main part is devoted to the narration of circumstances that confirm the existence of family relationships between citizens.
- Here you can point to witness statements that can tell in detail about the relationship between the applicant and the deceased person that is important to the case.
- Afterwards, it should be noted why it is necessary to confirm family relationships and the reasons why this could not be done in another way.
- Final part
In the final part of the application, you need to ask the court to certify the fact that the citizen is a relative of the applicant and indicate who exactly. In this case, it is important to indicate the full name of both citizens, as well as the specific degree of relationship.
- Attention! See an example of a statement to establish the fact of a family relationship:
- To the Talmensky District Court of the Altai Territory
- Applicant: Voropaev Artem Vasilievich
658031, p. Talmenka, st. Zvenigorodskaya, 234
Interested person: Voropaev Vasily Vyacheslavovich
658031, p. Talmenka, st. Dorozhnaya, 32
STATEMENT FOR ESTABLISHING THE FACT OF RELATIVE RELATIONS
My mother, Svetlana Aleksandrovna Zarinova, died on November 21, 2023. I am her own son, she has no other children. My father and I, Vasily Vyacheslavovich Voropaev, are her direct heirs by law. When contacting a notary for the purpose of dividing the inheritance, it was discovered that I had lost my birth certificate, and I did not have other documents about kinship.
I applied to the registry office of the Talmensky district, but the employees of this organization refused to issue me a duplicate, since the documents from the period of my birth (1979) were not preserved due to the fire.
The fact of family relations can be confirmed by the following persons: Anna Sergeevna Zavyalova, a secondary school teacher (Talmenka village, Druzhny lane, 13), my uncle, Andrey Vyacheslavovich Voropaev (Talmenka village, Pobedy St., 2).
Family relationships can be confirmed by medical documents: an extract from the Maternity Hospital, my outpatient card.
- The fact of establishing family relations is necessary for entering into inheritance.
- Guided by Article 264 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation,
- Ask:
Application to establish the fact of family relations: confirmation of relationship in court
Establishing a family relationship is often required to acquire the rights of an heir or determine paternity, but sometimes confirmation of a family relationship is also necessary for relatives living together. When documents are damaged or lost that cannot be restored, family members can prove their relationship through court proceedings.
The fact of consanguinity is established in accordance with the Civil Procedure Code. How to prove a relationship if a birth certificate is lost? Under what conditions is the establishment of relationship carried out during the judicial process and what evidence is needed to confirm it?
Why establish the fact of a family relationship?
Filing a claim in court to determine whether persons are relatives is possible only if confirmation of the fact of relationship has legal significance. If the necessary evidence can be obtained in another way, the application will not be accepted.
The existence of a family relationship must be confirmed in the following situations:
- to acquire rights by the heir;
- to clarify nationality in case of emigration;
- to award alimony payments;
- for burial in a family crypt or the grave of a relative;
- in other situations provided for by law.
Sample statement of claim regarding the establishment of the fact of family relations
An application submitted to a judicial authority to determine the existence of a blood relationship consists of several main sections. First, the applicant should write the name of the institution, his last name, first name and patronymic, residential address and contact information. Next is the title of the document.
Then the main part begins, which sets out the facts proving the relationship of these citizens.
The plaintiff needs to write down the details of the person with whom he wants to confirm the family relationship, as well as who he is communicating with.
If it is necessary to establish a relationship with a distant relative, the applicant must list all common relatives. Witnesses, if any, can be included in this part of the document.
In addition, the purpose of recognizing blood ties and the reasons why it was not possible to prove the fact of family relations by other legal means are noted. After the above information, the plaintiff asks to consider the case and establish a relationship with the specified person.
A statement establishing the fact of a family relationship is presented below. You can view a completed sample petition in the court office.
At the end, additional materials attached to the case are indicated. The applicant also puts the date the document was written and his signature. In addition to the statement of claim, the citizen must pay a state fee and prepare the following documentation:
- passport;
- a document from the civil registry office, which indicates that the applicant actually applied to restore the documents;
- receipt of payment of the duty;
- papers and other evidence confirming relationship.
Documents and other evidence confirming relationship
Recognition and establishment of family ties is carried out taking into account the provisions of civil law. The fact of relationship can be established if appropriate documents are available. The more papers and evidence the plaintiff can collect, the greater his chances of winning the case. A detailed list of the various evidence is presented in the table.
Direct evidence | Circumstantial evidence |
Birth and death certificates, documents confirming registration or divorce | Photos |
Title documentation | Parcels, letters, telegrams |
Information from your place of study, work, military service or stay in a correctional facility | Sound and video recordings |
Certificates, medical records, medical records, registration books | Postcards and notes |
Papers from the archives | Personal diaries |
Extracts from house books or from personal files of family members, a certificate stating that citizens live or have lived together | Notebooks with phone numbers |
Testimony of witnesses is quite strong evidence; the more friends and relatives confirm the relationship, the higher the chances of a positive outcome of the case | Other miscellaneous evidentiary materials |
What to do if there are no documents confirming relationship? In cases where there is neither a birth certificate nor other supporting documents and witnesses, a DNA test will be the solution.
Of course, not every defendant will agree to undergo a medical examination, but the court may regard such behavior as evidence that the plaintiff is right. As practice shows, this issue most often concerns the need to establish paternity and award alimony payments.
A special category of cases includes cases where it is necessary to determine whether the plaintiff is related to a deceased relative or between deceased people. In the absence of documentary or other evidence, exhumation is carried out and the presence of a blood connection is established or denied using a DNA test.
Procedure for the applicant when filing a claim
Confirmation of blood ties can be carried out both in court and in pre-trial proceedings. Before applying to establish the fact of a family relationship, the applicant must submit a request and receive a written response from the registry office; without an official response from the institution, the claim will simply not be accepted.
If the registry office finds the necessary documentation in the archives and provides official information proving blood ties with a brother, sister, father, mother or other relative, there will be no need to go to court. In addition, as mentioned above, relationship can also be proven through DNA analysis.
To obtain a waiver from the civil registry office, the applicant must visit it in person. After clarifying the circumstances, the government agency issues an official response by sending it by mail.
Having received a refusal from the registry office, the plaintiff should contact the district court at his place of residence.
Cases to establish family relationships are considered in a special proceeding (we recommend reading: sample statement of claim to establish paternity).
Based on the provisions of Article 154 of the Civil Procedure Code, consideration of the application by the court can last for two months. The outcome of the case directly depends on the evidence provided by the applicant and its reliability.
During the trial it will be established:
- is there really a fact of blood ties between these persons;
- what rights and obligations will the plaintiff receive if the court decides positively?
In the case where the plaintiff needs to receive a document from the civil registry office, a positive decision on the actual relationship will not be enough and will have to go to court again. For example, to establish the fact of birth, a court verdict will be required on the need to draw up a vital record.
As for the statute of limitations for establishing kinship, there is none, but one should take into account the statute of limitations for the reason why it was necessary to find out whether the indicated persons are relatives.
If the plaintiff decides to petition for the purpose of awarding alimony payments, this can be done before the child comes of age, when assuming the rights of an heir - before the expiration of a 6-month period, and when challenging the fact that someone has become the owner of the inheritance, no later than 10 years from the date his discoveries.