Inherited Debts: When a Creditor May Lose the Right to Claim Against Heirs

A debtor’s death does not necessarily mean the termination of their financial obligations. Ukrainian law provides a mechanism for the transfer of debts to heirs, while simultaneously imposing rather strict time limits on creditors seeking to protect their rights. These deadlines are increasingly becoming the subject of judicial disputes, as missing them may effectively deprive a creditor of any opportunity to recover the debt.

Following the amendments to the Civil Code of Ukraine adopted in 2018, the period for a creditor to present claims against heirs was reduced from one year to six months. Under Article 1281 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, a creditor must submit claims no later than six months from the date on which an heir obtains a certificate of inheritance rights to all or part of the inherited property.

At first glance, this legislative framework appears straightforward. In practice, however, it gives rise to several significant issues.

First, the law does not establish any time limit within which an heir must formalize their inheritance rights. Moreover, the absence of a certificate of inheritance does not deprive a person of their status as an heir. This creates an obvious imbalance of interests, as heirs may postpone the formal registration of inheritance for years, while creditors remain uncertain about the commencement of the six-month period. An additional complication concerns whether obtaining a certificate for any portion of the inherited property is sufficient to trigger the time limit or whether it applies only to property directly connected with the deceased's debt obligations.

In its judgment of 8 October 2025 in case No. 175/1976/23, the Supreme Court adopted a rather unequivocal position. The Court concluded that the six-month period begins to run from the moment an heir receives a certificate of inheritance rights to any part of the inherited property. The creditor's argument that the period could not commence until all inherited property, including mortgaged assets, had been formally registered was rejected. In practical terms, this means that creditors must act proactively and cannot rely on the assumption that the absence of formal registration of certain inherited assets extends the time limit for presenting their claims.

At the same time, judicial practice highlights another important aspect of the application of Article 1281 of the Civil Code of Ukraine.

Part three of this article establishes a special mechanism for protecting creditors in situations where they neither knew nor could have known about the acceptance of inheritance or the issuance of a certificate of inheritance rights to an heir. In such circumstances, the six-month period begins on the day when the creditor became aware or should have become aware of the relevant facts. The issue of a creditor's awareness has recently acquired particular significance. In its judgment of 1 April 2026 in case No. 932/4622/22, the Supreme Court emphasized that the six-month period may commence not from the formal registration of inheritance rights but from the moment the creditor became aware of the opening of the inheritance and its acceptance by an heir. In that specific case, the triggering event was the bank's receipt of a copy of an appeal filed by the heir, which disclosed the relevant circumstances.

In other words, the commencement of the preclusive period may depend solely on the creditor obtaining information about the existence of heirs and their acceptance of the inheritance.

Particular attention should also be paid to another fundamental position of the Supreme Court. The six-month period established by Article 1281 of the Civil Code of Ukraine is not a statute of limitations. Rather, it is a preclusive period, the expiration of which extinguishes the creditor's substantive right of claim itself. It cannot be renewed, interrupted, or circumvented through the application of general limitation rules. Consequently, in disputes concerning the recovery of debts from heirs, courts must primarily establish two key issues: when the creditor became aware of the acceptance of inheritance and whether the creditor took the necessary actions to assert their claims within the statutory period.

The contemporary case law of the Supreme Court demonstrates an effort to strike a fair balance between the interests of creditors and heirs. Nevertheless, certain approaches to determining the commencement of the six-month period remain inconsistent. In some cases, the decisive factor is the issuance of a certificate concerning any part of the inherited property; in others, it is the creditor's actual knowledge of the acceptance of inheritance.