Revoking the will

For the Bulgarian court, a will is a unilateral act of disposing of property for the benefit of a certain person after death. The principle is that any person can dispose of property without limitation through a will. Insofar as inheritance rights of other persons are affected through wills, the law protects them only partially and for a limited circle of heirs who are recognized as having the right to a reserved part. The practice distinguishes between a universal will and a will, as the former has as its object all or a fractional part of the testator's entire property, understood as a set of property rights and obligations that do not end with his death, while the latter represents a disposition of a separate object from this property. Strict requirements apply regarding the validity of wills. The requirement of the law regarding the three elements - date, content and signature, is equivalent to the formal reality of the will. Revoking a will is also a formal act, and the court requires that it be done with a new will or with a notarial deed, or with a subsequent will that contains provisions incompatible with the old ones. Apart from that, the covenant can also be revoked by alienating the thing. When disputing the authenticity of the will or compliance with its form, the party who uses the document should conduct the main proof, i.e. establish in an indisputable way that the will was written and signed by the person named as its author.

Succession by will takes precedence over succession by law.

Only if the will is invalid and not capable of giving rise to an action, or the beneficiary of the will renounces the inheritance, the legal heirs are called to inherit.

A will may be expressly revoked by a new will or by a notarial deed in which the testator expressly states that he revokes all or part of his previous dispositions.

A subsequent will which does not expressly revoke the earlier one only revokes those provisions therein which are inconsistent with the new ones.

A will which is revoked by a subsequent one remains revoked even if the subsequent will does not take effect because the established heir or legatee dies before the testator or proves unworthy or renounces the inheritance or the will.

The alienation, in whole or in part, of a thing bequeathed revokes the covenant as to what is alienated, even when the thing is reacquired by the testator, or when the alienation is annulled for reasons other than a defect in the consent.

The same applies when the testator reworked or changed the bequeathed thing so that it lost its former form and purpose.

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Attorney at law Iuila Danova

#3, Dobrotica Str., Varna, Bulgaria

Mob: +359 895 64 59 40

WWW: advokatvarna.com

Email: iulia.danova@abv.bg