Daughter Who Let Mother Freeze Denied Inheritance

A resident of Sverdlovsk Oblast, who learned of her mother«s death ten months later, tried to claim her inheritance through the court. She filed a petition with the Tavdinsky District Court in October 2025, seeking to restore the six-month deadline for accepting the inheritance. Her mother died in December 2024, leaving a residential house, two land plots, and a cash deposit of about 1.5 million rubles ($16,700 at current rates).

During the court hearings, it emerged that the daughter had not communicated with her mother for years, and the elderly woman had frozen to death in her own home.

«The woman lived in the same city as her mother, but had not communicated with her for years, did not visit her, and did not care for her. The death of the 84-year-old woman was discovered by a neighbor who periodically visited the elderly lady. The man became alarmed when he lost sight of the neighbor, her house was locked from the inside, and there were no signs of life. Police officers discovered the woman«s body in the house. The cause of death was hypothermia; the pensioner froze in an unheated house,» the press service of the Sverdlovsk courts reported.

Even the funeral was paid for by the state.

The court did not allow the daughter to claim the inheritance after the statutory deadlines had expired. As a close relative, the daughter should have shown interest in her mother«s well-being and health.

«Family relationships imply not only the possibility of filing property claims for inheritance, but also showing attention to the deceased during their lifetime,» the court emphasized.

The fact that the daughter did not know about her mother«s death was not recognized as a valid reason for missing the deadline for accepting the inheritance. The claim was rejected.

Read about how relatives of the former director of a large plant in Yekaterinburg are dividing his inheritance with fights. Earlier, we reported on how the children of an oligarch from Yekaterinburg are searching for their father«s billion-ruble inheritance in Russia and France.

And a lawyer explained how to protect yourself when dividing an inheritance.