PrivatBank denied the heir access to 78,528 hryvnias from the deceased mother's accounts—here's the court's decision.

A man filed a request with PrivatBank for the payment of part of the deposits due to his deceased mother, amounting to 78,528 hryvnias, along with the necessary documentation for the disbursement of these funds. However, the bank refused him since he is not a client of theirs, and they declined to transfer the funds to another bank. This information is detailed in the decision of the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv, published on November 8, 2024.

After his mother's death, the man received a certificate of inheritance rights according to the will. Based on this certificate, he obtained ownership rights to the deposit amounts with the appropriate interest and accrued compensation, which are held in accounts opened at JSC "PrivatBank" and card accounts belonging to the deceased, as per the statement issued by JSC "PrivatBank" on June 14, 2019. The total amount of funds in the deceased's accounts was 78,528 hryvnias and 79 dollars.

On July 16, 2020, the man submitted a request to JSC "PrivatBank" for the payment of part of his mother's deposits amounting to 78,528 hryvnias, along with the necessary documentation for the disbursement of these funds. However, the bank employees denied him the payment, citing that he is not a client of the bank, and they refused to transfer the funds to another bank.

"The payment of inheritance is one of the cases of fund disbursement that occurs without a directive. Therefore, the bank fulfills its obligation to pay the funds to the heir by transferring the funds from the account belonging to the deceased to the heir's account opened at the bank. This method of fulfilling the obligation to pay inheritance fully complies with the legislation of Ukraine," - stated PrivatBank.

What did the court decide?

The court granted the man's claim. Funds owed to him under the inheritance rights certificate will be collected from the joint-stock commercial bank "PrivatBank" in his favor, including the deposit amount of 66,281 hryvnias under the agreement dated March 1, 2016; a deposit amount of 6,251 hryvnias under the agreement dated October 25, 2018; a deposit amount of 473 hryvnias under the agreement dated August 23, 2013; a deposit amount of 5,471 hryvnias under the agreement dated August 28, 2015; and a deposit amount of 50 hryvnias under the agreement dated February 27, 2015. Additionally, the bank will be required to pay 3% annual interest, totaling 3,314 hryvnias, along with inflation losses amounting to 10,391 hryvnias.

"Thus, the bank's refusal to comply with the plaintiff's request regarding the payment of amounts due to him under the deposit agreement indicates the bank's failure to meet its obligations and leads to liability as stipulated by law, in the form of paying inflation indexation and 3% annual interest on the overdue amount, from the day of the request for payment until the actual date of payment," - emphasized the court.