Only special life circumstances can force a person who has not previously looked into the future to resort to drawing up a will. The law provides for the preparation of such a document in special conditions. And in the event of the opening of the inheritance, it gains legal force.
Extraordinary circumstances
The possibility of leaving a testamentary disposition while in emergency circumstances is provided for by law. However, not any circumstance that, in your opinion, goes beyond the ordinary, can be recognized by the court as extraordinary, but only threatening the life of a citizen.
Such circumstances may mean:
- finding a citizen in places of military operations;
- taking part in counter-terrorism operations;
- getting a citizen injured, regardless of his stay in the hospital;
- the citizen is in serious condition (on his deathbed) due to illness, regardless of where the patient is at the time of expression of will (at home or in the hospital);
- being at the epicenter of natural disasters (floods, hurricane, fire, etc.);
- being on a ship in distress.
Document processing procedure
In order for a will made in emergency circumstances to be subsequently recognized as legally lawful and enforceable, certain conditions must be met:
- A direct indication in the text of the document that this is the last will of the citizen.
- The presence of at least two uninterested witnesses during the preparation of the document. The law does not prohibit the presence of more witnesses at the request of the testator.
- Absolute lack of opportunities to make and certify a will in accordance with the requirements of the law.
The law does not establish clear guidelines on the content of the document, but the essence of the document should be very clear.
The will form in emergency circumstances is written. The document must be drawn up and signed by the testator with his own hand.
It is important to indicate in the text of the document the date of its preparation, the list of the bequest of property and money, the data of the heirs and witnesses present and to seal the document with the signature of the testator and witnesses.
Preservation of the validity of a will after past emergency
The law also provides for cases when the onset of fatal consequences pass the originator of the testator. If a citizen successfully survived the extreme events of his life, then after a month from the moment of the above circumstances, a will made in emergency circumstances will lose its force.
To preserve the last will, a citizen must draw up a notarized document. For this, the law provides, as already mentioned, a one-month period.
Of course, at the discretion of the testator can completely change the text of the new testamentary disposition. 
Recognition of the will by the court
It is possible that the person who made the will in extreme circumstances, will die.
The written execution of the last will left by him is transferred to the hands of the heirs, but the manuscript document itself is not subject to unconditional execution. 
To recognize the legality of the will in emergency circumstances, the heirs will have to go to court. In order to be able to inherit, it is necessary to obtain an appropriate court decision.
A will drawn up in emergency circumstances can be executed only after being recognized as a legal document in a court proceeding.
All persons interested in its execution (the heirs indicated in the will) have the right to apply to the court with a statement on the recognition of the will to be executed.
The right to appeal to the court is reserved for the heirs during the period established by law for acceptance of the inheritance (6 months). The countdown is carried out from the moment of the testator’s death or his death in court.
If the deadline for submitting the application is missed, the interested person will have to apply for its restoration.
When considering such applications, the plaintiff is obliged to prove the fact that the will was made by the deceased in circumstances classified by law as extraordinary. 
To satisfy the stated requirements, testimonies of persons who participated in the preparation of the document (witnesses indicated in the will and other citizens who know the details of the preparation) will be of great importance.
The absence of living witnesses of the proved circumstances will somewhat complicate the process. In this case, it is possible to apply documentary evidence that the deceased testator during the period when the document was drawn up was really in the center of emergency events (for example, he participated in hostilities).
Consequences of Testament Recognition
- Recognition by a court of a will gives the right to inherit the property and cash deposits of the deceased in accordance with the text of the document by the heirs included in the will.
- Recognition of a testamentary document drawn up in extraordinary circumstances does not cancel the requirement of the law on the allocation of an obligatory share in the inheritance of the deceased.
In extreme situations, when the bill goes for minutes, there is no one to warn the compiler about the existence of Article 1149 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
However, ignorance of the law does not exempt from the implementation of its norms.
All heirs, classified by law as mandatory, have the right to claim a share in the compiler’s inheritance, regardless of the will of the deceased and the information in the will made in extraordinary circumstances.
Why can recognition be denied?
In some cases, the arguments presented by the plaintiffs will be deemed insufficient by the court to recognize the will in emergency circumstances.
For example, a document miraculously emerged from the epicenter of hostilities or from the ashes after a wildfire, where not a single participant in these events survived, would cause reasonable doubts about its authenticity.
A testament in emergency circumstances, drawn up by a soldier while in the field of military operations and who died during these operations, may be deemed not to be executed, since in the places of deployment of the troops the unit commander has the right to certify such a document. It will take a long time to prove that this was not possible, since the law defines a list of persons authorized to certify such orders of the testators.
Finally
In order to avoid problems with inheritance, it is necessary to draw up your will in advance in accordance with the requirements of the law (at the notary public) before leaving for places of increased danger to life.