Hungarian man reported his ex-wife dead twice to get her money

Mónika Boldvári moved abroad in 1996. Her husband reported her dead for the first time in 2001, and then again in 2005. The woman found out that she had been pronounced dead in 2009.

By law, if someone disappears and no information is known about the person for 5 years, they can be pronounced dead. In order to do that, a court order is required. This law serves those who wish to remarry or want to arrange their children’s inheritance.

In Mónika’s case, however, the husband knew she was alive and lived in Israel. Despite reporting her dead twice, he took up the orphan’s allowance after the children, and even sued for child maintenance. The money was retrieved from the woman’s bank account.

“I feel like even a murderer has more rights than me” the devastated woman told Blikk. The woman relocated to Hungary after a decade living abroad, and the police told her that she had been pronounced dead. The officers did a simple identity check when they noticed that something was not quite right. They found out that Mónika had been pronounced dead, according to the register.

In 2001, the court corrected the error after the woman started a procedure to take back her maiden name following the divorce. In 2010, the court repealed the second announcement. The woman’s relatives were not even contacted when she was pronounced dead to confirm her demise.

One might think that she must have received a fair compensation after her rights had been crudely violated. In reality, however, the 1.5 million forints that were taken from her account was decreased to 1 million. She also got 600,000 forints after she filed a lawsuit.

The woman says that she felt humiliated during the proceedings. There were times when she was referred to as the dead woman at the police station. In regard to the court decision she said “it is interesting that that the property claim does not expire but the human rights do.” In the property rights case she did not get her money back because she sued after five years, writes pestihirlap.hu.

Mónika’s case seems unusually shocking at first. However, her case is not unique at all. In October,  RTL reported that a retired man was announced dead. He went to the bank where he was informed that his account had been closed. He also found out there that he had been announced dead. Not only he did not get any explanation but nor did he receive his disability pension. His case is really despairing as he lives alone and that little pension is his only income.

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Source: Blikk