Gift revocation in 2026: when you can reclaim a gift for ingratitude, hardship or breach of condition

Quick summary

• You can’t take back a gift just because you changed your mind.
• The most common reason is ingratitude, but the law also recognizes the donor’s distress and breach of an agreed condition.
• In the case of ingratitude, the intensity of the behaviour and the one-year time limit are decisive.
• When the donee no longer has the gift, there may be a claim for monetary compensation.
• For more valuable gifts, it pays to address the procedure in writing and in a timely manner.

A gift can be revoked in 2026 mainly on three grounds: for ingratitude, for the donor’s distress and for failure to comply with a condition attached to the gift. In the case of ingratitude, there must be a deliberate or grossly negligent act by which the donee has manifestly violated good morals. Typically, mere reluctance or family disagreements without greater intensity are not sufficient. In addition, in the case of ingratitude, a one-year time limit runs from the time when the act occurred or when the donor became aware of it.

If you need to assess whether the conditions for returning a gift have already been met, we can help. As part of our Gift Revocation service, we will assess your case, prepare a challenge and a claim and suggest the quickest course of action.

When can you revoke a gift?

You give your girlfriend a car and she cheats on you with your best friend. You gave your son your grandmother’s apartment and he destroys it with his friends at regular drinking parties. Your neighborhood reacted perhaps in a “measure twice, cut once” fashion. You should have just thought it through. But there are situations where the law is on your side and allows you to reclaim the gift.

The law allows you to get the gift back in the following situations:

• failure to comply with a condition attached to the gift
• withdrawal of a gift for hardship
• withdrawal of a gift for ingratitude

Withdrawal of a gift for ingratitude

Withdrawing a gift for ingratitude is the most common of the above options. It is good to know that you can revoke a gift on the condition that the donee has wronged you or a loved one. This does not only mean physical harm, but also psychological harm (obvious breach of good morals). This can be committed either intentionally or through gross negligence.

Although donation may appear to us to be a purely unilateral matter, it is in fact a bilateral contract which can also be withdrawn in certain cases. From a legal point of view, therefore, the withdrawal of a gift is understood as a withdrawal from the contract of gift.

Thus, from the above examples, we could consider infidelity as such ungrateful behaviour that can lead to revocation of a gift. Destruction of property by a descendant, for example in the form of staining the walls or ruined floors, may undoubtedly annoy you, but it can hardly be regarded as ingratitude towards you personally.

The temporal aspect of such behaviour is also important. You have the right to revoke the gift within one year after the person has wronged you or when you become aware of the behaviour (if you became aware of it later than it happened). The case law (in particular, the Supreme Court’s resolution 33 Cdo 3001/2009) on the revocation of a gift for ingratitude states that “at the moment of the act of the donee which fulfils the features mentioned in this provision, the donor has the right to demand the return of the gift, i.e. to demand from the donee the return of what was the subject of the gift. If the donor exercises this right, the donation relationship shall terminate at the moment when his expression of will reaches the donee.” By exercising that right, you therefore become the owner of the object again. The donee is then obliged to hand over the item to you.

Compared to the previous legislation, which set the limitation period for revoking a gift at three years from the date of donation, this legislation is more favourable for the donor.

The revocation of a gift has no fixed legal form and may be made orally, by telephone, in writing or in any other way. Especially in the case of more valuable gifts, it is advisable to think about the possibility of proving revocation later.

But what if the donee no longer has your gift? Perhaps they have lost it, lost it or given it to someone else? In this case, you are entitled to financial compensation for the value of the gift.

Since the basic assumption for the above procedure is that the donor is not treating us very well, you can expect that he or she will not be in a hurry to return the gift. You will then often have no choice but to seek the return of the gift through the courts. You have the choice of suing for the return of the item (for movable items) or suing for ejectment (for immovable property) or suing for unjust enrichment (for destroyed items where the donor’s reason for acquiring the item has ceased to exist) in the court of local jurisdiction, which will be the district court where the donor resides. In some cases, it may also be worthwhile to bring an action to establish ownership.

Especially for gifts of real estate, cars or large sums of money, it is worth preparing a revocation of the gift in writing and at the same time preparing evidence in case of a dispute. It is often at this stage that it is decided whether the matter is resolved by a pre-action notice or only in court. If you are unsure whether the donor’s actions have reached the level of ingratitude, we can quickly assess your case with our Gift Revocation Service and suggest a course of action.

What does the donee have to give back?

The donee shall return first of all everything that has been given to him/her and should also return to the donor the benefit that he/she has derived from the gift. This means the case where the gift has earned him further, brought him additional income, etc. At the same time, however, the donor is obliged to pay the necessary costs that have been incurred for the item, for example, to prevent its destruction. When returning the gift, the normal wear and tear of the gift is taken into account.

Practical example – After the donation of the land, the relationship escalated to such an extent that a physical assault occurred

Mr. Kamil had a bad experience with the donation and turned to us. He donated a plot of land to his nephew, right next to his house. However, as soon as all the formalities were completed and they sent the signed contract to the Land Registry, their relationship changed. Instead of helping Mr Kamil earlier, his nephew now ignored his requests for help related to what he needed due to his health condition and showed no interest in him. During the construction of the house, they even had an argument one day to the point that Mr Kamil was physically assaulted by his nephew. With our help, Kamil got his nephew to pay him a substantial compensation for the plot and the gift agreement was cancelled.

Failure to comply with a condition attached to the gift

Another possible situation where you can reclaim your gift is if you have attached a condition to it but it has not been fulfilled.

However, the order or requirement should be justified and also limited in time. You cannot oblige someone forever as to how they may dispose of the item. The time limit should be proportionate, for example, on the order of a few years. The specific case would then be judged by the court. Conversely, such an order could be considered unreasonable and that part of the gift agreement could be invalidated by the court.

Withdrawal of a gift for hardship

A gift revocation can also occur in a situation that occurs this time on the donor side. If the donor is in a state of need, where he or she does not have the money to support himself or herself or the person he or she is obliged to care for, he or she may also revoke the gift. In doing so, he may, on the one hand, require the donee to return the gift to him or to pay him its normal value, but only to the extent that the donor lacks the means for the said maintenance.

However, this is not the case where the donor has been put in need through no fault of his own, for example, by losing all his funds in a slot machine or by laundering them.

In practice, this may be the case, for example, where parents give their offspring an apartment and then lose their jobs and find themselves in such a difficult situation that they have no way to support themselves. They can then demand the apartment back or demand money from their son to the extent that they are unable to support him.

Despite possible pitfalls, do you still want to donate an apartment or other property? Don’t rely on outdated models of a gift deed for an apartment and instead contact an available attorney. A gift agreement drafted or reviewed by an attorney specializing in real estate law will effectively protect you from unpleasant surprises.

Summary

Gift revocation is still a relatively narrowly defined institution in 2026. Simply being disappointed in a family relationship or having changed your mind about a gift later is not enough. The decisive factor is whether one of the statutory grounds has arisen: ingratitude, hardship to the donor or breach of an agreed condition. In practice, the most difficult thing to do is to correctly assess the intensity of the donor’s behaviour and not miss the statutory deadline. Moreover, for larger gifts, especially of real estate, it is often not just a single challenge, but a sophisticated process from gathering evidence to bringing an action. It therefore pays to deal with the matter properly from the outset and with regard to what you will be able to prove.