Usually, if you do not open your email account for more than 6 months, the email provider can lock your account temporarily and then after a year, they can delete your account. If you want to reopen your email account, you need to verify that you are the owner, which will be a reset for the email. I have had that experience before. You need to check all your email accounts at least once a month to avoid the temporary lock.
Is this for sure?
I have one email that I haven't used for a long time but when I've opened it, it didn't required me anything and nothing usual has happened. I don't know for sure that others have experienced the same thing as mine.
I also didn't visit it once per month but it's been a lot of months since I've visited it but when I've reopened it, it's still fine.