Inheritance Law

Obviously inheritance law is one of the main concerns for foreign residents living in Turkey, since a lot of people own properties here.
Let’s talk about a deceased person owning a property in Turkey.What happens after he or she dies?The totality of the property belonging to a person is called their estate (tereke).

By law, the immoveables in Turkey no matter which nationality owns them are subject to Turkish Law which will be briefly explained below. Whereas the moveables are subject to the decesead to the law of the decesead’s nationality.  

Under Turkish Law, following the death of an individual, his or her entire estate passes to the heirs. The only question is how this is affected by either the operation of law or the testamentary will of the deceased?

The deceased person’s heirs are the first-in-line descendants. The parents of the deceased will be as second-in-line heirs if there is non first-in-line heirs.

If any of the former is no longer alive when the inheritance takes place,
The inheritance rights of descendants will devolve to their own descendants.

The spouse gets 1/4 of the estate if he/she is an heir with the children.
And he/she gets half of the estate if he/she is an heir with the parents of the deceased. Appointed heirs (legatees) are heirs, expressly and specifically designated by the deceased in a will.

The person can dispose of his/her estate at death by a will prepared during his/her lifetime.

The testator can choose the heirs and the method of distribution of the estate. In some jurisdictions, testamentary capacity is absolute.For example, in United States people may leave their estate to a favorite pet. Turkish Law imposes certain restrictions on freedom of testamentary disposition. The rights of the statutory heirs are protected by law through reserved portions.The spouses, the descendants and parents have reserved portions.

This means that even if someone leaves all of his/her property to a stranger, the statutory heirs will still get their reserved portions.

In order to register the shares of the property on heirs’ names in Turkey first of all certificate of inheritance should be obtained.