Inheritance Law

Inheritance law is part of private law and governs the fate of a deceased person's assets (rights and debts), the heirs, the distribution and the related responsibilities. Its principal legal basis is the Turkish Civil Code No. 4721, with inheritance provisions set out in Articles 495–682 (188 articles in total).

The System of Degrees (Zümre)

Heirs are determined according to the blood relationship with the deceased. There are three degrees: the first (the descendants of the deceased), the second (the parents and their descendants) and the third (the grandparents and their descendants). The existence of an heir in a prior degree bars heirship in the next. Wills and inheritance contracts are formal dispositions; the appointment of heirs, specific bequests and gifts upon death are dispositions in the material sense.

Our Services

• Obtaining and annulment of the certificate of inheritance
• Drafting, opening and execution of wills
• Abatement (reserved-portion) actions
• Renunciation of inheritance and contracts of disclaimer
• Title-deed cancellation actions based on collusive transfer (muris muvazaası)
• Estate inventory and dissolution of joint ownership
• Equalisation of the estate and inheritance-based restitution actions

As inheritance law is a comprehensive and technical field where errors can cause serious losses, the assistance of a competent inheritance lawyer is important. We assist clients living abroad in English and German.