Inheritance law comes to an issue as a situation of a person’s death. This branch of law encompasses legal effects of the death, inheritors’ situation, procedure of disposition the heritage and its form. Accordingly, this branch of pertaining to the law of assets.
The rising number of marriages between Turkish citizens and foreigners brings in issues related to marriages of this type. From a legal point of view, the two important issues as regards to this may be the distribution of matrimonial property and inheritance.
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1. What is the first step of inheritance procedure?
Inheritance procedures are of importance, especially when an immovable found in Turkey, is the subject of course. Firstly, you must obtain a certificate of inheritance. Certificate of inheritance is an official document, which demonstrates the inheritors and their distributive shares. This document may be obtained by applying to the Public Notary or by applying to the relevant Civil Court of Peace. In practice, Public Notaries tend to be very restrictive towards foreigners for obtaining the certificate of inheritance. Therefore, it is more convenient to apply to the court.
Application to the court may be done by the submission of a pleading. As regards to this, receiving legal assistance is advisable. In a case of this type, there is no respondent party and the case usually lasts one month.
2. How is the partition of heritage carried out?
After conducting a search, the Court would address the inheritors and their shares according to the articles of succession of the Turkish Civil Code. In this procedure, the Court may ask the claimant to submit documents relating to the marriage or birth records in relation to the status of the claimant or may ask to hear witness testimonies.
In order to give an idea of how the partition is carried out, some examples will be given below.
Example 1: Turkish spouse dies during marriage and the deceased has child/children of herself or in common with the other spouse.
In this case the successor foreign spouse would be entitled to ¼ th of deceased spouse assets. The children would share the rest of the assets (¾ ) equally among themselves. In Turkish Law, there is no inequality in the distribution of assets according to age, nationality or gender of the title holder.
Example 2: Turkish spouse dies during marriage and the deceased has no children of herself or in common with the other spouse.
In this case the successor foreign spouse would be entitled to half of the assets of the deceased. The remaining half would descend to the parents of the deceased. If the parents are deceased as well, the assets would descend to the siblings of the deceased.
Example 3: Turkish party dies before marriage or after divorce. In this case, the law grants no rights to the fiancé or to the estranged.
3. What happens when an immovable in Turkey is of concern?
In disputes involving foreign element, the applicable law and jurisdiction may vary. But when an immovable in Turkey is of concern, as an issue of public policy, the applicable law would be Turkish law and the competent authority would be the relevant one at the location of the immovable.
By obtaining the Certificate of Inheritance, you may ask for the transfer of the ownership of an immovable at the relevant Land Registry Office along with the other inheritors. At this point, it should be kept in mind that there are some restrictions as to the total area of real estate a foreigner may own and the relevant location of the real estate, which have been explained in more detail in our previous article “Legal Guide for Purchasing Real Estate in Turkey”. Therefore, it is advisable to obtain legal assistance in complicated cases.
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How many types of heirdom exists in Turkish Law?
There are two types of heirdom according to Turkish inheritance law (Türk Miras Hukuku). The first heirdom type is a statutory. The second type is based on the appointment of inheritors by means of the deceased. This heirdom is a voluntary option which can be implemented by the deceased.
Can a deceased make testamentary disposition with his all assets indeterminately to one party?
According to Turkish law, it is not possible to involve in this type of transaction due to Heritage Law of Turkey. There are untouchable shares pertaining to some inheritors which are defined by Turkish Inheritance Law. On the other hand, there is a part excluding untouchable shares of statutory inheritors as a disposable portion and deceased can take an action on this part.
Who are the statutory inheritors?
The Turkish Law describes them as a consanguineous heir (relative by blood), spouse and adopted children. The relatives by blood is governed by the principle of parental system. According to this system, there are three degree of relationship.
The members of first degree have unlimited capacity on inheritage without any condition. On the condition that there is no inheritor remained(living) in the first degree, the members of second degree can be inheritor. The members of this degree is the father and the mother of the deceased. In case that nobody can not be also found in the second degree, then the members of the third degree can be inheritor. Grand father and grand mother are defined in this degree according to the law.
What are the features of this said degrees of relationship?
There is a person in every degree and the person’s descendant Partition of the estate is carried out in accordance with the descending line.
Title by descents for the inheritors in the sub-kinship line (Children and spouse).
The children of the deceased are the primary inheritors and they have all equal shares on their father’s or mother’s asset.
Title by descents of the (grand) father and the (grand) mother
In case that children of deceased are lacking, the mother and father of the deceased becomes the inheritors. Mother and father go halves of all assets remained by the deceased. In case that only one of the parent are alive then the all assets shall be transferred to him/her
In the absence of the father and the mother, all assets are bequested to the grand father and the grand mother. They both have also equal shares for the assets remained. In case that only one of grand parent is alive then the all assets shall be transferred to him/her
Status of Adulterines
The adulterines have the same status as the children born in legitimate marriage.
The Title by Descents of Alive Spouse
Title by descents of alive spouse is determined in accordance to other inheritors’ status.
In presence of the spouse’s child(ren), ¼ of the asset remains to alive spouse and ¾ of the asset remains to the child(ren).
If the spouse is inheritor with the parents of deceased, half of the asset inherits from the deceased.
If the spouse is inheritor with the grand parents of deceased, ¾ of the asset inherits from the deceased
In lack of said relatives, all of the assets remains to alive spouse.