Inheritance Law

Property law falls under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Turkish law. Therefore, if a property owner dies, Turkish inheritance law is applicable both in substance and procedure.

The title deed (tapu) of a property may be put by a Turkish court in the name of the heirs. The judge makes an assessment on the basis of the death certificate, summary of the birth certificate, a copy of the tapu and other documents establishing kinship between the heirs and the deceased person. All foreign documents must be provided with an apostille stamp.

The main rule is that the surviving spouse inherits a quarter, while the children inherit three quarters of the property. If the deceased has no spouse, then the children inherit the entire property. If there are no children, the spouse inherits half the property. The other half goes to the parents of the deceased.

It is possible for the testator to draft around the default rules by drawing up a will. According to the Turkish inheritance law, spouses can not be excluded from inheritance; however, children can be excluded for up to a half of what they would have otherwise inherited.