General issues of inheritance.

Let’s first understand in basic terms what movable and immovable property is.

Movable property is any material object that can be freely transported. For example, these are money, securities, gold, vehicles and more. Real estate is everything that is firmly connected with the land, that is, objects that cannot be moved, for example: land plots, apartments, houses, shops, etc. According to the legislation of the Republic of Turkey, Turkish law is applied to the issue of inheritance of real estate located on the territory of Turkey. 

Legal heirs and their shares:

The distribution of the mandatory has the following order:

The first stage – children and spouse, including children born out of marriage, recognized by the testator or by court order.

• the spouse gets 25%, the remaining 75% is divided equally between the children;
• in case of divorce / loss of the testator’s spouse / wife, 100% is divided between the children;
• if there are no children and there is only a spouse, he / she gets 50%;
• the second stage – the parents of the testator;

But only on condition that the testator has no children – 50% to the spouse, 50% to the parents.

If the testator does not have a single heir, and there is no will, then all immovable property is inherited by the state of the Republic of Turkey. As for movable property, as we said above, the laws of the state come into force, the resident of which was the testator.

The work and registration of inheritance in Turkey by a notary is carried out on the basis of documents that can be checked by notaries in state registers. If all information about Turkish citizens is in the state electronic register, then this form of work with foreign citizens is not possible. In this regard, for foreigners, the procedure for obtaining an inheritance through a court is usually applied. For foreigners who obtained citizenship in Turkey, working with a notary is the most urgent and fastest procedure for inheriting.

A notary or a court issues a certificate of the right to inheritance for the property that exists on the day of issuance of this certificate or court decision.