Cyprus Inheritance and Wills Ordinance

In Cyprus, an individual can distribute his/her estate by drafting a will. If a dummies are not prepared for a will in his/her lifetime, then his/her inheritance will be in accordance with the Cyprus Testament and the Inheritance Act [Cap. 195. Exactly, the distribution of the estate may be by will or by law or both] Provisions.

Cyprus Wills and Inheritance Law, Chapter 1. 195 regulations:

• The success of the natural person's property of the residents of the Republic of Cyprus.
• The success of the non-resident natural person real estate in the Republic of Cyprus.

Residents of the Navy, Army, Aviation or other civil servants in the United Kingdom are not considered residents of the Republic of Cyprus.

Only a sound-minded adult has the legal capacity to draft an effective will.

According to Article 23, effective wills will be prepared and implemented in accordance with the following principles:

• It is signed by the testator or other person authorized by the testator in the presence of the testator and under his command.
• The will of the testator must be witnessed by two or more witnesses present during the procedure.
• The witness must also sign the will in front of the testator and another person.
• If the will consists of multiple pages, each page must contain the initials of the testator and witness. The last page must be signed by the testator and all witnesses.
• The witness must be an adult who can sign.

Correct mistakes or omissions

If an error or omission is found in the provisions of Article 23, and there is a grammatical or numerical error in the content of the will, any interested party may apply to the court to correct the error or omission. If the court is convinced and believes that this is fair in this case, the relevant errors or omissions will be corrected. After the rectification, the will was considered valid because the court had corrected the will since the day of enforcement.

The provisions of section 23A[1] apply to each will, regardless of the date of execution, provided that the court did not explicitly examine the will before the commencement of the 2015 Wills and Succession [Amendment] Act.

Restrictions on the allocation of inheritance:

The estate is classified as "Disposal section" and "legal part" from

 . In particular, the configuration portion can be assigned as desired by the tester. On the other hand, the legal part is reserved for the spouse, children and close relatives of the deceased.

According to Article 41, the distribution of the legal part is based on which relatives are still alive:

• If the deceased survives by the children or the children's offspring, the legal portion can be up to 75% of the net estate.
• If the deceased survives by a spouse or parent rather than any child or his or her offspring, the legal portion may be up to 50% of the net estate.
• If the deceased cannot survive by the child's parents, spouse, children or offspring, the legal part is zero.

If the testator allocates more than the portion he/she is allowed to allocate, the portion will be down to the portion he/she is allowed to allocate.

As a result of the deletion of article 42, citizens of the British citizenship or any other Commonwealth country must comply with the provisions of article 41. In other words, they have no absolute freedom in disposing of their property and real estate.

New EU legislation 650/2012: Cross-border inheritance becomes easier

The existence of different national legislation makes cross-border inheritance procedures complicated and expensive. The EU's new Act No. 650/2012 has solved some problems by promoting cross-border success. Mainly, it clarifies which EU countries' courts will have the power to deal with inheritance and what laws the court will enforce. The new regulations apply to all EU countries except the UK, Ireland and Denmark. In other words, residents of any of the three countries are not bound by the new EU regulations. Still, Irish and Danish citizens living in other EU countries can benefit from the new EU regulations. Therefore, Cyrus's British, Irish and Danish residents can take advantage of EU legislation 650/2012.

According to the new regulations, the court of the EU country in which the person was born will be inherited by the administrator and will follow the laws of the EU country. Despite this, citizens have the right to choose the law of their country of origin to apply for their inheritance, whether it is EU or non-EU member states. It should be noted that the succession decisions issued in an EU member state will automatically be recognized in other EU member states. In addition, the European Certificate of Inheritance allows people to prove in other EU countries that they are the heirs of the will, the bequest, the executor or the administrator.

The new EU legislation covers successful civil law aspects, namely beneficiaries, asset transfers, rights, obligations, etc. It does not include matrimonial property systems, trusts, taxes and companies. The National Succession Law still applies to the following matters: who will inherit and inherit the children and spouses, the percentage of inheritance of property and family law, and the tax issues associated with the inherited assets.

The new EU rules have several advantages, such as:

• It provides legal clarity and helps to more effectively address cross-border inheritance issues.


• Citizens who draft wills can choose to apply the laws of the country of origin to all of their estates, even if they live in another EU member state and own property in different countries. In addition, new legislation makes successful planning easier.


• The European Certificate of Inheritance enables citizens to prove their rights anywhere in the European Union.

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Orignal From: Cyprus Inheritance and Wills Ordinance