Forced Heirship

The rule people do not expect

A will in Cyprus does not dispose of everything

In England a testator may in principle leave the estate to whoever they choose. Cyprus does not work that way. Section 41 of the Wills and Succession Law, Cap. 195, fixes a disposable portion, and whatever falls outside it passes by law to a defined set of relatives whatever the will says. Section 41(2) provides that a disposition of more than the disposable portion is reduced and cut down proportionately.

The size of the disposable portion does not depend on the value of the estate or on what the testator wanted. It depends only on which relatives survive. With a child alive, three quarters of the estate is already spoken for.

This is the point on which foreign wills over Cyprus assets most often fail, and it is not usually discovered until the death.

What section 41 actually says

Section 41(1) sets three cases, and they are exhaustive. Where a person dies leaving:

• a spouse and a child, or a spouse and a descendant of a child, or no spouse but a child or a descendant of a child, the disposable portion shall not exceed one quarter of the net value of the estate
• a spouse, or a father, or a mother, but no child and no descendant of a child, the disposable portion shall not exceed one half of the net value
• neither a spouse, nor a child or descendant of a child, nor a father or mother, the disposable portion is the whole estate

Two features of the drafting are worth noticing, because they decide most real cases. A child brings the quarter rule into play whether or not there is a spouse. And a single surviving parent is enough to halve the freedom of a testator who has no children.

Siblings do not restrict a testator at all. Paragraph (c) excludes only a spouse, a child or descendant of a child, and a father or mother. A person who dies leaving brothers, sisters or grandparents but none of those may dispose of the whole estate by will, even though those relatives would take under the First Schedule on an intestacy.

There is one escape, and it only helps a spouse. The proviso to section 41(2) provides that no reduction is made where a person dies leaving a spouse but no child or descendant of a child and no father or mother, and the part disposed of by will that exceeds the disposable portion, which may amount to the whole of the statutory portion, was left to the surviving spouse. A childless couple with no surviving parents can therefore leave everything to each other.

The statutory portion does not go where you choose

Whatever is not disposable passes under the Law. Section 44 fixes the surviving spouse's share of it, and the First Schedule then sets the classes who take the balance.

The spouse's share of the statutory portion, and of any part of the estate left undisposed, is:

• where the deceased left a child, whether living or represented by descendants, a share equal to the share of each of the children. Two children and a spouse therefore divide the statutory portion into three
• where there is no child or descendant but there are ancestors, or their descendants, within the third degree of kindred, one half
• where there is nobody within the third degree but there are relatives of the fourth degree, three quarters
• where there is nobody within the fourth degree, the whole

The balance goes to the classes in the First Schedule, the nearer excluding the more remote. The first class is the children in equal shares, with the descendants of a child who died first taking that child's share between them, per stirpes. The second class is the parents, or failing them the nearest surviving ancestor, together with brothers and sisters, with half blood siblings taking half the share of a full blood sibling. The third class is the nearest surviving ancestors, with the paternal and maternal lines taking one half each where both are represented in the same degree. The fourth class is the nearest relatives up to and including the sixth degree.

Section 47(1) provides that where no relative within the sixth degree is alive at the death, the deceased is treated as having died without heirs.

The exemption foreign nationals used to rely on is gone

Cap. 195 formerly contained a section 42, headed absolute freedom of disposition in certain cases. Section 3 of the Wills and Succession (Amending) Law of 2015, Law 96(I)/2015, published in the Official Gazette of 3 July 2015, deleted section 42 outright.

The timing matters. Regulation (EU) 650/2012 has applied since 17 August 2015, six weeks after that deletion. Anyone whose Cyprus estate planning rests on advice given before July 2015, or on a will drafted then, is relying on a provision that no longer exists.

What replaced it is not an exemption but a choice, and it has to be made properly. The Regulation and how the choice of law works are set out on the EU Succession Regulation and Cyprus, and the practical position for a will made abroad is on foreign wills and Cyprus property.

This calculator assumes Cyprus law governs the succession. Where a valid choice of another law has been made under the Regulation, the fractions above may not apply at all. Which law governs is the first question, not the second.

Where a real estate departs from the arithmetic

The fractions are exact. What they are applied to is where the difficulty lies.

The portions are taken on the net value of the estate, after the debts and liabilities charged on it have been paid, and valuing an estate is not arithmetic. Section 45 provides that a spouse who becomes entitled to a share does not count in that calculation any movable or immovable property received from the deceased under a marriage settlement. Section 40 treats a gift made in contemplation of death as a specific legacy in the administration.

The Law also has rules on who may not take at all. It deals with unworthiness to succeed, and section 33(1) restricts a legacy to a religious organisation by a person with any relative within the third degree unless the will was executed at least three months before the death.

Lifetime transfers are outside this page entirely. So is the question of what happens where the estate includes immovable property in an area not under the control of the Republic. And nothing here addresses tax.

Where the fractions come from

Every fraction and every class on this page is taken from the consolidated text of the Wills and Succession Law, Cap. 195, as published by CyLaw: sections 41, 44, 45 and 47 and the First Schedule made under section 46.

The deletion of section 42 is taken from the Official Gazette: the Wills and Succession (Amending) Law of 2015, Law 96(I)/2015, at Issue 4518 of 3 July 2015.

Checked on 15 August 2026. The Law has been amended and this page does not update itself.