Administering a Cyprus Estate From Abroad

Two situations, and they run differently

Cross-border estates involving Cyprus almost always take one of two shapes, and it is worth knowing at the outset which one you are in, because the first step is not the same.

The death happened abroad and there is property in Cyprus. The estate is being wound up in England, in an Australian state or in a United States jurisdiction, and somewhere in the papers, or in the family's memory, there is something in Cyprus. The executor or the family then discovers that whatever authority they hold at home does not reach the Cyprus register.

The death happened in Cyprus and the heirs are abroad. A relative who stayed in Cyprus has died and the people entitled are in three countries. Here the Cypriot side is the main estate, and the problem is that nobody entitled to deal with it is in the country.

We act in both, for families and for executors, administrators, solicitors and accountants abroad who need the Cyprus limb of an estate dealt with while they run the rest of it at home.

What to send us in a first enquiry

The death certificate, the will if there is one, any grant already issued abroad, and whatever you have about the Cyprus assets: a title number, an old deed, a bank statement, a village name. Tell us who the surviving family are and where they live. If probate has already been taken out abroad, send us the grant as issued rather than a description of it.

The question everyone asks first

What a foreign grant does, and does not, achieve in Cyprus

A grant of probate or letters of administration issued by a court in England and Wales, in New South Wales or Victoria, or in a United States jurisdiction, is an order of that court. It establishes who may administer the estate there. It is not, by itself, an instruction that a Cypriot institution acts on. The Department of Lands and Surveys, a Cypriot bank and a Cypriot registrar each answer to Cypriot process.

What that means in practice is that the Cyprus assets normally need authority obtained in Cyprus before anyone can deal with them, and that the foreign grant is evidence in that process rather than a substitute for it.

There is a procedure by which grants issued in certain other jurisdictions may be recognised here rather than an entirely fresh application being made. Whether it is available on your grant depends on where the grant was issued and on the legislation in force, and the answer is not the same for an English grant, an Australian one and an American one. We would rather tell you which route applies to your estate before you spend anything, because the two routes cost differently and take different papers.

The one thing we would ask you not to assume is that because the estate is closed at home, the Cyprus part is closed. It is common for an executor to find, years after distribution, that a parcel of land in a village was never touched.

The Cyprus side

What actually has to be done here

Subject to the estate, the will and what the register shows, the Cyprus limb of a cross-border estate moves in roughly this order.

Establish what is in Cyprus, by a search of the register in the name of the person who died, and by enquiry of any bank or institution known to hold something

Establish who is entitled, and obtain the certificate of death and heirs from the community or the municipality

Where the death was abroad and the person was a Cypriot citizen, deal with the registration of the death with the Cypriot authorities through the consular route

Obtain authority in Cyprus to administer the estate here, on the route appropriate to the estate and to any foreign grant

Identify and settle what the estate owes, and obtain the clearances the Land Registry and other bodies require

Distribute, account to the beneficiaries, and close the Cyprus file

Steps 01 and 02 are the ones that can be started immediately and cheaply, and they are the ones that determine whether the rest is worth doing. Where the register turns out to show a small share of agricultural land, that is a legitimate answer, and a family is entitled to have it before committing to anything larger.

Documents issued abroad, produced in Cyprus

Almost every cross-border estate turns on paper issued in another country: a death certificate, a marriage certificate, a birth certificate, a will, a grant, a power of attorney. Before such a document can be used here it generally has to be legalised in the country that issued it and then translated, and the order is not interchangeable. Translation for official use in Cyprus is a regulated activity carried out by sworn translators.

Getting the sequence wrong is the single most common reason a packet of documents is sent back, and it costs weeks rather than money. The chain is set out on acting without flying to Cyprus, together with what a Cypriot consulate abroad will and will not do.

If you are an executor, solicitor or accountant abroad

We are regularly instructed by professional advisers who are administering an estate in their own jurisdiction and need the Cyprus element handled: the search of the register, the position on the Cypriot assets, the authority required here, and the registration or sale of Cyprus property. You keep the estate; we take the Cyprus limb and report to you.

If what you need is a statement of Cypriot law for use in your own proceedings rather than an administration here, tell us what the question is and what form your court requires it in.

Questions we are asked

How long will the Cyprus part take?

We do not publish a timescale, because it would be a guess and you would plan around it. What the answer depends on is knowable: whether there is a will, whether a grant already exists abroad, whether the heirs are agreed, whether an earlier generation's estate was also left undone, and how quickly the certificates from the local bodies come. Once we have seen the papers we will give you our honest view of the shape of it, and tell you when it changes.

Can a Cypriot bank release the money without any of this?

Assume not. A bank holding an account in the name of a person who has died will want to see authority it can rely on before it pays anything out, and a foreign grant on its own may not be enough for it. Ask us before you write to the bank, because what you say in that first letter tends to set the process the bank then follows.

The estate at home is already finished. Is it too late for Cyprus?

Not necessarily, and it is a common position. What it usually means is that the Cyprus assets were never part of the administration at all, and they still have to be dealt with. Whether the passage of time has any effect on the rights involved is a question we would answer on the facts rather than in general.

Do all the heirs have to instruct you?

No, but it helps, and it is cheaper. One person can instruct us and others can join later or give a power of attorney. Where the family is in disagreement we can act for one side only, and we carry out a conflict check before taking instructions from anybody.

Is there tax to pay in Cyprus on an inheritance?

What Cyprus charges on an estate, on a transfer and on a later sale, and what it does not charge, is a question to answer for the particular estate and against the position in force at the time. What we will not do is advise you on the tax position in the United Kingdom, Australia or the United States, which is for your own advisers there, and it is worth having both sides looked at before anything is sold.

Written on these subjects

Making a Will in Cyprus: What You Can Actually Leave, and to Whom

Wills

Title Deeds in Cyprus: What the Register Records and How a Transfer Is Completed

Property

Selling Property in Cyprus: What the Seller Has to Deliver

Property

Enforcing Foreign Judgments and Arbitral Awards in Cyprus

Litigation

Next: property inherited from a parent or grandparent and wills made abroad. Related practice areas: Private Client and Litigation & Debt Recovery.

Request a consultation

Tell us briefly how we may assist

A few sentences is enough: who died, where, whether there is a will or a grant, and what you believe is in Cyprus. We reply within one business day. Please do not send confidential documents until we confirm we can act.

Kleanthous & Platis LLC, Nicosia. Telephone +357 22 680 330, office@kleanthousplatis.com, or klitos@kleanthousplatis.com.

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