A grant of probate issued abroad establishes who may administer the estate there, and is not an instruction a Cypriot institution acts on, so the Cyprus assets normally need authority obtained here first. A Commonwealth grant can be re-sealed by a District Court under the Probates (Re-Sealing) Law, Cap. 192; a United States grant is not within that Law, and a fresh Cyprus application follows. Closing the estate at home does not close the Cyprus part.
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
Start with this: the names of everyone involved, so we can run a conflict check, a short description of what happened and when, and any deadline you already know about.
Once we confirm we can act: 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.
For grants from some jurisdictions there is a shorter road than a fresh application. Under the Probates (Re-Sealing) Law, Cap. 192, a grant of probate or letters of administration issued by a court of probate in a Commonwealth jurisdiction may, on production and deposit of a copy in a District Court, be sealed with that court's seal, and it then has the same force and effect in Cyprus as if the Cyprus court had granted it. Before sealing, the court must be satisfied on the estate duty position, and, where the document is letters of administration, that security has been given sufficient to cover the property in Cyprus. An English or an Australian grant is the classic candidate. A United States grant is not within that Law: there the route is a fresh Cyprus application, in which the foreign grant is part of the evidence rather than the authority itself. Which route your estate takes is worth settling before anything is spent, because the two 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.
If someone has died and there are assets in Cyprus, tell us who died and where, who the family are and whether a grant was issued abroad, at office@kleanthousplatis.com, or the enquiry form. We reply within one business day.
British estates
Why a British national is inside a European instrument the United Kingdom never joined
Executors dealing with a British estate that includes Cyprus assets frequently work on an assumption that is the wrong way round. The United Kingdom and Ireland did not take part in the adoption of Regulation (EU) No 650/2012, and Denmark likewise did not, which is recorded in recitals 82 and 83 of the Regulation. The conclusion usually drawn is that the Regulation is therefore irrelevant to a British estate.
It is not, because Cyprus is bound by it and a Cyprus court applies it. Non participation means the courts of those countries do not apply the Regulation. It says nothing about what happens when the estate is being dealt with here. Article 20 provides that any law specified by the Regulation applies whether or not it is the law of a Member State, so the Regulation is the instrument a Cyprus court uses to identify the governing law, and the law it identifies may well be that of a part of the United Kingdom.
A British national who was habitually resident in Cyprus and made no choice of law will have Cyprus succession law applied to the whole of the estate, reserved portion included.
That is why the question for a British family is rarely only procedural. Before asking what to do with the grant, establish where the deceased was habitually resident and whether the will made a choice of the law of nationality. The full position is set out under the EU Succession Regulation and Cyprus. Where the person is still alive, that page is the one to read first, because almost everything the Regulation makes possible has to be arranged beforehand.
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
Register the immovable property in the names of those entitled, and collect or transfer the remaining assets
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.
My grant was issued in England. Do I have to start again in Cyprus?
Usually not from the beginning. A grant from a Commonwealth probate jurisdiction, and England and Wales is one, can be re-sealed by a District Court in Cyprus under the Probates (Re-Sealing) Law, Cap. 192, on production and deposit of a copy, after which it operates here as if granted by the Cyprus court. The court will look at the estate duty position first, and where the document is letters of administration it will require security covering the Cyprus property. With the grant as issued in front of us we can confirm the route and the papers.
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
WillsTitle Deeds in Cyprus: What the Register Records and How a Transfer Is Completed
PropertySelling Property in Cyprus: What the Seller Has to Deliver
PropertyWhich country's law governs a cross-border estate, and when the law of your nationality can be chosen instead, is set out under the EU Succession Regulation and Cyprus.
Next: property inherited from a parent or grandparent and wills made abroad. Related practice areas: Trusts, Wills & Succession and Litigation & Arbitration.