Does a Will Made Abroad Cover Your Cyprus Property?

In short

A foreign will does not by itself settle which law governs Cyprus property. For deaths on or after 17 August 2015, Cyprus applies the EU Succession Regulation: habitual residence is the starting point, subject to its exceptions, a valid choice of national law and, where relevant, rules referring the matter back from a non-EU country. Where Cyprus succession law applies, section 41 of Cap. 195 can reserve part of the estate for close family.

A will made abroad and property in Cyprus?

Say whether you are planning a will or dealing with an estate, and which countries are involved. No documents are needed for the first enquiry.

Your first message costs nothing: within one working day we tell you whether we can help and what it would cost.

Discuss the will or estate

Does a will made abroad reach property in Cyprus?

A will signed in England, in an Australian state or in a United States jurisdiction is not necessarily governed by that place’s law. Whether it operates on immovable property in Cyprus is a separate question from whether it is a valid will at home. The applicable succession law, the will’s formal validity and the steps needed before it can be acted on in Cyprus must each be checked against the individual’s circumstances and the relevant dates.

The older Cyprus position appears in Kochino v. Irfan (1976) 1 CLR 240, concerning a death in 1969. The Supreme Court discussed the common-law rule that succession to land followed the lex situs, the law of the place where it lies, including the rules on testamentary capacity, formalities and freedom of disposition. It excluded the deceased’s London houses when calculating the widow’s share of the Cyprus estate under Cap. 195. That judgment must not be presented as a complete answer for a death on or after 17 August 2015: Cyprus then applies Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 to determine the succession law, with separate rules for matters such as the formal validity of a will.

The practical consequence, and the reason this matters to a family rather than to a lawyer, is that a will drafted abroad on the assumption of complete freedom to leave what you like to whom you like may operate differently once Cyprus assets are brought into the estate.

How to start a first enquiry

The names of those involved, so we can run a conflict check, and a short outline of what you own in Cyprus and where else you own anything. Tell us where you live, where you were born, what nationalities you hold, and who your close family are. Those facts determine the answer more than the wording of the will does. Please do not send the will itself until we confirm we can act, then it can come through the right channel.

If you made a will abroad and own property in Cyprus, tell us which country it was made in and who your close family are, at office@kleanthousplatis.com, or through the enquiry form. Your first message costs nothing: within one working day we tell you whether we can help and what it would cost.

The part that surprises people

Cyprus succession law reserves a portion for close family

Where Cyprus succession law governs, it divides an estate into two parts. One part, often called the statutory or reserved portion, is set aside for close family. The other is the disposable portion, which the will directs. The governing provision is section 41 of the Wills and Succession Law, Cap. 195: where the deceased leaves a spouse and a child, or a child or a child’s descendant, the disposable portion does not exceed one quarter of the net estate; where a spouse or a parent survives but no child or descendant, one half; and only where none of them survives is the whole estate disposable.

The domestic scope of Cap. 195 is stated in section 5, including immovable property in Cyprus of a person domiciled elsewhere. For deaths on or after 17 August 2015, however, that provision must be read with the EU Succession Regulation. Article 21 generally points to habitual residence at death, subject to its exception for a manifestly closer connection; Article 22 permits a choice of national law. Article 34 can also make the conflict rules of a non-EU country relevant. The old exception giving certain foreign testators absolute freedom of disposition, section 42, was deleted by Law 96(I)/2015; it is not a current exemption. These questions are addressed under the EU Succession Regulation on its own page.

This is not a formality that careful drafting removes. A will that gives everything to one person, where a reserved portion arises, will not achieve that result: under section 41(2) the excessive disposition is reduced and abated proportionally to fit the disposable portion, subject to that subsection’s exception for a gift to the surviving spouse where no child, descendant, father or mother survives. Planning for a Cyprus estate therefore begins by establishing what is actually disposable, and only then turns to how to dispose of it.

The firm’s own guide, Making a Will in Cyprus: What You Can Actually Leave, and to Whom, sets this out at greater length, together with what happens where there is no valid will and the formal defects that invalidate one.

One will or two

Whether to make a separate Cyprus will

Where a person owns assets in more than one country, coordinated wills are often sensible: each dealing with its own jurisdiction, drafted so that neither revokes the other. That last point is not a detail. A later will containing a general revocation clause can sweep away the earlier one, and the family then finds that the Cyprus will they were told about no longer exists.

Where the Cyprus rules govern revocation, the statute is strict in both directions of that traffic. Section 37 of Cap. 195 sets out the ways a will is revoked, by a later will that revokes it expressly, by a later will to the extent the two are inconsistent, or by burning, tearing or other destruction by the testator, or in the testator’s presence and by the testator’s direction, with the intention of revoking it; and under section 39 a will once revoked, in any of those ways, revives only by being executed again with the formalities of section 23. In Ηρακλέους ν. Αβρααμίδη (2010) 1 ΑΑΔ 807 the Supreme Court confirmed that the section 37 list is exhaustive, reading destruction narrowly, in the company of burning and tearing, and setting out the revival rule in section 39’s own words. A Cyprus will revoked under those rules therefore does not come back merely because the later will is replaced. The applicable law and the required steps to revive or replace it must be checked.

What a Cyprus will can do

Direct the disposable portion of the Cyprus estate deliberately, rather than leaving it to be worked out
Appoint an executor for the Cyprus assets, which matters when the alternative is an application to appoint someone
Describe the Cyprus property so that it can actually be identified, by registration number and district rather than as “my land in the village”
Make the administration in Cyprus simpler and less expensive for the people left behind, who are usually the ones abroad

What it cannot do

A separate Cyprus will does not, by itself, override any reserved portion under the applicable law. A valid choice of law is a separate question. The will does not settle the tax position at home or remove the need to establish what administration and registration steps are required in Cyprus.

Whether two wills, one will or a will and a codicil is right for you is a question we answer after seeing what you own and where, not before.

If the person has already died

This page is written for someone deciding what to do while there is still time to decide. Where the death has already happened and there is a will made abroad, the questions are different and more urgent: what the will covers, whether it can be acted on in Cyprus, and what has to be done here. That is dealt with under administering an estate from abroad. Where there is no will at all and there is land in a village, start with inherited property.

If you are handling this from Australia, see Cyprus inheritance and property for Australian families for the information needed to start, the work that can be scoped separately and coordination with your Australian adviser.

Questions we are asked

Can I leave my Cyprus property to whoever I like?

Not necessarily. First identify the applicable law. For deaths on or after 17 August 2015, Cyprus applies the EU Succession Regulation, including its habitual-residence rule, choice-of-law provisions and any relevant renvoi. Where Cyprus law governs, section 41 of Cap. 195 generally limits the disposable portion to one quarter if a child or a child’s descendant survives, or one half if a spouse or parent but no child or descendant survives. Section 41(2) contains a specific surviving-spouse exception. The old section 42 exemption was deleted in 2015. A valid choice of national law can change the analysis, but it must be assessed against the person’s circumstances and the will, including the Regulation’s transitional rules.

I own the Cyprus property jointly with my spouse. Does it pass automatically on death?

Do not assume so. What passes, and to whom, depends on how the property is actually registered and on the succession rules that apply, not on how the arrangement is described in conversation. Send us the registration details and we will tell you what the register says. This is one of the most commonly repeated assumptions in this area and it is worth checking rather than inheriting.

My will was drafted by a solicitor in London. Is that a problem?

No, and we would not suggest replacing it. The question is a narrower one: whether it deals sensibly with the Cyprus assets, whether it describes them well enough to be acted on, and whether anything done later has revoked or undermined it. Where a change is needed we would ordinarily want to work with your solicitor rather than around them.

Does my will have to be in Greek?

The formal requirements in section 23 of Cap. 195 concern execution, not language: writing, signature at the foot or end, two or more witnesses present at the same time who attest in the presence of the testator and of each other, and every sheet signed or initialled. The section says nothing about the language of the text, and wills in English are made and probated here. What remains important for a foreign will is to establish which formal-validity rules apply and what the receiving court or authority requires. Originals or certified copies, authentication and any required Greek translation must be checked for the particular document and procedure; foreign execution does not automatically make section 23 the only route to formal validity.

Where should the will be kept?

Somewhere the executor will find it, and the original rather than a copy. Cyprus offers an official home: under section 9 of the Administration of Estates Law, Cap. 189, a testator may deposit the will with the probate registrar for safe keeping, where it is recorded in a central register and cannot be removed without the court’s approval except by the testator personally. Families abroad regularly lose a will that was made in Cyprus decades earlier, and an estate then proceeds on the basis that there was none. Wherever it lives, tell your executor which registry or firm holds it and in which country.

Written on these subjects

For a will made here for the Cyprus assets, on a fixed fee, see the expat and foreign resident will service. Next: administering an estate from abroad. Related practice area: Trusts, Wills & Succession, which covers wills, probate, trusts and cross-border estates generally.

Wills