Cyprus law governs succession to immovable property here, whatever the owner's domicile and wherever the will was made, unless the will made a valid choice of the law of a nationality. Under section 41 of Cap. 195 a will directs at most one quarter of the net estate where a child or a child's descendant survives, and one half where a spouse or a parent survives but no child. A disposition beyond that is reduced.
Does a will made abroad reach property in Cyprus?
What can be said plainly is this. A will made in England, in an Australian state or in a United States jurisdiction is a document made under that law. Whether it operates on immovable property in Cyprus is a separate question from whether it is a good will at home, and it turns on which law governs succession to that property and on what Cyprus requires before a foreign will can be acted on here. Both of those depend on the individual's circumstances and connections, not on a general rule that can be printed on a page.
For immovable property, though, the Cyprus courts have said which law decides. In Kochino v. Irfan (1976) 1 CLR 240 the Supreme Court applied the rule that it is the lex situs, the law of the place where the land lies, and the lex situs exclusively, which decides whether the testator had capacity, whether the formalities for making or for revoking a will were observed, and whether the power of disposition was unlimited or restricted. For land in Cyprus that law is Cyprus law, whatever the will's home jurisdiction. The same judgment drew the boundary in the other direction too: houses the deceased owned in London were left out of account in fixing the widow's share of the Cyprus estate, because the estate Cap. 195 distributes does not include immovable property outside Cyprus.
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 the enquiry form. We reply within one business day.
The part that surprises people
Cyprus succession law reserves a portion for close family
Cyprus succession law 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.
Two further provisions decide who the regime reaches. Under section 5, the Law governs succession to immovable property in Cyprus whatever the owner's domicile, so foreign ownership does not, by itself, take a Cyprus house or plot outside it. And the old exception that gave certain foreign testators absolute freedom of disposition, section 42, was deleted by Law 96(I)/2015: pages still relying on it are out of date by a decade. What can change the analysis today is a valid choice of the law of nationality under the EU Succession Regulation, which is the subject of 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. 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.
The Cyprus 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 swept away by a foreign will's revocation clause therefore does not come back when the foreign will is later replaced. It has to be made again.
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
It cannot override the reserved portion, and it should not be sold to you as a way of doing so. It does not settle the tax position at home. It does not make Cyprus administration unnecessary, though it usually makes it shorter.
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.
Questions we are asked
Can I leave my Cyprus property to whoever I like?
Not necessarily. Under section 41 of Cap. 195, where a spouse and a child, or a child or a child's descendant, survive you, the will directs at most one quarter of the net estate; with a spouse or a parent but no children, at most one half. Section 5 applies the regime to immovable property in Cyprus whatever your domicile, and the old absolute-freedom exception for certain foreign testators was deleted in 2015. What can genuinely change the outcome is a valid choice of the law of your nationality under the EU Succession Regulation, made properly in the will itself: whether that route is open to you is the first question worth asking.
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 for a valid will, 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 true is procedural: a document produced to a Cypriot institution or court generally has to be in Greek or accompanied by a translation made by a sworn translator, and a document made abroad is legalised before it is translated.
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
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
PropertyBuying Property in Cyprus as a UK National: What Changed After Brexit
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.
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.