A will can be challenged on its validity, or corrected in its effect. The two routes are different, and choosing the wrong one wastes the only good moment to act.
Two Different Complaints, Two Different Routes
People who say they want to contest a will usually mean one of two things. The first is that the will itself is not valid: it was not properly made, or the person who made it lacked capacity, or was pressured into it. The second is that the will is valid but gives the challenger less than the law reserves for them. The first complaint attacks the document. The second does not need to: Cyprus law reserves a statutory portion of the estate for close family, and a will cannot dispose of what was never disposable. How that portion works is explained in our article on making a will in Cyprus.
This article is about both, because the first practical step is deciding which complaint you actually have.
The Grounds That Attack Validity
A will must satisfy the formalities of execution in section 23 of the Wills and Succession Law, Cap. 195, and the section is expressed as a prohibition rather than a standard: no will is valid unless it is in writing and executed in the manner it sets out. That manner has four limbs. Paragraph (a), signed at the foot or end by the testator, or by another acting for the testator in the testator's presence and by their direction. Paragraph (b), that signature made or acknowledged by the testator in the presence of two or more witnesses present at the same time. Paragraph (c), those witnesses attest and subscribe the will in the presence of the testator and of each other, though the paragraph adds that no form of attestation is necessary. And paragraph (d), where the will runs to more than one sheet, every sheet signed or initialled by or for the testator and the witnesses. Failures here are more common than expected, particularly in wills signed without a lawyer present: witnesses who signed one after the other rather than together, or a page that nobody initialled.
A defect in those formalities is no longer necessarily fatal. Section 23A(1), added in 2015, provides that notwithstanding section 23, where an error or omission is found in the section 23 formalities, or a grammatical or numerical error in the content of the will, any interested person may apply to the Court to correct it. The Court may do so if it is satisfied and considers it just in the circumstances, and the will is then treated as valid as corrected from the date it was executed. Section 23A(2) applies that power to every will whatever the date of execution. A challenge built on a formality alone now has to reckon with the possibility that the other side applies to cure it.
Section 22 deals with capacity in a single sentence, and fixes the age at a number rather than a standard: no will made by a person not of sound mind, or who has not completed their eighteenth year, is valid.
Section 29 is the provision behind the undue influence argument, and it is wider than the English formula. A will, or any part of a will, whose making was procured by duress, fraud or mental pressure exerted on the testator is void and of no effect. Because it reaches a part, a challenge does not have to succeed against the whole document to be worth bringing.
Two further sections decide cases without any argument about the testator's mind. Section 25 voids a legacy left to a person who attested the will, or to their spouse or child, to the extent it concerns the witness, the spouse, the child, or anyone claiming through them. The will stands; the gift to the witness does not. Section 28 deals with anything written on the will after execution: no erasure, interlineation or other alteration made after execution is valid or has any effect, except so far as the words or the effect of the will before the alteration are not apparent, unless the alteration is executed in the same manner section 23 requires; and the will with the alteration counts as duly executed if the testator's signature and the witnesses' subscription appear in the margin, or opposite or near the alteration.
Revocation is a separate line of attack, and it does not depend on anything being wrong with the will when it was made. Section 37 allows revocation by a later will expressly revoking the earlier one, by a later will inconsistent with it but only to the extent of the inconsistency, or by burning, tearing or otherwise destroying it by the testator or by another in the testator's presence and by their direction, with the intention of revoking it. Section 38 revokes a will by operation of law in two events: the marriage of the testator after execution, and the birth of a child after execution where the testator had no children when the will was made. The proviso saves the will where it appears from the document itself that it was made in contemplation of that marriage or birth. Section 39 closes the loop: a revoked will does not revive except by re-execution in the section 23 manner, showing an intention to revive it.
One ground sits outside the will altogether and is the one families most often do not know exists. Sections 17 to 20 make a person unworthy to succeed without touching the validity of the will at all. Section 17 lists seven cases: conviction for the deliberate and unlawful causing, or attempted causing, of the death of the person whose estate is in question; conviction for the murder or attempted murder of that person's child, parent or spouse; procuring that person by duress, fraud or mental pressure to make a will or to revoke one already made; preventing that person from making, altering or revoking a will; putting forward a forged will; unlawfully altering or destroying a will already made; and aiding or abetting anyone in any of those acts.
The consequences are worked out in the next three sections. Section 18 lifts the unworthiness where the deceased forgave the person voluntarily and expressly, by a written declaration signed before and certified by a District Officer, or by a provision to that effect in the will. Section 19 saves the unworthy person's own descendants: they take as though the unworthy person had died during the deceased's lifetime, though the unworthy person loses any later right to enjoy the estate through them. Section 20 is the deadline, and it is short: an action claiming an estate on the ground of a person's unworthiness must be brought before three years pass from the date of death of the person whose estate is in question.
The testator must have had testamentary capacity: understanding the act and its effects, the extent of the property, and the claims of those who might expect to inherit, free of any disorder of the mind that poisons the disposition itself. Capacity is judged at the moment of execution, which is why medical records from that period matter more than anything witnesses say years later.
Undue influence means pressure that overbore the testator's own will, not mere persuasion or family closeness. It is alleged often and proved rarely, because the person who could describe the pressure is gone, and the law places the burden squarely on the person alleging it: in the probate context, no relationship, however close, creates a presumption of undue influence by itself.
Where the person who benefits helped prepare the will, or the will departs radically from every earlier one, the court expects the person relying on it to dispel the suspicion.
That is the doctrine of suspicious circumstances: due execution normally carries a presumption that the testator knew and approved the contents, but involvement of a beneficiary in the making of the will, an enfeebled testator, secrecy, haste, or a radical and unexplained change of direction shift the burden back to the person propounding the will.
If a will in your family is in question, tell us the date of death and whether probate has yet been granted, at office@kleanthousplatis.com, or the enquiry form. We reply within one business day.
When to Act, and Why the Stage Matters
The moment of leverage is before the will is admitted to probate, not after the estate has been administered under it. A person with an interest can file a caveat with the probate registry, which prevents any grant from issuing while the dispute is brought before the court. The caveat states the caveator's interest, and it holds the position: no grant can issue unless the caveat is withdrawn, the caveator fails to bring the dispute to court within the period the rules allow, or the court orders otherwise.
Once assets have been distributed, the claim does not necessarily die, but it changes shape and difficulty: recovering property from beneficiaries is harder than stopping a distribution that has not happened. For estates administered from abroad, or wills made abroad touching Cyprus assets, the sequence has additional steps: see Cyprus probate from abroad and our article on foreign wills and Cyprus property.
What Happens if the Challenge Succeeds
If the will falls entirely, the estate passes under an earlier valid will if one exists, and otherwise under the rules of intestacy, which follow the family structure. A challenger should always check, before starting, that the result of success is actually better for them than the will they are attacking. It is not a rhetorical point: we have advised people out of challenges they would have won and regretted.
If the complaint is the statutory portion rather than validity, success reshapes the distribution without destroying the will: the reserved portion is restored, and the will operates on what remains.
The Realistic Assessment
Will disputes are family disputes with a document in the middle, and they consume estates when they are run on emotion. The first piece of work is written and unheroic: what grounds exist on the evidence available now, what the estate is worth, what success would actually change, and what the proceedings would cost against that. Sometimes the honest advice is that the will stands. Sometimes it is that the statutory portion already gives you most of what a fight would.
Frequently Asked Questions
What formalities does the law require of a will?
Under Cap. 195: a will in writing, signed at its foot or end by the testator, with the signature made or acknowledged before two or more witnesses present at the same time, who then attest and sign in the presence of the testator and of each other, and with every sheet of a multi page will signed or initialled.
Who can contest a will in Cyprus?
Those with something to gain from its failure: persons who would take on intestacy or under an earlier will, persons whose reserved portion the will ignores, and in some cases creditors of the estate.
Is there a deadline for challenging a will?
The practical deadline is probate: act before the grant, because everything is harder after distribution. A caveat filed before the grant holds the position while the dispute is brought to court. Specific limitation periods depend on the route, so the dates should be checked on your facts early.
The will leaves a gift to one of the witnesses. Is that a problem?
The will itself can stand, but a gift to an attesting witness, or to that witness's spouse or child, is void. The witness still counts as a valid witness for execution.
The will was made abroad. Can it still control Cyprus property?
It can touch it, but which law governs, and how the reserved portion applies, depends on the connections of the estate. This is exactly the case where advice must come before any step.
Related Reading
By Klitos Platis, Advocate. Klitos advises on litigation, corporate and commercial law, real estate, construction and energy at Kleanthous & Platis LLC in Nicosia.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Laws and their application can change, and individual circumstances differ. For advice on your own matter, contact Klitos Platis at klitos@kleanthousplatis.com or telephone +357 22 680 330.
Klitos Platis
Advocate, Partner
Kleanthous & Platis LLC, Nicosia · Published 6 February 2026
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