Accepting An Estate In Greece
By Christos ILIOPOULOS*
Athens, 8 October 2023
Acceptance of inheritance is the process by which you make the necessary legal and administrative steps in order to obtain the ownership of the assets of en estate, which you are entitled to. Your right as an heir may be based on the Will of the deceased, or on intestate / intestacy law, if there is no Will. Under Greek law, applicable to all assets located in Greece and also potentially on movable assets located outside of Greece, the basic actions you need to undertake in order to accept the estate are the following.
First, you need to make sure that you want to accept the inheritance. If the estate has outstanding debt, or if you prefer that your share goes to another member of your family, you may wish to renounce it. You can do this within a time limit. If the deceased died in Greece and the heir lives in Greece, the time limit is four months from the passing, or from the date of the probation of the Will. If the deceased died abroad or the heir lives abroad, the time limit is twelve months. If you do nothing during the time limit, in other words, if you do not renounce, it is considered by law that you have accepted the inheritance.
If you are working to accept the inheritance, you will need the death certificate. In case it is not from Greece, we need to know if the deceased was a Greek citizen or not. If he/she was a Greek citizen, the death should be registered with the Consulate of Greece near the place of death abroad. If the deceased was not a Greek citizen, we will work in Greece with the original foreign death certificate, certified with an Apostille (if from the USA, Australia, the UK and many other countries), or other certification (e.g. from Canada, the Global Affairs stamp and the notarization by the Consulate of Greece). An important document will be the next-of-kin certificate. It is issued in Greece, if the deceased was a Greek citizen. If not, we usually require two affidavits stating the full names of the next of kin of the deceased, who can be children, the spouse, or siblings and children of predeceased siblings of the deceased .
We will also have to establish if there is a Will left or not. If a Will is found, if it is probated already in another country or if we know who is the notary in Greece who has it and we subsequently probated it in Greece, or if it is a holographic (handwritten) Will, we will follow its terms. It is advisable that a Greek lawyers reads the Will before it is filed for probation in Greece, in order to advise if the Will is applicable in Greece and if it can produce the legal results we wish, or if its probation and use in Greece may lead to legal uncertainties.
The assets of an estate in Greece is a very significant matter to consider. Locating the assets is important, since they have to be found, identified, counted, described and declared to the tax authority, to the notary and to the land registry, if they are immovable assets. If we are talking about a house, an apartment or a plot or land, it will help if we have a copy of its title deed. If not, the lawyer will most likely obtain and review a certified copy of the deed by which the deceased had owned the asset, at the local land registry, where the lawyer will search using the name of the deceased. When we need a name in Greece, we usually need the first and the last name, as well as the first name of the father and of the mother of the person. Also, having a key of a house or unit or knowing directions how to get to a plot of land, is always helpful for the administration of the estate, since at least a civil engineer will have to inspect the immovable asset and produce technical documents (survey maps, technical descriptions of the assets etc.).
Finally, the heir who usually lives outside of Greece, cannot complete the process of the acceptance of the inheritance within a few days or a couple of weeks’ stay in Greece. The entire process will take at least several months and the heir cannot always escort the attorney at the numerous visits to courts, notaries, tax offices and other authorities. A POA (power of attorney) is therefore required in order to allow the trusted attorney to work on behalf and for the interest of the heir, who thus will be free to travel back to his country, leaving the attorney do the work in Greece. Actually, the heir does not even have to come to Greece at all. She/he can sign a POA at the Consulate of Greece or at a local notary with Apostille, and send it to the attorney in Greece.
All estates which involve a deceased who passed until end of 2008, do not require that the heirs have to pay any inheritance tax at all to the Greek state. But even of the deceased has died in 2009 or afterwards, the inheritance tax in Greece is either zero or very low. The children and the spouse of the deceased do not pay any inheritance tax at all, if each heir’s share is worth up to 150,000 Euros. This means that if two children inherit an inheritance worth 290,000 Euros and they inherit equal shares, they will not pay inheritance tax, provided they declare the estate to the tax office within the four or twelve month period after the passing or the probation of the Will. But even for shares which are worth over 150,000 Euros, each heir will have to pay inheritance tax only one per cent (1%) for worth up to 300,000 Euros (that is 1% or maximum 1,500 Euros for the part from the 150,000 to 300,000 Euros). Siblings or children of predeceased siblings of the deceased enjoy lower tax-free thresholds, but they will still pay no tax or relatively low inheritance tax, and in the vast majority of cases it is worth it to claim the estate, as outstanding property taxes and other obligations are usually a small percentage of the actual market value of the assets to be inherited.
The above is a general introduction to the process of the acceptance of an inheritance in Greece. Each particular case has its own facts. Therefore, the heir must first consult with a lawyer in Greece, in order to learn what is the law and the process in each specific case and then make their informed decision on how to proceed.
*Christos ILIOPOULOS, attorney at
the Supreme Court of Greece , LL.M.
e-mail: bm-bioxoi@otenet.gr
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