No: a grant of probate or an heir certificate issued abroad is not, on its own, enough to register inherited property in Türkiye in the heirs’ names. Article 37 of the Land Registry Law No. 2644 provides that the intikal of foreign natural persons is carried out on the basis of a certificate of inheritance issued by a Turkish court, or of one issued by their own competent authority and confirmed by a Turkish court as conforming to the provisions of Turkish law on succession. Article 58 of the Law No. 5718 on Private International Law and International Civil Procedure (MÖHUK) points the same way: a foreign court decision, including a non-contentious one, is accepted as conclusive evidence or res judicata only once a Turkish court has found that it meets the enforcement conditions, that is, after recognition (tanıma), and Article 58/3 applies the same procedure to an administrative act carried out in Türkiye on the basis of a foreign decision, such as the land registry entry. The alternative is a Turkish certificate of inheritance (mirasçılık belgesi) from the civil court of peace under Article 598 of the Turkish Civil Code No. 4721, because Article 71/B of the Notaries Act No. 1512 bars a notary from issuing one where it is requested by foreigners.
The heirs already own the property from the moment of death (Articles 599 and 705/2 of the Civil Code); what they lack until the registration is the power to carry out acts of disposal, such as a sale or a mortgage. Three bodies of rules meet here: conflict of laws, recognition of foreign decisions, and the land registry and tax rules governing the entry itself. This guide follows them in that order, on the legislation in force as of September 2026. It is one chapter of the stage-by-stage guide to protecting a property investment in Türkiye; the acquisition framework is covered in buying property in Türkiye as a foreigner and the recognition mechanics in enforcement of foreign judgments in Türkiye.
Which law governs the succession to property located in Türkiye?
Article 20 of Law No. 5718 lays down a two-part rule: succession is governed by the national law of the deceased, but Turkish law applies to immovable property located in Türkiye. One estate can therefore split in two: movables and assets abroad governed by the deceased’s nationality, and an apartment in Antalya or Istanbul governed by Turkish law alone — including the Turkish rules on reserved shares (saklı pay), whatever the owner’s nationality or residence.
The second paragraph adds that the opening, acquisition and partition of the succession are governed by the law of the country where the estate is located; the third provides that an estate in Türkiye without heirs passes to the Turkish State; the fourth refers the form of testamentary dispositions to Article 7 and also accepts the form required by the deceased’s national law — form is treated generously, substance on the Turkish property is not.
The content of the reserved shares is fixed by Article 506 of the Civil Code: one half of the statutory share for descendants, one quarter for each of the mother and father, the whole statutory share for the surviving spouse when inheriting together with descendants or with the parental line, and three quarters of it in other cases; the reserved share of siblings was abolished by Law No. 5650 of 2007. Article 505 states the effect: a testator who leaves descendants, parents or a spouse may dispose by will only of the part exceeding those shares; where none exists the whole estate is freely disposable. A foreign will leaving the Turkish property entirely to one child or a third party is therefore not applied literally.
Is a foreign decision enough at the land registry directorate?
The answer turns on the line between enforcement (tenfiz) and recognition (tanıma).
Article 50/1 makes the execution in Türkiye of a final foreign civil judgment conditional on an enforcement order from the competent Turkish court. Article 54 lists the conditions: reciprocity based on a treaty, a statutory provision or actual practice; that the judgment does not concern a matter within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Turkish courts (nor, where the defendant so objects, that it came from a court with no genuine connection to the dispute or the parties); that it is not manifestly contrary to public policy; and respect for the rights of defence — proper summons or representation, or no objection on that ground before the Turkish court.
Article 58 then adds three rules that matter to heirs. First, a foreign judgment is accepted as conclusive evidence or res judicata once the court finds that it meets the enforcement conditions, with an express exception for the reciprocity condition in Article 54/1(a) — reciprocity is an enforcement condition, not a recognition condition. Second, decisions of non-contentious jurisdiction (ihtilâfsız kaza) — heir certificates and probate grants issued by judicial bodies abroad — are recognised by the same route. Third, an administrative act carried out in Türkiye on the basis of a foreign judgment follows the same procedure, and that is the land registry entry.
Procedurally, the court of first instance (asliye mahkemesi) is competent under Article 51, and under Article 55/1 no service on an opposing party is required for ex parte non-contentious decisions, the usual form of an heir certificate.
What still calls for careful assessment is the exclusive jurisdiction condition where the foreign decision touches rights over property in Türkiye: that property is governed by Turkish law under Article 20/1, and Article 43 assigns succession claims to the court of the deceased’s last domicile in Türkiye or, failing that, of the place where the estate assets are located. Before filing a recognition action it is therefore worth weighing whether the shorter route is a Turkish certificate of inheritance, with the foreign document as supporting evidence.
Who issues the certificate of inheritance to foreign heirs?
Law No. 6217 of 2011 added the words “or by a notary” to Article 598 of the Civil Code, so that in principle there are two routes to a certificate of inheritance. The Notaries Act No. 1512 narrows the notarial route decisively: Article 71/B bars a notary from issuing the certificate in three situations — where issuing it would require adjudication, where the civil registry records are insufficient, or where the certificate is requested by foreign nationals. A foreign heir therefore does not obtain the certificate from a notary however simple the family position; the competent body is the civil court of peace (sulh hukuk mahkemesi).
Three further points. An objection to a notarial certificate goes to the civil court of peace under Article 71/C. The invalidity of a certificate of inheritance may be raised at any time under Article 598 itself; it is a document of proof, not an instrument that creates the right. And a will follows its own track: it is opened and read to the interested parties within one month of its delivery, valid or not (Article 596), and the beneficiary receives a certificate only if no objection is raised within one month of notification (Article 598/2). In practice the court file must supply the civil-status evidence the Turkish registry cannot: apostilled death, marriage and birth records or a certified family tree, with sworn translations.
When does ownership actually pass — and why is registration still required?
Under Article 599 of the Civil Code, the heirs acquire the estate as a whole, by operation of law, upon the death of the deceased — the deceased’s rights in rem and possession directly, and personal liability for the deceased’s debts. Article 705/2 confirms the rule for immovables: in cases of succession, court judgment, compulsory enforcement, expropriation and the other cases provided by law, ownership is acquired before registration — but the owner’s power to carry out acts of disposal depends on the ownership being registered in the land register.
The heir is therefore owner from the day of death but cannot sell or mortgage before the entry. That is the legal meaning of the intikal: a declaration of an existing right, not the creation of a new one, yet a precondition to any disposal.
Where there are several heirs, joint ownership (elbirliği mülkiyeti) arises: under Article 640 a community covering all the rights and debts of the estate exists until partition, and the heirs dispose of the estate’s rights jointly — one heir cannot sell “his share” of the apartment alone. Under Article 644 any heir may ask the civil court of peace to convert the joint ownership into co-ownership by shares (paylı mülkiyet); the judge invites the other heirs to object within a set period, and if no objection justifying continued joint ownership is raised and no partition action is brought in time, the conversion is ordered. Article 640 also lets the court appoint a representative for the community of heirs until partition, which helps where the heirs live in several countries.
What documents are required for the intikal at the land registry?
- Proof of heirship: a certificate of inheritance issued by the civil court of peace, or a foreign decision after recognition under Article 58.
- The death certificate and the property identifiers: province, district, neighbourhood, block (ada), parcel (parsel) and independent-section number.
- The heirs’ identity documents or passports and a Turkish tax identification number for the tax steps.
- A compulsory earthquake insurance (DASK) policy valid on the transaction date: Article 10 of the Disaster Insurance Law No. 6305 requires the owner or usufructuary to take out and renew it annually, and Article 11/2 bars land registry directorates from registration transactions on buildings subject to it unless cover valid on the transaction date is documented.
- A sworn translation of every document in a foreign language, and an apostille where the issuing state is party to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents — ratified by Türkiye on 31 July 1985 and in force for it since 29 September 1985 — otherwise legalisation through diplomatic and consular channels.
A power of attorney used by the heirs must pass the same formal test and cover the intikal and the tax filings. For heirs living in Germany, the estate annex to the 1929 consular convention between Germany and Türkiye also points to Turkish law for immovable property in Türkiye; our guide for heirs and other clients in Germany explains it, together with signing the power of attorney at a Turkish consulate or before a German notary.
Inheritance tax and title deed fees: what is paid, and when?
Article 1 of the Inheritance and Transfer Tax Law No. 7338 subjects to the tax assets located in Türkiye passing by succession or gratuitously, alongside the assets of Turkish nationals; a foreign heir of property in Türkiye is therefore a taxpayer whatever their nationality. Under Article 10 immovable property is valued for the initial assessment at its property tax (emlak vergisi) value, not at market value.
Article 9 sets the filing deadlines by reference to the place of death and the place of the taxpayer:
| Place of death | Where the heir is | Deadline from the date of death |
|---|---|---|
| In Türkiye | In Türkiye | 4 months |
| In Türkiye | Abroad | 6 months |
| Abroad | In Türkiye | 6 months |
| Abroad | In the same country where the deceased died | 4 months |
| Abroad | In another foreign country | 8 months |
Taxpayers abroad may file through a Turkish consulate (Article 8).
For 2026, under Inheritance and Transfer Tax General Communiqué No. 57 (Official Gazette of 31 December 2025), TRY 2,907,136 of the share of each descendant (including adopted children) and of the spouse is exempt, and TRY 5,817,845 of the spouse’s share where there are no descendants. The rate on succession rises from 1 per cent on the first TRY 3,000,000 to 10 per cent on the part of the base exceeding TRY 55,000,000. These figures are revalued annually.
The time of payment is fixed by Article 19: the tax is paid over three years from assessment, in two equal instalments in May and November of each year. The same article carries the rule that matters most to heirs: the inherited immovable is registered without waiting for the tax assessment, the result being reported to the tax office within 15 days of registration; but the property may not be transferred and no right in rem created over it until the tax attributable to it has been paid in full, and land registry officers may not process a transfer without a clearance certificate (ilişik kesme belgesi), failing which they are jointly and severally liable with the taxpayers. A transfer may be permitted against security of the kinds listed in Article 10 of Law No. 6183.
On fees, a common confusion: the fee of 20 per mille payable by each of the transferor and the transferee under Tariff No. 4 annexed to the Fees Law No. 492 is charged on transfers of immovable property for consideration, not on the registration of an inheritance. Within an estate, item 3 of the tariff charges 22.77 per mille on the partition of estate property among legal and appointed heirs, and 11.38 per mille on the execution of legacies, revocation of gifts and similar acquisitions where the fee was not collected on the transfer, both on the registered value (rates in force as of September 2026). The fixed-amount fees in the tariffs to Law No. 492 were raised by 18.95 per cent for 2026 by Presidential Decision No. 10783 published on 31 December 2025; the proportional rates above were not changed. From the following budget year the annual property tax also shifts to the heirs (Articles 9 and 19, read with Article 33/6, of the Property Tax Law No. 1319), where property compliance for non-resident owners begins.
What if the heir falls outside the scope of Article 35?
Acquisitions by foreign natural persons are capped by Article 35 of the Land Registry Law No. 2644: 10 per cent of a district’s (ilçe) privately ownable surface area, 30 hectares per person nationwide, and only for nationals of countries on the presidential list. The final paragraph of Article 35 treats inheritance separately: immovables and limited rights in rem acquired by inheritance that fall outside the framework of the first paragraph are liquidated by the owner within a period set by the Ministry of Finance not exceeding one year; if the owner does not do so, they are liquidated and converted into money and the proceeds are paid to the person entitled. The right of inheritance is therefore preserved and satisfied in money where the property cannot be held in kind, including for nationals of countries outside the list.
Where a legal entity is among the heirs, Article 35/2 applies: foreign legal entities other than commercial companies established under the laws of their own country may not acquire immovable property in Türkiye or hold limited rights in rem over it, and foreign commercial companies may acquire only within the framework of special statutes. Citizenship by investment is outside this guide.
What are the recurring pitfalls for foreign heirs?
- Relying on the foreign document alone, as if it could be presented to the land registry as in the issuing country, without recognition or a Turkish certificate of inheritance.
- Missing the inheritance tax filing deadline, which differs by place of death and by each taxpayer’s residence.
- Contracting to sell immediately after registration without paying the tax and obtaining the clearance certificate, so the sale stalls at the land registry.
- One heir acting alone where the estate is in joint ownership and the heirs must act together or first convert it into shares.
- Neglecting the DASK policy, or letting it lapse before the transaction.
- Assuming a foreign will is executed literally over the property in Türkiye, ignoring the reserved shares imposed by Turkish law.
The transfer of property in Türkiye to heirs living abroad is not a single formality but a sequence: heirship before the competent body, the tax return within its deadline, the entry at the land registry, then the arrangement among the heirs before any disposal. Each link rests on a statutory text and a computable deadline, and is usually reviewed early within Turkish real estate law work, because correcting an entry or a tax filing after its deadline is heavier than arranging it in time.
Related guides
- Enforcement of foreign judgments in Türkiye
- Buying property in Türkiye as a foreigner
- Real estate fraud in Türkiye: types, remedies and asset freezing
- Property, inheritance and yacht matters in Fethiye
