Inheritance & Estate

Standing beside someone who has lost a loved one is the hardest — and most meaningful — work in this profession. During a period when grief is still raw, processes such as the certificate of inheritance, estate inventory, probate of a will, unlocking bank accounts and title transfer all interweave, and most people simply do not know where to start. When the matter involves an estate split between Turkey and Montenegro — an apartment in Istanbul, a seaside flat in Budva, a DOO share in Podgorica, a bank account in Bar — two separate legal systems, two tax regimes and two judicial logics confront you at once. As RoNa Legal, we are among the handful of offices running Turkish and Montenegrin inheritance law side by side along this axis; based in Budva, we also reach files in Turkey directly.

This page walks you through three axes together: Turkish inheritance law, Montenegrin inheritance law, and cross-border transfer. The aim is not to alarm you; it is to show, with concrete legal references, how a small piece of planning during your lifetime protects your family after death, and which tools are available when a problem does arise.

Our inheritance-law services in Turkey

Turkish inheritance law is set out in detail in Book Three of the Turkish Civil Code (Act No. 4721, Arts. 495–682). When a file opens in practice, the first three items we check are the heirs' legal position, the balance of reserved shares, and the assets-and-liabilities structure of the estate. Any step taken without knowing these three causes rights losses that are hard to reverse.

The certificate of inheritance and mapping of rank heirs

The first document needed when the deceased passes away is the certificate of inheritance — the "veraset ilamı" in popular usage. Without this document, no operation such as title transfer, bank-account access, pension transfer or vehicle transfer can be completed. Article 71/A of the Notaries Act allows the certificate to be issued by a notary — provided the file contains no foreign element. If, however, there is a non-Turkish heir, the heirship cannot be clearly derived from civil-status records, or a testamentary disposition (such as a will) is involved, the certificate is issued only by the Magistrate Civil Court (Notaries Act Art. 71/B).

Turkish Civil Code Arts. 495–501 set out the rank-heir framework. The first rank comprises descendants, the second the parents and their descendants, and the third the grandparents and their descendants. The surviving spouse's share varies with the rank with which they inherit (Art. 499): alongside descendants the spouse takes 1/4, alongside the parent rank 1/2, alongside the grandparent rank 3/4; where none of these exist the estate passes to the spouse alone. Adopted children are treated as descendants (Art. 500); with no heir at all, the estate passes to the State (Art. 501). Compared with Montenegro, this is the most decisive difference in the picture — we return to it below.

The reserved share and reduction: the limits of testamentary freedom

There is a core against which the deceased cannot freely dispose by will or by inter vivos transfers: the reserved share (Turkish Civil Code Arts. 505–506). A common misunderstanding needs correcting here: the amendment made by Act No. 5650 of 4 May 2007 did not abolish the parent's reserved share; it buried only the siblings' reserved share. Today reserved-share heirs are descendants, parents and the spouse. The descendants' reserved share is half of the statutory share; each parent takes a quarter of the statutory share; where the spouse inherits alongside descendants or the parent rank, the entire statutory share is reserved, in other cases three quarters of it (Art. 506).

When I see a client file with a title transferred to one child during the deceased's lifetime and a will in favour of another, the first question I ask is whether the reserved share has been breached. If the answer is "yes," a reduction action becomes relevant (Arts. 560–571). The reduction sequence is fixed: first testamentary dispositions, then succession contracts, and lastly inter vivos transfers. On time-bars, Turkish Civil Code Art. 571 sets a two-layer regime: one year from learning that the reserved share has been breached, and in any case ten years from probate (for wills) or from the opening of the succession (for other dispositions). These are strict time-bars observed by the court ex officio. The Court of Cassation's recent shift, which pulls the commencement of the one-year period from finalisation of the probate order to "the date on which the will, the ground of invalidity and the rightholder's status were all learned together," starts the clock earlier in practice; the first weeks after probate are therefore critical.

In practice the most common tool used to breach the reserved share is transferring real estate to one heir in the guise of a gift or an under-priced sale. The First Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation's settled case law examines this structure under muris muvazaası (the testator's collusive transfer to defeat heirs), and the other reserved-share heirs may bring an action for title cancellation and re-registration. Muris muvazaası runs without a limitation period — one of the most important features distinguishing it from reduction. For our detailed service on this doctrine see our Title Cancellation and Registration page.

Drafting and challenging a will

Under Turkish law a will takes three forms: the public will (Turkish Civil Code Arts. 532–537, before a notary or magistrate with two witnesses), the holograph will (Art. 538, entirely handwritten by the testator, with date and signature mandatory), and, in exceptional circumstances, the oral will (Arts. 539–541). Missing date on a holograph will is an absolute ground of invalidity; this is a concrete formal requirement that — as we will see below — differs from Montenegrin law. Succession contracts can only be made in public-will form under Turkish Civil Code Arts. 527–530; there is no holograph succession contract.

On the testator's death, anyone who comes into possession of the will must deliver it without delay to the magistrate (Art. 595). The magistrate opens the will within one month and serves it on the interested parties (Arts. 596–597). The invalidity action rests on four typical grounds (Art. 557): lack of capacity, defects of intent, illegality or immorality, and formal defect. Time-bars in Art. 559: 1 year from knowledge; in any case 10 years against good-faith defendants, 20 years against those not in good faith; and invalidity may always be raised by way of defence. In will-challenge files we run with Nazlıcan, the point we most scrutinise is whether service on the heir has been lawfully effected — because that is when time starts to run.

Renouncing the inheritance: the critical three-month window

For a heavily indebted estate or an inheritance the family does not wish to accept, our first tool is renunciation of the inheritance (Turkish Civil Code Arts. 605–618). The Act provides two routes. Express renunciation (Art. 606) is effected by an unconditional declaration to the Magistrate Civil Court of the deceased's last place of residence; the period is three months and strict. For statutory heirs it runs from knowledge of the death — unless they prove that they learned of their heirship later; for instituted heirs it runs from the date of formal service of the will. Once the period has elapsed, the inheritance is deemed unconditionally accepted (Art. 610). If one heir renounces within time, their share passes to the others as though that heir had predeceased (Art. 611).

Constructive renunciation (Art. 605/2), where the deceased is clearly or officially determined to have been insolvent at the date of death, produces its effect automatically without a statement by the heirs. The action filed at this stage is in fact a declaratory action; the competent court is the Civil Court of First Instance, the estate creditor is named as defendant, and the three-month strict period does not apply. In practice, under Enforcement and Insolvency Act Art. 53 no enforcement may be opened against heirs until three months have passed since the death; that three-month "cold-storage" period gives heirs time to make a sound assessment of the estate inventory.

Estate liquidation, partition and the family home

Where heirs cannot see the estate clearly, there is a multiplicity of creditors, or there is serious disagreement among heirs, formal liquidation comes into play (Turkish Civil Code Arts. 619–631). If the heirs elect this route, what remains after the creditors and debtors are cleared is divided among them; the heirs' personal assets are protected during this process. For simpler files, the magistrate court contents itself with an estate inventory and, if needed, the appointment of an estate representative (Art. 640).

After the succession opens, joint ownership arises over the estate. Where heirs can agree by settlement, a partition contract is drawn up; in the absence of agreement, a partition action is brought (Arts. 642–668). Any heir may, under Art. 644, unilaterally request conversion of joint ownership into co-ownership in shares; this is a deadlock-breaking tool in multi-party files. The future of the family home is of particular significance: under Arts. 240 and 652 the surviving spouse may request allocation of the family home to themselves and may even take the home alone by paying share value to the other heirs through equalisation. Partition of agricultural land is subject to the indivisibility regime introduced by Act No. 6537 amending Act No. 5403 on Soil Protection and Land Use; no partition may bring the holding below the size of "sufficient-income agricultural land," and the solution is allocation to one heir or joint ownership. The equalisation mechanism (Arts. 669–675) ensures that lifetime transfers to one heir are fairly reconciled against the others.

Inheritance and transfer tax: the 2026 table

The Inheritance and Transfer Tax Act No. 7338 is the tax leg of Turkish inheritance practice. Effective 1 January 2026, under General Communiqué No. 57 published in Official Gazette No. 33124 (5th Repeated) dated 31 December 2025, the exemption thresholds are: per inheritance share accruing to each descendant (including adopted descendants) and the spouse, TRY 2,907,136 (where there are no descendants, the share accruing to the spouse is TRY 5,817,845); for gratuitous transfers and game-of-chance winnings, TRY 66,935. Tariff bands have been updated by the revaluation rate and apply progressively from 1% in the lower bracket up to 10% in the upper bracket for transfers by inheritance, and in the 10–30% band for gratuitous transfers (exact bracket amounts should be confirmed under the prevailing Communiqué).

The declaration period varies depending on whether the death occurs in Turkey or abroad: 4 months for a death in Turkey with heirs in Turkey; 6 or 8 months where a foreign element is involved. Payment is made in 6 equal instalments, in May and November each year over three years. A title transfer is not registered at the land registry without the municipal property-tax clearance and the settlement of the inheritance-tax assessment — in practice the "clearance certificate." Compared with Montenegro, the most striking point is that Turkey taxes the entire estate, while Montenegro targets only immovable transfers — a difference that shapes planning strategy.

Montenegrin inheritance law: points that diverge from Turkey

Montenegrin inheritance law is governed by the Zakon o nasljeđivanju (Sl. list CG 74/2008 and 75/2017), and the ostavinski postupak procedure by the Zakon o vanparničnom postupku (Sl. list RCG 27/2006 – CG 20/2015 – 75/2018 – 67/2019 – 123/2024). When we look at the position of Turkish heirs in Montenegro, the statutory framework looks similar, but the differences are of vital importance.

Rank system, spouse's share and the "vanbračni" partner

In Montenegro, in the first rank (prvi nasljedni red) children and the spouse inherit in equal shares. The spouse's fixed 1/4 share that exists in Turkey does not exist in Montenegro; in a family with two children, for example, the spouse and each child take 1/3. In the second rank, the spouse takes 1/2 and the parents share the remaining 1/2 equally. In the third rank, grandparents come in; if no heir appears, the estate passes to the Montenegrin State.

Another fundamental difference is that the non-marital cohabiting partner (vanbračni supružnik) is treated as fully equal to the married spouse in inheritance. With the conditions of long-standing cohabitation, the absence of a marriage impediment, and termination of the union by the deceased's death, this person is a statutory heir — a situation with no equivalent in Turkish law, and one that should not be overlooked in the estate planning of Turkish citizens who have lived in Montenegro for a long time.

Reserved share: the parent's standing and the "1/3" surprise

The nužni dio system in Montenegro is more broadly protective than Turkey's. Mandatory heirs include — alongside descendants, the spouse and adopted children — the parents, who remain reserved-share heirs; while this appears to overlap with the current 1/4 reserved share in Turkey, the mandatory-heir status of parents in Montenegro produces certain additional procedural advantages. Descendants, the spouse and adopted children receive half of their statutory share as reserved share; other mandatory heirs (including parents) receive one third of their statutory share.

Form of wills: the date detail in the holograph will

The Montenegrin Zakon o nasljeđivanju recognises many forms of will: svojeručni (holograph), pisani pred svjedocima (written before witnesses), sudski (before the magistrate), notarski / javni (before a notary), međunarodni (the 1973 Washington Convention), and also konzularni, brodski, vojni, and — in exceptional circumstances — usmeni (oral) wills. In the holograph will, the date is not required as strictly as it is in Turkey as a condition of validity; a holograph will deemed invalid in Turkey for want of date may therefore stand formally under Montenegrin law. A succession contract, on the other hand, is in principle null (ništav) in Montenegro; only limited instruments such as notarised share waivers are available in certain cases. This is a critical warning for clients who would like to make a succession contract in Montenegro after coming from Turkey.

Ostavinski postupak: a notary-centred procedure

With the 2015 reform (Sl. list CG 20/2015), Montenegro has transferred non-contentious inheritance files to notaries. The process runs as follows: the matičar (civil-status officer) sends the death record (smrtovnica) to the competent Osnovni sud; the court "povjerava" (entrusts) the file to a notary in alphabetical order; the parties cannot choose the notary. The notary holds a hearing within 60 days and issues a rješenje o nasljeđivanju. If a dispute arises (e.g. a contested will, a reserved-share dispute, a claim of oral testament), the file is returned to the Osnovni sud and the parties are directed to parnica proceedings. The prigovor (objection) period against the notary's decision is 8 days; the žalba (appeal) against court decisions is 15 days. While the speed is appealing, the message we remind Turkish clients of is this: because you cannot choose the notary, without lawyer coordination on translation, service and document preparation the file will advance in a few months — without you.

In urgent situations such as the automatic freezing of bank accounts on death and the DOO entering standby mode, a privremeni staralac zaostavštine (temporary estate guardian) is appointed by the court. This guardian pays debts, collects receivables, represents the DOO and maintains party status in litigation; where a Turkish entrepreneur who owns a company dies in Montenegro, this is the first port of call.

Montenegrin inheritance tax: the 2024 reform and the first-degree exemption

There is no independent inheritance tax in Montenegro. Inheritance of real estate is assessed within the scope of the Zakon o porezu na promet nepokretnosti, and the critical change took effect on 1 January 2024: the immovable transfer tax is now progressive. Up to €150,000 the rate is 3%; between €150,000 and €500,000, €4,500 fixed plus 5% of the excess; above €500,000, €22,000 fixed plus 6% of the excess. However, in transfers by inheritance, first-degree heirs — spouse (married or vanbračni), children, parents — are fully exempt (0%). In the second degree, exemptions are recognised for special situations (e.g. agricultural land plus three years of cohabitation; one apartment plus one year of cohabitation). The transfer of movables by inheritance (bank accounts, DOO shares, motor vehicles) is not separately taxed. The practical result is clear: for a Turkish client who leaves a €600,000 apartment in Budva to their spouse, the inheritance-tax burden on the Montenegrin side is zero — while on the Turkish side, if the deceased is a Turkish citizen and the property is reported in the declaration, the same property falls within the Turkish Inheritance and Transfer Tax tariff.

Succession of DOO shares and bank accounts

If a Turkish entrepreneur holds a DOO (Društvo s ograničenom odgovornošću) share in Montenegro, the share does not pass automatically to heirs at the moment of death; after the ostavinski postupak concludes with a rješenje, CRPS (Centralni registar privrednih subjekata) registration is effected. Meanwhile, because the bank account is frozen, the company's rent, payroll, supplier and tax payments stall; this gap is bridged by the privremeni staralac noted above. Changes to the izvršni direktor (executive director) are made through a skupština resolution of the heirs and a CRPS filing. For the detail on succession of DOO shares in Montenegro see our Montenegro Company Formation Guide; for post-death bank-account processes see our Montenegro Bank-Account Opening Guide.

Cross-border succession: three typical scenarios

The law applicable to an estate split between the two countries is determined on the scission (divided-connecting) principle. Under Art. 20 of the Turkish Private International Law Act No. 5718, succession is as a rule governed by the deceased's national law, save that Turkish law applies exclusively to immovables located in Turkey. The Montenegrin ZMPP (Sl. list CG 1/2014) follows a parallel approach, taking lex rei sitae as the basis for immovables; the option of choice of law in a testamentary disposition opens a planning door for foreign testators.

Two conventions ease the international framework. The 1961 Hague Convention on the Conflicts of Laws Relating to the Form of Testamentary Dispositions is in force in both countries (Turkey since 22 October 1983, Montenegro by succession since 3 June 2006); in other words, a holograph will drawn up in Turkey is formally valid in Montenegro, and a javni/notarski/međunarodni testament made in Montenegro is recognised in Turkey. The 1934 Turkey–Yugoslavia Judicial Assistance Convention (Approval Act No. 2874, OG 4 January 1936/3197), according to the list of the Ministry of Justice's General Directorate for International Law and Foreign Relations, continues in force vis-à-vis Montenegro by succession; it provides a significant basis for service, rogatory letters and mutual document recognition. The 1961 Hague Apostille Convention is likewise active in both countries, so documents can circulate with an apostille without the consular legalisation chain.

Scenario A: death in Turkey, real estate in Montenegro

A Turkish citizen dies in Istanbul and has an apartment in Budva. The first step is to obtain the certificate of inheritance in Turkey (from a notary under Art. 71/A where there is no foreign element; otherwise from the Magistrate Civil Court). The document is then apostilled at the courthouse — through the relevant Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor / the Civil-Law Clerk's Registry. The death certificate obtained from the Civil Registration Office is likewise apostilled (as an administrative document, through the governorate/district governorate). All documents are then translated into Montenegrin by a Montenegrin sworn translator (sudski tumač za turski jezik). The package is submitted with an ostavinski petition to the Osnovni sud at the location of the immovable; the court refers the file to a notary; the notary holds a hearing and issues the rješenje o nasljeđivanju. Once final, the decision is submitted to the Uprava za katastar i državnu imovinu and the list nepokretnosti is updated in the heir's name. Montenegrin tax is zero for first-degree heirs; for others the progressive tariff above applies. In our experience, in busy opštinas like Budva the process takes 4–7 months; in the absence of bank/DOO urgency this is a reasonable timeline.

Scenario B: death in Montenegro, real estate in Turkey

This scenario works in reverse. The ostavinski postupak is completed first in Montenegro and a finality annotation (klauzula pravosnažnosti) is obtained. The Montenegrin rješenje is apostilled at the Ministarstvo pravde or the president of the competent Osnovni sud. Sworn Turkish translation is arranged. A critical legal choice arises here: Turkish immovables fall within the exclusive jurisdiction of Turkish courts (Code of Civil Procedure Art. 12 read together with MÖHUK Art. 20/1 second sentence); this blocks recognition under MÖHUK Arts. 50–59. In practice we prefer obtaining a separate certificate of inheritance directly in Turkey; since a foreign element is involved, the certificate can only be issued by the Magistrate Civil Court. Title transfer follows with the clearance certificate; even if the first-degree exemption has been used on the Montenegrin side, the Turkish Inheritance and Transfer Tax tariff runs separately on the Turkish side.

Scenario C: succession of a DOO + bank account

When the owner of a Montenegrin DOO dies, bank accounts are frozen and company operations effectively halt. Within the first 48–72 hours, the mechanism the family must invoke is an application to the Osnovni sud for the appointment of a privremeni staralac zaostavštine. Once the guardian is in place, the ostavinski proceeds; after the rješenje is issued, the shareholder change is registered at CRPS, the bank account is unlocked and, if necessary, a new izvršni direktor is appointed by a skupština resolution. Running these three in parallel is important — especially to preserve the receivables-payables balance of a DOO that collects rent. Advance preparation for Montenegrin companies managed from Istanbul — namely an emergency-response power of attorney and a back-up director appointment plan for the death scenario — solves the crisis at the outset.

Proactive estate planning: the art of protecting your family while you are alive

We have discussed post-death processes; but what professional experience has taught us is this: the best inheritance file is the one where no case is filed at all. A few steps taken during your lifetime in both countries save your family from disputes that could drag on for years.

The public will is the first and most reliable tool in planning. It can be made before a Turkish notary or a Montenegrin notary; thanks to the 1961 Hague Convention, it is also recognised in the other country. For clients with special situations beyond spouse and children — an extramarital child, a child from a second marriage, wishing to protect a disabled relative, or seeking to make a cultural/symbolic bequest to a particular heir — the will sets family balance in advance. A succession contract (valid only in Turkey and null in Montenegro) is deployed particularly in second marriages or in family-business partitions.

In the cross-border dimension, the most important preparation is drawing up an asset map by country. Which immovable in which country, which account at which bank, which shareholding in which company — a family with a client who keeps this map current can take positions within days of death. Inventorying digital assets (crypto wallets, online business accounts, SaaS subscriptions) is a heading that is becoming increasingly critical. For our still-living clients we recommend preparing an "emergency envelope" — powers of attorney, key account information, the location where the will is kept, lawyer contact numbers — and sharing it with a trusted relative.

Choice of marital-property regime is also a planning tool often forgotten from the spouse's side. In Turkish law, the regime of participation in acquired property allows the spouse on death to claim both a participation receivable and a share in the estate. Montenegro's marital-property rules differ; in particular, it should be discussed whether a separation-of-property or a contractual regime can be planned before acquiring immovables in Montenegro. To prevent losses at the divorce–inheritance intersection, our Divorce and Family Law page is a natural complement.

Why RoNa Legal?

RoNa Legal, led by Turkish-Montenegrin counsel Rohat Kahraman and partner Av. Nazlıcan Hilaloğulları, is an office running both country axes together from Budva. On the Turkish inheritance-law side we have direct litigation authority; in Montenegro, the coordination model we have built with local counsel registered with the Advokatska komora Crne Gore allows us to run ostavinski postupak, cadastre and CRPS processes under one roof. This means clients do not deal with two separate firms in parallel.

Our internal translation flow easing communication in the Turkish, Montenegrin, English triangle for foreign clients eliminates time loss, particularly when working with sworn translators. We coordinate the operational steps — apostille, translation, title transfer, CRPS update and tax declaration — so you can focus on strategic decisions. We want to be clear: we do not offer "we will save every estate" guarantees; what we do promise is to protect your inheritance rights as effectively as possible within the prevailing legal framework.

At the top of our sensitivities is confidentiality. Intra-family disputes, unknown marriages, extramarital children, undiscovered wills — these topics usually carry significant privacy. In our files, information sharing is limited to team members who need to know for the work; correspondence is handled through encrypted channels.

How we work and contact

If you have recently lost a loved one and an estate on the Turkey–Montenegro axis is involved, you can speak with us to draw up a legal map of the situation before any sense of haste takes over. In the first meeting we prepare a roadmap based on the circle of heirs, asset distribution, any will and the debt position. If you wish to make a will or plan your estate, you can take an appointment and assess your options in a calm environment — it is one of the most practical kindnesses you can do for your family.

Fast action is necessary only in genuine emergencies: account freeze, DOO operations suspended, or the renunciation window approaching. In those situations you can reach us on WhatsApp the same day: +90 530 277 0845. For other matters, a standard appointment allows us to treat the subject with the care it deserves. For full contact details see our Contact page.

For an assessment of property acquisition or sale in Montenegro that does not neglect the inheritance dimension, our Real Estate Investment service page and our Buying a Home in Montenegro article are useful; for the family-law angle integrated with Turkish rules, see our Montenegro–Turkey Family Law Guide; and for post-formation death scenarios, our Montenegro Company Formation service page completes the picture.

Related links

• Divorce and family law — inheritance–marital regime intersection
• Title cancellation and registration — muris muvazaası heading
• Enforcement and insolvency law — indebted estates and defence against creditors
• Real estate investment
• Montenegro company formation
• Contact

This page is for general information only; for your concrete file, individual legal advice should always be obtained. The 2026 Turkish Inheritance and Transfer Tax tariff bands (General Communiqué No. 57); Montenegrin immovable transfer-tax rates; and the date requirement on the holograph will should be confirmed under the prevailing texts before publication.