What are Cyprus forced heirship rules?

What is the statutory portion under Cap. 195?

The statutory portion is the part of an estate that Cyprus law says you cannot give away by will. Article 2 of the Wills and Succession Law, Cap. 195, defines it as the movable and immovable property a person may not dispose of by will, and defines the disposable portion as the part they may. Article 41(1) fixes the boundary between the two by reference to who survives you. The calculation is made on the net value of the estate, meaning the property held at death after debts. Because the reserved share is set by statute, a will cannot remove it, and no clause, however clearly worded, overrides Article 41(1).

What are the exact reserved and disposable shares?

Article 41(1) of Cap. 195 sets three cases. Where the deceased leaves a spouse and a child, or a spouse and a child's descendants, or no spouse but a child or a child's descendants, the disposable portion cannot exceed one quarter, so three quarters is reserved. Where the deceased leaves a spouse, or a father or a mother, but no child or child's descendants, the disposable portion cannot exceed one half. Where none of those relatives survive, the whole estate is disposable. Note the first case does not require a surviving spouse: children alone still cap the disposable portion at one quarter, a point most summaries get wrong.

Who counts as a statutory heir in Cyprus?

Cap. 195 answers this in Article 46 and the First Schedule, which rank relatives in four classes. The first class is the deceased's children living at death, plus the living descendants of any child who died first, taking per stirpes under Article 49. The second class is parents, or the nearest living ascendant, together with full and half siblings, with half siblings taking half a full sibling's share. The third class is the nearest living ascendants, and the fourth is the nearest relatives up to the sixth degree. Article 47 provides that a person with no relative within the sixth degree dies without heirs. A surviving spouse is dealt with separately, under Article 44.

How much does a spouse get compared with the children?

Article 44 of Cap. 195 fixes the surviving spouse's share of the reserved portion, after estate debts are paid. Where the deceased left a child, or descendants representing a child, the spouse takes a share equal to each child's share. So with one child the reserved three quarters splits 37.5 per cent each; with two children it is 25 per cent each; with three, 18.75 per cent each. Where no child or descendant survives but relatives to the third degree do, the spouse takes one half of the reserved portion; where only fourth-degree relatives survive, three quarters; where none, the whole. The widely repeated figure of 25 per cent for a spouse is only correct with exactly two children.

Can you disinherit a child in Cyprus?

Not while Article 41(1) of Cap. 195 applies to your estate. Children and their descendants sit in the first class of statutory heirs, and where a child or descendant survives the disposable portion is capped at one quarter. A will that gives away more than that is not struck down. Article 41(2) provides that the excess disposition is reduced and cut back proportionally so that it fits within the disposable portion, leaving the rest of the will intact. There is one narrow exception in the proviso to Article 41(2): where the deceased leaves a spouse but no child, descendant, father or mother, a gift of the whole estate to that spouse is not cut back.

Do lifetime gifts and transfers to a child count against their share?

Yes, against that child's own share. Article 51 of Cap. 195 requires any child or descendant entitled to the reserved portion to bring into account, when their share is computed, any movable or immovable property received from the deceased at any time as an advancement during life, under a marriage settlement, as dowry, or as a gift in contemplation of death. The proviso disapplies this if the will contains a special provision against accounting. Article 45 exempts a surviving spouse from accounting for property received under a marriage settlement. Note what Article 51 does not do: it does not recover the asset from the recipient, and Cap. 195 contains no clawback of completed gifts.

Can a foreign national elect out of the reserved portion?

Yes, by an express choice of law in the will. Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 applies to deaths on or after 17 August 2015. Article 21 makes the law of the deceased's habitual residence at death the default, so someone habitually resident in Cyprus falls under Cap. 195. Article 22 lets a person choose the law of a state whose nationality they hold, made expressly or shown by the terms of the will, and Article 23(2)(h) puts the disposable part and reserved shares squarely under the chosen law. Article 20 gives the Regulation universal application, so a British national can choose UK law even though the UK never adopted the Regulation.

What happens to Cyprus property owned by a foreign national?

Until 3 July 2015 Article 42 of Cap. 195 exempted from the reserved portion the whole estate of anyone born in the United Kingdom or a Commonwealth state, or whose father was, and the movable property of other foreign nationals. Section 3 of Law 96(I)/2015 deleted Article 42 outright, so no category of testator is now exempt. What replaced it is Regulation 650/2012: the law of habitual residence, or the chosen national law, governs the succession as a whole, including Cyprus land. Recital 54 confirms a reserved share cannot be forced onto local immovable property through Article 30, and Article 10(2) still gives Cyprus courts jurisdiction over assets located here.