A Legislative change which is radically altering the landscape of inheritance law in Greece

The working group of the Ministry of Justice, which is overseeing the changes in inheritance law after 80 years, seems to have reached a conclusion on the preservation of private wills and the steps that will be required until their publication.

The drafting committee is working intensively, with the goal of having the provisions of the draft law completed by early September. One turn before the completion of its work, the working group of the Ministry of Justice is completing one of the most important legislative interventions of the last decades, radically changing the landscape of inheritance law after 80 long years.

The original plan was for the final provisions to be delivered to the Ministry at the end of June, but, as Deputy Minister of Justice Ioannis Bougas explains, "it will be delayed and the package of provisions will be submitted in September, because issues have arisen which the Committee needs to look at in greater detail".

The draft law is expected to proceed quickly, as already with the changes to the Code of Civil Procedure, which will be adopted in the summer, wills are moving into the digital age, with the advent of the "Register of unpublished wills", which will be managed by the Notaries' Association and will publish all wills (handwritten, secret and public) without revealing their contents, respecting all the necessary guarantees of secrecy. The drafting committee is working intensively with the aim of finalising the provisions of the draft law by the beginning of September, as the government is seeking to allow sufficient time for citizens, lawyers and social bodies to express their views during the consultation process.

Wills will be filed with a notary by the testator himself and not through a third party. Where the will includes exogenous heirs, i.e. persons who are not related to the testator, the Commission will provide for a scribal expert's opinion as a safeguard. All wills will now be published by notaries and not by the courts, in an attempt to reduce the burden on the judiciary.

It should be noted that at present it takes approximately 300 days from the time of filing an application for publication of a will to its publication, which will be reduced to 7 days with this change. Posting on the platform The platform, the creation and operation of which is included in the changes to the Code of Civil Procedure and not in those to the law of succession, will be accessed and posted by the notary and, on the death of the heir, the platform will provide the appropriate code to open the file and allow the publication of the will.

At the moment, the relevant committee under Professor Apostolos Georgiadis appears to be in the process of drafting the provisions on inheritance contracts, an institution which is being discussed for the first time, since Greek inheritance law has hitherto treated them with "mistrust".

This article was written by our Associate in Crete Dr. Elvi Stassinou