Consular petition.

[Old Daffodil]

I believe that solicitors in Turkey are advising that foreigners in Turkey will have their wishes upheld as by the law of their native country but how can they guarantee this?If a Turkish court decides against this and maintains that Turkish law is upheld then you would have very little power to dispute it.
I wonder what happens if a British woman marries a Turkish man and she has children from a previous marriage to someone British.Who would have a right of inheritance in those circumstances?

[Rimms]

So is it not worth making a will in Turkey, I would want my possesions to pass to my wife and for her to myself. We do have children but reading this it sounds like they automatically become first line inheritors whether I make a will or not?

[vinvola]

The short answer to this comment is "Yes".

[Rimms]

So was that a "Yes" its worth making a will or "No" Turkish law will kick in regardless of what is written in the will?

[Firo]

No it is not worth making a Turkish will and YES your children will automatically inherit their share in Turkish law whether you want them to or not!

[vinvola]

Firo is right. This is why this document has been put out to the public but we still need more comments. It is important that we get as many people as possible to read this and leave their points of view.

[hamilton]

This is how our solicitor explained the will situation to us.
If you are married and your partner dies, in Turkish law your children inherit part of the estate. What this means is the surviving partner receives half of the estate and a share of his partners half, if there are 4 children you would all receive 1/5 of the dead partners half. The children if they so wish could claim there share which could cause difficulties with property as these are classed as fixed assets, which would have to be sold to enable the estate to be divided.
In second marriages the difficulty could arise where both partners have children from previous marriages.
If both partners die at the same time, then the children inherit the estate between, no problem for most people.
Our solicitor advised us to obtain hand written letters from all our children dated witnesed notarised and signed to the effect that they have no intention of claiming any of the fixed or moveable assets whilst one partner is alive. As said in previous postings it will still be up to the Judge to decide what happens to the estate, but hopefully this could go some way to influence him.
This advice was given by our solicitor, who did explain that it's not that simple as just making a will, hopefully it was good advice, time will tell!

[quackers]

Thankyou it explains the inheritance law very well.

[loz]

This is another of my pet hate subjects, Wills in Turkey, no such thing, total waste of time and money! After 4 years our friend is still fighting on, Like Hamilton, she obtained apostiled certificates stating family members do not wish to receive money from the property; however, the judge and Tapu manager threw the certificates out of court, they refused to re-cognise them. so it is after many years and thousands if £'s not TL back to the drawing board.
I am still looking for the UK lawyer who deals with the UK Will and attaches the Turkish property to the Estate of the deceased and the property sale then gets handled between the lawyers, not the judge. unfortunately for our friend this info arrived too late.

There is a long drawn out post on here regarding the experience and all the advice incorrect or otherwise. to date the only Will that I know of personally that has been actioned as requested is the Uk Will.

One day when I am not too busy, too hot, I will try again to find the details,  Firo I will send you an email if you would like to help with the search.