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Inheritance in Georgia: what a foreign national needs to know

Estates with a foreign element are almost never simple: the property is in one country, the heirs in another, the documents in a third language. Here is the logic of it - what happens to the estate, what the heir has to do, and where time is usually lost.

Under the law and under a will

Property passes either in the order the law lays down or under a will. A will changes the distribution but does not displace every rule: the law protects certain close relatives, and a will that ignores them entirely can be challenged in that part.

The law sets requirements for the form of a will, and a failure of form is grounds for a dispute. A will drawn up abroad goes through the same authentication and translation procedures as any other foreign document before it can be used in Georgia.

It is not only assets that are inherited

Obligations pass with the property: loans, a mortgage over the flat, arrears. Accepting "just the flat, without the debts" is not possible.

So the first sensible step is not paperwork but establishing what the estate consists of and what encumbrances sit on it. A flat with a mortgage passes with the mortgage, and that changes the arithmetic of whether it is worth taking.

Time limits exist

The law sets a period within which an estate is accepted, and a procedure for when it is missed. We will not quote the specific periods in reference material: they are set by legislation and need checking on the date of the enquiry, not taken from someone's retelling.

The practical conclusion is a single one: on learning that an estate has opened, or of the death itself, record the date and deal with the time limits straight away. Restoring a missed deadline is a harder procedure and not always a successful one.

Property has to be re-registered

Inherited title is not reflected in the register automatically. Until the entry is changed, the register still shows the deceased as the owner. That means the property cannot be dealt with - sold, gifted or pledged - and anything you try to do with it runs into the missing entry.

Re-registration is a separate procedure with its own set of documents, and it is exactly where the missing papers surface: proof of relationship, the deceased's documents, discrepancies in the spelling of names.

If the heir is abroad

Being there in person is not always required: much can be done through a representative acting under a power of attorney. But a power of attorney issued in another country goes through authentication and translation itself, and it has to state expressly the authority to act in inheritance matters - a general form of wording often turns out not to be enough.

The documents proving relationship are almost always foreign: birth, marriage and change-of-name certificates. Each of them goes through an apostille or consular legalisation and translation. This is the longest part of the matter, and it is the part to start with.

Spouses' property

What the estate consists of depends on which property belonged to the deceased personally and which was held jointly with a spouse. Separating jointly held property and establishing the estate is a distinct question, settled before anything is distributed among the heirs.

Heirs in different countries

When the property is in Georgia and the heirs live in different states, a further question arises: which country's law applies to the succession and to particular kinds of property. The answer depends on the kind of property, on citizenship and on the deceased's last place of residence, as well as on treaties between the countries. This is a case where the applicable law has to be established before documents are filed, not after: the answer determines both who the heirs are and the order of steps.

What to prepare for the consultation

• The death certificate.
• Documents proving relationship: birth, marriage and change-of-name certificates.
• The will, if there is one, and details of where and when it was drawn up.
• A list of the property in Georgia: addresses and cadastral codes, details of accounts and shareholdings.
• Extracts from the register for the properties.
• Details of any known debts and encumbrances of the deceased.
• Details of the other heirs and the countries they live in.
• The date on which you learned that the estate had opened.
• Details of the deceased's citizenship and last place of residence.

Disclaimer. This material is for reference, sets out the general procedure and is not legal advice. It has been prepared without regard to the circumstances of any particular matter and cannot serve as a basis for decisions on filing documents, entering transactions or taking other legally significant steps. Reading it or relying on it does not create a lawyer-client relationship. Document requirements, fee levels and time limits are set by Georgian legislation and secondary rules; the law and the practice of applying it change, so the currency of any information is checked on the date of the enquiry. Decisions in state procedures are taken by the competent authority, and no outcome can be guaranteed.