Who inherits without a will in Greece?

The spouse is in the first class and receives one fourth of the estate. The children inherit equal shares of the rest.

The spouse is in the second class with the parents and siblings, and receives half of the estate.

Heirs inherit by class: descendants; then parents and siblings (with their children and grandchildren); then grandparents; then great-grandparents. If no one is called, the Greek State receives the estate.

A surviving registered partner receives one sixth in the first class and one third in the second to fourth classes, and the whole estate in the fifth. A partner whose partnership ended while the other was alive is excluded.

Descendants, parents and the surviving spouse or registered partner are entitled to a reserved portion, which is half of the share they would receive without a will.

In this EU country the Succession Regulation applies to people who die after 16 August 2015: the whole estate is generally governed by the law of the country where the person had their habitual residence at death, unless they chose the law of their nationality in a will. A foreigner living here, or a citizen living abroad, can therefore be governed by a different law than the one described on this page.

Greece belongs to the Civil law family. Succession law grows out of the legal tradition, so it helps to know how the system works.

Read the Greece legal-system profile in the Legal Families Atlas →
Who owns what in a marriage in Greece? →

• European e-Justice Portal: succession in Greece