Who inherits without a will in Hungary?

The spouse receives a life estate in the family dwelling, with its furnishings, and a child's share of the rest of the estate. The spouse may redeem the life estate for that share, or the heirs may agree that the spouse takes a life estate over the whole estate.

With surviving parents, the spouse receives ownership of the family dwelling and half of the rest of the estate; the parents share the other half. If there are no parents, the spouse inherits the entire estate.

Descendants first in equal shares. If there are none, the parents, then the grandparents, then the great-grandparents and then more distant relatives. If there are no legal heirs, the estate goes to the state.

Registered partners have the same status as spouses. Unregistered partners who live together have no right to inherit without a will.

Descendants, the spouse and the parents have a reserved share. It is a claim in money against the heirs, equal to a third of what they would inherit by law, and it must be claimed within five years.

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.

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

• European e-Justice Portal: succession in Hungary