Issuance of a Certificate of Inheritance - The Document That Makes the Heirs the Owners

What the certificate of inheritance is

Under the Civil Code and the notarial legislation, the certificate of inheritance (certificate of the right to inheritance) is the notarial act by which the notary who administers the succession certifies who the heirs are, on what basis (by will or by law), in what shares, and to which assets of the estate; it is issued at the request of the heirs, entered in the electronic register of notarial acts, and it is the document of title: the National Agency of Public Registry registers real estate in the heirs' names on it, banks release deposits on it, the Service Agency re-registers vehicles on it, and company registers record the transfer of shares on it. The certificate may cover the whole estate or be issued separately for particular assets as they are established, and separately to each heir for their share or jointly to all; a certificate can be issued later for assets discovered after the first, and a certificate issued in error can be cancelled by the notary or the court. It replaces, for Georgian assets, the grant of probate, the Erbschein, the certificat d'hérédité and the succession certificate of other systems, and it is what those systems' authorities ask for when Georgian assets appear in a foreign estate.

When it is issued: the six months, and the earlier exception

The certificate is issued after the six-month acceptance period has run, because until then further heirs may accept or renounce and the circle of heirs is not final; the notary may issue it earlier where it is established that no other heirs exist - typically where all the persons who could be heirs in the relevant order have appeared and accepted or renounced, and the notary is satisfied from the civil status documents that there are no others - and we ask for the early issue where the facts allow it, since it saves months for a sole heir. Where a will names the heirs, the period still runs, because compulsory heirs and legal heirs may come forward. Disputes between heirs - about the validity of the will, the shares, the inclusion of an asset, the status of a claimant - suspend the issue until the court decides, and the notary may not issue a certificate while a dispute is pending; we tell heirs early where a dispute is likely and involve a lawyer.

Establishing the heirs and the estate

Before issuing, the notary must have in the file the proof of death, the will or the civil status documents establishing each heir by law, the acceptances and renunciations, and the proof of the assets: for real estate the Public Registry extract showing the deceased as owner, for vehicles the registration record, for bank deposits the bank's confirmation of the accounts and balances at the date of death, for company shares the Public Registry extract and the charter, for other assets the documents that show title; where Georgian law requires a valuation for the tariff, the valuation. Foreign heirs' documents are apostilled or legalized and translated by notarized translation, foreign death certificates likewise, and name changes are linked. The notary resolves the shares: equal shares among legal heirs of the same order, the shares the will provides for testamentary heirs, the compulsory shares of protected heirs, and the surviving spouse's half of marital property, which is not part of the estate and is confirmed separately. We assemble the file for heirs, obtain the extracts and confirmations by power of attorney, and prepare the translations, so that the certificate is issued the day the period runs.

Registering and using the certificate in Georgia

The certificate is presented to each institution that holds an asset. The Public Registry registers the heirs as owners of real estate on the certificate, in the shares it states, within days; the heirs may then sell, divide or keep the property, and a sale of inherited property by several heirs needs the signatures of all or a power of attorney among them. Banks release deposits to the heirs on the certificate and their identity documents, sometimes with the bank's own forms. The Service Agency re-registers vehicles. The Public Registry records the transfer of company shares, and the company's charter may give the other partners rights on the death of a partner that the heirs must observe. Tax: Georgia does not levy inheritance tax on close relatives, and the tax treatment of inheritance by more distant heirs and of subsequent sales is a matter for a tax adviser, whom we can recommend. We accompany heirs, or act for them by power of attorney, at each registration.

Heirs abroad and use of the certificate abroad

Heirs outside Georgia receive the certificate through their representative under the power of attorney used for the acceptance, who can also register the assets and, if the heirs wish, sell them and remit the proceeds, all under the same or a further power; we handle these steps and send the certificate, apostilled through the Ministry of Justice route in one to three business days and translated into the heirs' language by notarized translation, by courier. Where a Georgian certificate of inheritance must be shown abroad - to a foreign court administering the deceased's foreign estate, to a foreign bank, to a foreign tax authority assessing the heir - the apostilled and translated certificate is what they accept, and where the foreign authority requires its own sworn translator our partner re-certifies the text. In the other direction, a foreign grant of probate or succession certificate concerning Georgian assets is not directly registrable in Georgia; the Georgian notary opens a Georgian succession and issues a Georgian certificate, using the foreign document, apostilled and translated, as evidence of the heirs.

Fees, timing and how to proceed

The fee for the certificate follows the official tariff, which for inheritance certificates is calculated with reference to the value of the assets covered, so we advise on whether to take one certificate for the whole estate or separate certificates for assets as they are needed; the translation, notarization and apostille of foreign documents and of the certificate for abroad are quoted separately. The certificate is issued the day the period runs or the earlier issue is justified, provided the file is complete, which is why we assemble the extracts and confirmations during the six months rather than after. Send us the details of the succession - the death certificate, the heirs, the assets - and we reply the same day with the file's status, what is missing and the date the certificate can be issued.

Frequently asked questions

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