Inheritance lawyer in Georgia - six months, after which the property comes back only through court
Inheritance law in Georgia stands on deadlines. An estate opens on the day of death, and an heir has six months to accept it - by an application to a notary or by taking actual possession of the property. Those six months are the period when the family is grieving and not thinking about documents; as a result, most inheritance disputes are not about wills but about a missed deadline, unproven possession and property "divided by word of mouth" that erupts years later, in the grandchildren's generation.
An inheritance lawyer works in two timeframes: after the estate opens - protecting the deadline, proving possession, calculating the compulsory share, fixing the limit of liability for debts, dividing with co-heirs - and before, while the person is alive and decides for themselves who gets what: a will, a gift, a lifetime maintenance agreement, the fate of a company share. This page covers both, with a separate section for heirs who live abroad - in Georgia that is every second estate, and for our foreign clients it is the rule.
Verified inheritance lawyers
Active status in the register and inheritance as the primary specialisation. The list marks who works with heirs living abroad and who has court experience contesting wills.
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Call: 568 330 3186 inheritance disputes in Georgia and what decides each
In an inheritance dispute the witnesses are relatives, and both sides have them. What decides is what is on paper or what actually happened within the six months - and proving both is the lawyer's work.
Contesting a will
Decisive: the testator's capacity on the day the will was made and compliance with form. Medical history, diagnosis, medication, the notary's record and video - this material either confirms that the person understood what they were signing, or not. For a handwritten will, a handwriting examination is added. Duress and deception are separate grounds, but the hardest to prove.
Restoring a missed deadline
Decisive: a valid reason and promptness. The court restores the deadline if the heir did not know the estate had opened or objectively could not act - being abroad, illness, other heirs concealing the fact - and applied within a reasonable time after the obstacle ended. The alternative is simpler: the other heirs' written consent before a notary resolves the matter without court.
Proving actual possession
Decisive: evidence of conduct within the six months - utility payment receipts, living in the apartment, cultivating the land, repairing the house, paying the deceased's debt. Actual possession is a full-fledged way of accepting an estate, but proving it happens in court years later - and the receipts nobody kept are needed exactly then.
The compulsory share
Decisive: establishing the full estate and calculating the statutory share, half of which is compulsory. Testators often "dispose of" property during their lifetime in favour of one heir to reduce the compulsory share - a gift made shortly before death becomes subject to inclusion in the estate. The claim for the share has its own deadline and is not allocated automatically.
Division among co-heirs
Decisive: valuation and the nature of the property. One apartment cannot be divided in kind among three heirs, and the way out is either one of them buying out the others' shares, or a sale and distribution of the proceeds. An heir who lived with the deceased and used the property has a priority right to receive it in kind against compensation. An agreement is notarised; without one - court.
The estate's debts
Decisive: an inventory of the estate. An heir is liable for the deceased's debts only up to the value of the property received, but proving that limit is the heir's burden. Creditors must present their claims within six months of learning that the estate has opened - missing it extinguishes the claim. A bank loan, tax arrears and personal debts rank differently.
8 rules of Georgian inheritance law to know before a death in the family
Book Six of the Civil Code regulates inheritance in full, but families read it when it is already too late. These eight rules are the minimum that prevents most disputes.
- Six months to accept
- The deadline for accepting an estate is six months from its opening - the day of death - by an application to a notary or by actual possession. The deadline runs separately for each heir: one heir's acceptance does not cover another. The certificate of inheritance is issued after the deadline expires.
- Five orders of heirs
- Without a will, inheritance passes by orders: first - children, spouse, parents (and grandchildren in place of a deceased child); second - siblings; third - grandparents; then uncles and aunts, and cousins. The next order inherits only if there is nobody in the previous one or all have renounced. Heirs of the same order share equally.
- Three forms of will
- Notarised - the most robust; written and signed in the testator's own hand - valid, but invites disputes over handwriting and date; closed - handed to a notary in a sealed envelope. A typed text with only a signature does not count as a handwritten will. A later will revokes an earlier one where they conflict. A will made abroad is recognised if it meets the form of that country, with an apostille and translation.
- Renouncing an estate
- An heir may renounce the estate - because of debts or in favour of another heir - by a declaration to a notary within three months of the opening of the estate. Renunciation is unconditional and irrevocable. Partial renunciation is not allowed: taking the apartment and refusing the loan at the same time does not work.
- Liability for debts
- An heir is liable to creditors only up to the value of the estate - not with their own property. But if the estate is not inventoried and is mixed with personal assets, that limit is lost. The inventory is made before a notary or a court and is the inheritance lawyer's first piece of advice when the deceased had loans.
- The unworthy heir
- Whoever intentionally committed a crime against the testator or another heir, obstructed the making of a will or wilfully evaded a duty to maintain the testator loses the inheritance by court decision. A rare but real mechanism used by the other heirs.
- Tax
- Property received by heirs of the first and second order is exempt from income tax. For the third and fourth order the exemption applies up to an annual threshold, above which it is taxed. An estate received from abroad and the later sale of inherited property are separate tax questions - especially for a non-resident heir.
- Registration and the bank
- The certificate of inheritance does not transfer the property to you automatically: real estate is registered in the Public Registry on the certificate, the bank releases the account on presentation of it, a company share is registered in the registry subject to the charter. The notary enquires about the existence of bank accounts - heirs often do not know where the deceased kept their money.
4 ways to accept and formalise an estate - which one when
Accepting an estate is not a single act - it is a route that depends on the deadline, the relationship between the heirs and the nature of the property. The lawyer's first question: which stage are you at, and who else is in line.
An heir abroad, an estate abroad - two countries' laws in one case
A large share of estates in Georgia involve at least one heir in another country. The deadline does not pause for that: the six months run for someone abroad too, and their way out is a notarised, apostilled and translated power of attorney to a lawyer in Georgia who files the application on their behalf. Being abroad counts as a valid reason for restoring the deadline, but only if the heir genuinely did not know of the death - mourning by video call and then "I did not know" does not work in court.
Real estate located in Georgia is inherited under Georgian law, whatever the testator's nationality. A foreign national inherits any property, including agricultural land - but cannot keep the latter and must dispose of it within the statutory period. A will made abroad is valid in Georgia if it meets the form of that country, with an apostille and translation. For property located abroad it is the reverse - the Georgian certificate of inheritance is the starting document of that country's procedure, not the final one. Foreign heirs of Georgian apartments, bought as investments a decade ago, are now the fastest-growing category of our inheritance clients.
The practical problem is often not the law but information: the heir does not know which bank the deceased used, whether they held a company share, whether the property is in the registry at all. The inheritance lawyer's work here is a search - the notary's enquiries to banks, registry extracts, the register of companies - before the six months run out.
A will, a gift or a lifetime maintenance agreement - how property ends up with the person it is meant for
Most inheritance disputes can be prevented by one decision of the person whose property it is. Three instruments give three different results. A will leaves the property with its owner until the end of their life and can be changed at any time, but cannot get around the compulsory share and can be contested. A gift transfers the property now, is free of the compulsory share and is irrevocable - which means the donor stays in the apartment only at the donee's goodwill, unless a right of use was separately written into the agreement and registered.
A lifetime maintenance agreement is the middle route: the property passes to the maintainer, who in return is obliged to support the transferor until the end of their life - housing, care, medical treatment. The agreement is notarised, the encumbrance is registered against the property, and on breach the transferor has the right to reclaim it. Properly drafted, this instrument protects an elderly person from both sides - from children who promise care "later", and from a dispute over the will.
Business succession is a subject of its own: an LLC share passes by inheritance, but the charter may provide that the heir does not automatically become a partner and the company buys the share out. If that clause is missing, three heirs hold one share in ideal parts and the partners' meeting is blocked. The inheritance lawyer and the corporate lawyer work together here - preferably during the founder's lifetime.
Questions about inheritance lawyers in Georgia
My father died two years ago, we never went to a notary, we live in the house. Is it lost?
No - living in the house and maintaining it is actual possession, which under the law is a full-fledged way of accepting the estate. Now you must prove to the notary or the court that possession began within the six months: utility receipts, neighbours' statements, a municipal certificate. The sooner you start, the smaller the risk of losing the evidence.
The will leaves everything to one child. Is the other child entitled to nothing?
They are entitled to the compulsory share - half of what they would have received without a will - if they are a first-order heir. The share is not allocated automatically; it must be claimed within the deadline. If the testator gifted the property to the same child shortly before death, that gift becomes subject to inclusion in the estate and the share is calculated with it in mind.
The deceased had a bank loan. Do I inherit the debt?
The debt is part of the estate, but you are liable for it only up to the value of the property received - provided the estate is inventoried. If the loan exceeds the property, renouncing the estate within three months is the only protection. If the property is worth more - the bank gets its loan back and the rest is yours. The bank must have presented its claim within six months.
I learned of the death a year later, I live abroad. Can the deadline be restored?
As a rule, yes - not knowing and being abroad are valid reasons, if you apply to the court within a reasonable time after learning. You will have to prove that you genuinely did not know: no contact with the family, no notification. If the other heirs agree, you do not need the court at all - the notary resolves it on their written consent.
My grandmother wants to gift me her apartment "so there is no dispute over the will". What is the risk for her?
A gift is irrevocable and your grandmother will no longer own the apartment - living in it will depend solely on your goodwill, unless a lifelong right of use is written into the agreement and registered in the registry. The alternative is a lifetime maintenance agreement, under which the apartment passes to you but with a duty of care and a right of return on breach. For both sides, the second is the safer one.
My brother is selling the inherited apartment without my consent. Can he?
If the certificate of inheritance was issued to both of you and the apartment is co-owned - selling the whole apartment without you is impossible, and on the sale of his share you have a pre-emption right. If the certificate was issued to him alone because you did not apply in time, first the annulment of the certificate and recognition of your share, and in parallel a freezing order on the apartment in court before the sale goes through.
The will is handwritten, without a notary. Is it valid?
It is, if written entirely in the testator's own hand, signed and dated. A typed text with a signature does not meet that requirement. A handwritten will is often contested on grounds of handwriting and capacity, so if you are making your own will - a notary is the only protection for your own wishes being carried out.
The deceased held a share in a company. Do I become a partner?
The share passes by inheritance, but partnership depends on the charter: it may require the other partners' consent or provide for the company to buy the share out at a fair price. The certificate of inheritance is presented to the registry, and the inheritance lawyer checks the charter before the property is valued - the value of the share is often the largest and most contested part of the estate.
Inheritance lawyer by city
An estate opens before the notary at the deceased's last place of residence, and a dispute goes to the court of the same district - for an estate consisting of a regional house and land, a local lawyer is often more effective even from a distance than one from Tbilisi.
Adjacent practice areas
A deceased spouse's share is first separated under family law, registration and legalisation of inherited property belong to real estate, a dispute among co-heirs follows the rules of a civil claim, and the taxation of a sale of inherited property is a tax question.
The estate has opened - the six months are already running
Within 15 minutes the coordinator will contact you and match you with an inheritance lawyer who, at the first consultation, tells you which order you are in, how much time is left and which document you need before going to the notary.