A foreign national whose parent or spouse left a bank account or a flat in Türkiye is likely to come across the certificate of inheritance (mirasçılık belgesi), the Turkish document that names the heirs and their shares. Since 2011 Turkish notaries can issue it as well as the courts. For a foreign heir, the rule that matters most is a limit: in several situations a notary cannot issue the certificate at all. This page sets out that limit, what the notary’s certificate contains and what its translation keeps. How to obtain a certificate, and how an estate is shared, are not covered.
Two authorities, one purpose
Article 598(1) of the Turkish Civil Code provides that those found on application to be statutory heirs receive a document showing their status as heirs, issued by the civil court of peace or by a notary. A certificate for an appointed heir or a legatee is issued only by the civil court of peace (Article 598(2)). A notary’s certificate therefore concerns statutory heirs only.
Articles 71/A to 71/C of the Notaries Law
Article 71/A allows notaries to carry out two further acts: inviting a spouse who has left to return to the common home, and issuing certificates of inheritance. Article 71/B sets the procedure: on application the notary draws up a record of the request and carries out the act personally, although a law graduate employee or a trainee with signing authority may also do so. Article 71/C lets anyone whose interests are harmed object to a notary’s certificate before the civil court of peace. These three articles, added by Law No. 6217 in 2011, form the whole chapter; there is no Article 71/D, and no translator’s note should cite one.
When a notary cannot issue a certificate
Article 71/B/3 is explicit: where issuing the certificate requires court proceedings, where the civil registry records are not sufficient, or where the certificate is requested by foreigners, notaries cannot issue it. The regulation on notaries’ inheritance certificates repeats the limit in more detail and adds cases needing an expert examination or the hearing of witnesses, and requests that involve a foreign element (Article 5). The regulation does not define “foreign element”. Whether a request falls under it is for the notary and, where needed, the court to decide; neither this page nor a translation can settle it. The other authority named in Article 598(1) of the Civil Code is the civil court of peace.
What the notary’s certificate contains
The certificate rests on an application record, for which forms prepared by the Union of Turkish Notaries are used (Regulation Article 10). Its basis is current civil registry extracts or records obtained electronically by the notary (Article 4(2)). Where statutory heirship is established, the applicant receives a certificate showing the shares of the estate, together with copies (Article 4(3)). The certificate therefore names the deceased and the date of death, gives the civil registry basis, lists the statutory heirs with each heir’s share, and carries the notary’s signature and seal.
The issuing authority stays visible
A certificate from a notary and one from a civil court of peace are not the same kind of document: the legal basis and the signing authority differ. The translation keeps the issuing authority exactly as the heading gives it, and never presents a notary’s certificate as a court decision or the reverse. Because the notary’s certificate concerns statutory heirs, the word for heir keeps that qualification, and a statutory heir and an appointed heir never share one English term in the same document.
Shares and civil registry details
The shares are the legal core of the certificate. Fractions such as 1/4 or 3/16 stay fractions; they are not simplified, converted into decimals or checked to see whether they add up to one. Civil registry fields, such as the province, district, volume, household and individual numbers of the entry, are translated as field names while the numbers are copied exactly. Names keep their Turkish letters (ç, ğ, ı, İ, ö, ş, ü), and where a passport spells a name differently, the two spellings are shown side by side rather than silently aligned. Acte Tercüme translates certificates of inheritance issued by Turkish notaries and civil courts of peace with the issuing authority, the fractions and the registry details as they stand.