Inherit Property in Greece from Abroad: Complete Guide

The short answer

To inherit property in Greece from abroad, first establish the facts of the estate and the two clocks that run against you: the period for renouncing the inheritance under the Greek Civil Code, commonly four months from knowledge of the devolution and its cause, or one year where the deceased's last domicile was abroad or you learned of the devolution while living abroad; and the inheritance tax declaration period under Law 2961/2001, which AADE states as nine months from death where the deceased died in Greece, or one year where the death occurred abroad or the heir lived abroad at the time of death. Then search for a will, obtain heirship and non-renunciation certificates, secure a Greek AFM, file the inheritance tax declaration through myPROPERTY or the myAADE My Requests platform depending on the case, have a notary draw up the acceptance of inheritance deed, register it at the land registry or cadastral office, and update E9. Most steps can be handled remotely through a Greek lawyer and notary acting under a special power of attorney, but deadlines, court outcomes and tax positions are case-specific and require qualified Greek professional advice.

Inheriting property in Greece from abroad is a sequence of separate procedures, not one transaction. A relative dies, a Greek flat or field passes automatically to the heirs by operation of law, and from that moment two different clocks begin to run in two different systems: a civil law period for renouncing the inheritance, and a tax period for declaring it to AADE. Miss the first and you may be treated as having accepted an estate you never wanted. Miss the second and you may face surcharges on a property you cannot yet sell. This guide sets out the whole workflow in the order an overseas heir actually meets it.

Scope and last checked: This guide was checked against AADE, myAADE, gov.gr, the Hellenic Cadastre and the European e-Justice Portal on 25 September 2026. It is practical information, not legal or tax advice, and it does not assess your deadlines, your entitlement or your tax position. Greek succession law is fact-sensitive and the periods described below start on dates that only a qualified Greek lawyer can fix for your case.

How do you inherit property in Greece from abroad?

You inherit property in Greece from abroad by establishing what the estate contains and who the heirs are, deciding within the statutory period whether to accept or renounce, gathering the court and municipal certificates that prove heirship, obtaining a Greek AFM, filing the inheritance tax declaration through the correct AADE channel, instructing a notary to draw up the acceptance of inheritance deed, registering that deed at the land registry or cadastral office, and updating your E9 property record. Most of it can be done through Greek professionals acting under a special power of attorney, but no adviser can promise a particular court or tax outcome.

How do you inherit property in Greece from abroad?
What should you do in the first few weeks?
Which country’s law governs the succession?
Should you accept or renounce the inheritance?
How do you find out whether there is a will?
Which certificates prove heirship and non-renunciation?
Why does every heir need a Greek AFM?
How does the Greek inheritance tax declaration work?
myPROPERTY or My Requests: which route applies?
Who does what: lawyer, accountant, notary and engineer
What is the acceptance of inheritance deed?
How do you register the deed at the cadastre or land registry?
What changes on E9 and ENFIA?
Which documents need apostille and translation?
How does a notarial power of attorney let you act remotely?
What if the estate carries debts or the facts are unclear?
What can be done remotely and what needs someone in Greece?
What does a realistic staged timeline look like?
What is the complete overseas heir checklist?
Which mistakes cost overseas heirs the most?
How was this guide prepared?
Frequently asked questions

What should you do in the first few weeks?

Treat the first few weeks as evidence gathering and clock identification, not decision making. The single most damaging thing an overseas heir can do early is act informally: collecting rent, changing locks, selling contents, paying a utility arrears bill from the deceased’s account or telling a municipality that you are the owner. Under Greek law, conduct that implies you are behaving as heir can amount to tacit acceptance of the inheritance, which closes off renunciation. Before you touch anything, find out what you are dealing with.

Assemble the following as a first file:

the death certificate, and where the death occurred abroad, the foreign civil registry extract in the form your Greek adviser asks for;
the deceased’s full legal name in Greek and Latin characters, date and place of birth, last domicile and, if known, Greek AFM;
your own identity document, full name as spelled in official records and your relationship to the deceased;
any title deeds, older acceptance deeds, transcription certificates, cadastral extracts or survey plans you can find;
recent ENFIA statements or E9 printouts, which are often the fastest way to see what Greek property the deceased actually held;
any correspondence suggesting mortgages, liens, tax arrears, social security debts, co-ownership disputes or planning irregularities;
the names and contact details of every other potential heir.

Write down three dates as soon as you can support them with documents: the date of death, the date you first learned that the inheritance had devolved on you and why, and the date any will was published. Those dates drive everything that follows. Keep the evidence for how you learned, because the starting point of the renunciation period is knowledge of the devolution and its cause, not the date of death in every case.

Then decide who is coordinating. In multi-heir families spread across several countries, the most common cause of a missed deadline is each heir assuming another one has instructed the lawyer. Appoint one point of contact, agree in writing who is paying professional fees, and circulate a shared document list.

Which country’s law governs the succession?

For deaths on or after 17 August 2015, Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 determines jurisdiction and applicable law for cross-border successions. The European e-Justice Portal explains the framework: as a general rule the succession as a whole is governed by the law of the State in which the deceased was habitually resident at the time of death, and the courts of that State have jurisdiction. The deceased may instead have chosen, in a valid disposition, the law of a State of nationality. The Regulation applies in all EU Member States except Denmark and Ireland.

This matters enormously for overseas heirs, and it produces counter-intuitive results. A Greek national who lived in Germany for thirty years may have a succession governed by German law even though the only asset is a house in Crete. A British or Australian national who retired to the Peloponnese may have a succession governed by Greek law, including Greek forced heirship rules, unless a valid choice of national law was made. Where the deceased held property in several countries, the Regulation is designed to keep the succession under one law and one authority rather than splitting it asset by asset.

The Regulation also created the European Certificate of Succession, a standard instrument issued by the authority dealing with the succession so that heirs, legatees, executors and administrators can prove their status and powers in other participating Member States without a separate recognition procedure. Certified copies are issued for a limited validity period, commonly six months, and are frequently requested by banks. A European Certificate of Succession is useful, but it is not a substitute for Greek registration of title over immovable property, which still follows Greek property law.

Do not try to answer the applicable law question yourself from a summary. Habitual residence is a factual assessment, choice of law depends on the validity of the disposition that made it, and the interaction with non-EU jurisdictions, dual nationality and pre-2015 deaths adds further complexity. This is precisely the point at which a Greek lawyer with cross-border succession experience earns their fee.

Should you accept or renounce the inheritance?

Under the Greek Civil Code, an estate devolves on the heirs automatically at the moment of death. You do not have to do anything to become an heir. What you have is a limited window in which to refuse.

Article 1847 of the Civil Code gives the heir a period of four months to renounce, running from when the heir learned of the devolution and of its cause. Where the succession arises under a will, the period does not begin before the will is published. The period is extended to one year where the deceased had their last domicile abroad, or where the heir learned of the devolution while living abroad. The period is suspended on the same grounds that suspend limitation periods under the general provisions of the Civil Code. AADE issued circular guidance in 2024 clarifying how tax offices should approach questions of whether a renunciation was made in time, which tells you how often the point is disputed in practice.

Several features of this regime deserve emphasis for anyone reading from outside Greece:

The trigger is knowledge, not death. Two siblings can have different deadlines from the same estate if one learned months after the other. Document how and when you found out.
Renunciation is irrevocable. Once the declaration is filed you cannot change your mind because a valuation came in higher than expected.
Renunciation redirects, it does not extinguish. Your share passes to the next persons in line under the statutory order, including, very often, your own children. Families sometimes renounce in sequence without realising that each new heir starts their own period and that minor children require court authorisation before a renunciation can be made on their behalf.
The declaration is made to a court registry. It is filed at the registry of the competent court, either in person or through an attorney acting under a special notarial power of attorney. Greek court organisation has been reformed in recent years, so the competent registry may differ from what older online descriptions state. Confirm the correct court before travelling or drafting a power of attorney.
Acceptance with benefit of inventory is a middle path. The Civil Code allows an heir to accept subject to an inventory, which is intended to limit liability to the assets of the estate where the statutory conditions and time limits are observed. It is not automatic, it carries its own procedural steps and deadlines, and it does not suit every estate.
Tacit acceptance is a real risk. Behaving as owner can be treated as acceptance. If you are still deciding, do not collect rent, do not dispose of contents and do not sign anything describing you as owner.

If you are weighing this decision, a structured, documented review of the estate’s assets, liabilities and dates is far more valuable than a general article. A Greek inheritance renunciation assessment can organise the facts, the document trail and the questions for your Greek lawyer. It cannot decide the legal question for you, calculate your deadline as a matter of law, or guarantee how a court registry will treat a late filing.

How do you find out whether there is a will?

Greek succession distinguishes between intestate succession, where the statutory order applies, and testate succession under a will. Wills in Greece take several forms, including the public will drawn up before a notary, the secret will deposited with a notary, and the holographic will written entirely in the testator’s own hand. Each is dealt with differently on death, and a will has legal effect in the succession only once it has been published by the competent court.

Practically, the search has three strands. The first is the family strand: ask whether the deceased ever mentioned a notary, and check the deceased’s papers for notarial receipts or deposit acknowledgements. The second is the notarial strand: a Greek lawyer can make enquiries of the relevant notarial and registry records for wills deposited or drawn up in Greece. The third is the court strand: obtaining a certificate on whether a will has or has not been published.

Publication matters for timing as well as content. For heirs under a will, the renunciation period does not begin before publication, and AADE states that the inheritance tax declaration period generally runs from publication of the will for heirs and legatees under a will, rather than from the date of death. So a will discovered and published eighteen months after a death can reset the practical timetable in a way that surprises heirs who assumed everything had already lapsed.

Where the deceased lived outside Greece, also check whether a foreign will exists and whether it purports to cover Greek assets. Joint or mutual wills that are perfectly ordinary in some common law and continental systems can raise validity questions in Greece. Again, this is an advice question, not a form-filling question.

Which certificates prove heirship and non-renunciation?

Greek notaries, cadastral offices, banks and tax offices will not take your word for who the heirs are. They work from a standard bundle of certificates, and assembling that bundle is usually the longest phase of an overseas inheritance.

The typical set includes:

Document	Issued by	What it establishes
Death certificate	Civil registry of the place of death	The fact and date of death
Certificate of close relatives	The deceased’s municipality	The statutory heirs in intestate succession
Certificate of non-publication of a will	Competent court registry	That no will has been published
Copy of the published will and publication record	Competent court registry	The testate entitlement
Certificate of non-renunciation of inheritance	Competent court registry	That no heir has renounced
Certificate of no challenge to the inheritance right	Competent court registry	That entitlement is not under dispute
Certificate of inheritance or European Certificate of Succession	Succession court	Formal proof of heir status where required

Gov.gr provides digital issuance for several of these, including the certificate of renunciation or non-renunciation of inheritance, which is requested with personal Taxisnet credentials and delivered once the selected court has processed it. Coverage has been rolled out court by court rather than nationally in one step, so if the competent court is not yet available digitally, the application is made at the court registry or through a citizen service centre. Work has also been under way to consolidate several of these separate certificates into a single certificate of inheritance, which is worth asking about because it can reduce the number of separate applications.

Two practical warnings. First, transliteration destroys more inheritance files than any other single cause. The deceased’s surname may appear in three spellings across the title deed, the municipal register and the tax record. Compile a table of every spelling variant you find and give it to your lawyer at the outset. Second, certificates have practical shelf lives. Notaries and cadastral offices frequently want recently issued documents, so do not front-load the certificate gathering months before the notary is ready.

Why does every heir need a Greek AFM?

An AFM, the Greek tax identification number issued through AADE, is the identifier that makes the rest of the process possible. Each heir generally needs their own. Without one you cannot be recorded in the inheritance tax declaration, you cannot appear correctly on an E9 property record, and you cannot be registered coherently as the holder of a property right.

There is a second registry task that overseas heirs routinely overlook. AADE’s guide for heirs explains that the heirs or closest relatives must update the deceased’s tax registry record, submitting form D210 for the declaration of details, together with supporting documents, through the myAADE portal using the My Requests platform under the Registry thematic group and the procedure for changes to the details of a natural person. Where the deceased had a sole trader business, a separate cessation filing is required. Until the deceased’s record reflects the heirs, downstream filings can stall for reasons nobody explains to you.

If you do not yet hold an AFM, read the AFM Greece for foreigners guide for the current application routes and identity verification options, and the Taxisnet Greece guide for credential activation and authorisation. Keep every heir’s credentials private. A lawyer or accountant who needs to act should be appointed through AADE’s formal representative mechanisms or through the gov.gr electronic authorisation service, never by borrowing your password.

How does the Greek inheritance tax declaration work?

The inheritance tax declaration is governed by the Code of Inheritance, Gift and Parental Grant Taxation, Law 2961/2001. AADE states the filing periods plainly: the declaration is submitted within nine months of death where the deceased died in Greece, or within one year where the deceased died abroad or the heirs were living abroad at the time of death. Article 62 of the Code adds a qualification that catches people out: where the heir or legatee takes possession of the estate assets within the first nine months of the annual period, the one-year period is reduced to nine months from the date of taking possession.

AADE also sets out when the period starts. As a rule it runs from the death of the deceased for intestate heirs, from publication of the will for heirs and legatees under a will, from publication in the press of the final court decision declaring a person absent, and from the end of a dispute, the consolidation of usufruct with bare ownership, or the collection of intellectual property rights in the corresponding special cases.

The declaration itself reports the estate assets and their values, the heirs and their shares, and the relationship of each heir to the deceased. Greek inheritance tax is charged by reference to categories of relationship, each with its own tax-free allowance and rate bands, and immovable property is generally valued using the objective value system rather than a market appraisal. Reliefs exist, including a primary residence relief subject to conditions. None of that can be applied safely from a general description: the categories, thresholds and conditions change, and the interaction with the heir’s residence, other Greek assets and any earlier gifts or parental grants is exactly the sort of computation a Greek accountant or tax lawyer should perform.

After the declaration is accepted, the act determining the tax is notified digitally through the My Messages application on the myAADE portal, to the heir and to their legal or authorised representative where the declaration was submitted through a representative. Payment can be made at banks or digitally by card, web banking or IRIS, and the payment evidence is posted back to myPROPERTY in the cases where the tax is confirmed within a short window. Amending declarations are supported where a new asset comes to light or a declared asset needs correcting or deleting.

Late filing carries consequences under the Tax Procedure Code, and a late declaration remains possible rather than impossible, which is worth knowing if you have discovered an estate that has been dormant for years. A supported Greek inheritance tax declaration workflow can organise the asset schedule, valuations evidence, heir details and document bundle for your appointed accountant or lawyer to review and submit. It does not replace professional tax advice and it does not determine your liability.

myPROPERTY or My Requests: which route applies?

AADE operates two distinct digital routes, and choosing the wrong one wastes weeks.

myPROPERTY is the application on the myAADE portal used for transfer, gift, parental grant and inheritance tax declarations. AADE states that for deaths from 1 January 2022 onwards, the inheritance tax declaration is submitted through myPROPERTY. In its classic form, the myPROPERTY inheritance route is built around cases where a notarial acceptance deed is drawn up, with the notary preparing the declaration and the heirs approving it digitally. AADE has since added a dedicated application for inheritance tax declarations without a contract, covering cases where no notarial deed is drawn up, in which the heir composes and finalises the declaration themselves, the tax is confirmed where due, and the heir pays and retrieves the payment evidence. That application includes a specific field to be selected where the conditions for the one-year filing period under Article 62(1)(b) of Law 2961/2001 are met, which is the field overseas heirs will most often need.

My Requests is the general myAADE platform for submitting requests to the tax office with attachments. AADE states that for cases other than deaths from 1 January 2022 onwards, and for situations that myPROPERTY does not support, the declaration is submitted through My Requests by selecting the Capital thematic group and the procedure for submitting an inheritance tax declaration, attaching the necessary supporting documents. This is the route for older deaths, for estates whose composition falls outside the digital application’s scope, and for cases where the tax office has to examine documents before accepting the filing.

The decision tree in practice is: identify the date of death, identify whether a notarial acceptance deed will be drawn up, identify what the estate contains, then confirm the route against AADE’s current instructions rather than against a forum post. The boundaries of the digital applications have been widened several times since 2022 and will be widened again.

Whichever route applies, keep the submission reference, the accepted declaration, the tax determination act and the payment evidence together in one place. You will be asked for them by the notary, by the cadastral office and possibly by a buyer’s lawyer years later.

Who does what: lawyer, accountant, notary and engineer

Overseas heirs often try to appoint one person to do everything, then discover that Greek practice separates the roles.

The lawyer advises on entitlement, applicable law, acceptance or renunciation, limitation and dispute risk; obtains court and municipal certificates; conducts title and encumbrance searches at the land registry or cadastral office; drafts or reviews the power of attorney; and represents heirs in any court application, including for a certificate of inheritance or a European Certificate of Succession. Acceptance of an inheritance can in some circumstances be declared through an act involving a lawyer before the court registry, which is a further reason to have one engaged early.

The accountant or tax adviser computes the inheritance tax position, prepares and submits the declaration where they are the appointed representative, handles the deceased’s outstanding income tax filings, updates E9 and manages ENFIA consequences.

The notary drafts and executes the acceptance of inheritance deed for immovable property, checks that the tax and documentary prerequisites are satisfied, and produces the certified copies used for registration. In Greece the notary is a public officer with verification duties, not merely a witness, and their document checklist is often stricter than anyone anticipates.

The civil engineer or surveyor is needed where the property description does not match reality: unregularised additions, an outdated survey plan, a discrepancy between the title and the cadastral record, or missing energy and engineer certifications that will be required if you later sell.

Ask each professional for a written scope, an estimate of their own fees separately from third-party costs, and a statement of who is submitting what. Pay government charges, notarial fees and registration fees directly through traceable channels rather than routing money through an intermediary’s personal account.

What is the acceptance of inheritance deed?

The acceptance of inheritance deed, drawn up before a notary, is the instrument that turns an heir’s abstract entitlement into a registrable title over Greek immovable property. AADE’s own guidance on the subject reflects the settled position that a notarial document is drawn up in the case of express acceptance of inheritance, for the purpose of transcription at the competent land registry, so that ownership of the estate’s immovable property is acquired and recorded.

There is an important asymmetry here that overseas heirs rarely grasp at first. There is no statutory deadline for drawing up the acceptance deed itself. The deadlines that bite are the tax declaration and the property declaration. In practice this means an estate can sit for years with the tax settled but no deed, and the family only discovers the gap when somebody tries to sell, mortgage or divide the property and finds that the public record still shows the deceased.

The notary will typically require the death certificate, the heirship and non-renunciation certificates, the will and its publication record where applicable, the deceased’s title deeds and their transcription or registration details, cadastral extracts, the survey plan where relevant, the inheritance tax declaration and evidence of tax settlement, each heir’s identity documents and AFM, and the power of attorney where an heir is represented. Where the property is co-owned among several heirs, all of them, or their attorneys, must participate.

A managed inheritance acceptance workflow can coordinate the certificate gathering, the document bundle, the notarial appointment and the registration follow-through for heirs who are not in Greece. The notary and lawyer remain responsible for the legal acts, and no service can promise a particular outcome from a court or registry.

How do you register the deed at the cadastre or land registry?

Executing the deed is not the finish line. Registration is.

Greece has been converting from the old land registry system, based on transcription in the books of the local Ypothikofylakeio organised by person, to the Hellenic Cadastre, organised by parcel with a unique property identifier. Which system applies to your property depends on the area and the stage the cadastral programme has reached there. Broadly, three situations arise:

The cadastre is operational in the area. The acceptance deed is registered at the competent cadastral office against the property’s cadastral identifier, and the cadastral sheet is updated to show the heirs. Under the cadastral system, registration is constitutive in character, so the right is not properly perfected until the entry is made.
The area is still under cadastral survey. The Hellenic Cadastre explains that after the transcription of a notarial act, the person acquiring a right in a property must declare it to the cadastre, and that the relevant period is one month running not from the drafting of the contract but from the date of its transcription at the competent land registry. For an acceptance of inheritance over a property already declared, where the fixed cadastral survey fee has been paid and nothing about the declared property has changed, the cadastre indicates that a new ownership declaration and a further fixed fee are not required; instead a free-of-charge application to submit supplementary information is filed, attaching a simple copy of the title and the transcription certificate.
The old land registry still applies. The deed is transcribed in the transcription books, and a transcription certificate is issued as evidence.

The cadastre also allows an inherited right to be declared even where no acceptance deed or equivalent act has yet been drawn up, provided the applicant produces the supporting documents appropriate to the case: with a will, the deceased’s title where it exists, the death certificate, a copy of the published will, a certificate of non-publication of any other will and a certificate of non-renunciation; without a will, the deceased’s title where it exists, the death certificate, a certificate of close relatives, a certificate of non-publication of a will and a certificate of non-renunciation. This is a useful safety valve during survey periods, but it is not a substitute for eventually completing the acceptance deed.

Check the registration outcome rather than assuming it. Obtain the registration or transcription certificate, then obtain a fresh cadastral extract or registry search showing the heirs. Cross-check the surface area, the floor, the parcel identifier and the share percentages against the deed. If you intend to sell within a few years, resolve any discrepancy now, while the notary and engineer are already engaged, because buyers’ lawyers will find it later.

What changes on E9 and ENFIA?

E9, the declaration of property details, is the tax register of who holds what Greek real estate. It is the basis on which ENFIA, the unified property tax, is assessed. When an inheritance occurs, two changes are needed: the property comes out of the deceased’s E9, and it goes into each heir’s E9 in the correct share and with the correct rights, distinguishing full ownership, bare ownership and usufruct where a life interest is involved.

Timing follows the estate rather than the calendar. The change is declared with reference to the year in which the inheritance arose, and AADE’s heirs’ guidance treats the E9 update as part of the same settlement exercise as the inheritance tax declaration. ENFIA is then assessed on holdings as at 1 January of each year, so an inheritance that arises in one year and is declared late can produce assessments that need correcting for more than one year.

Three points cause most of the trouble for overseas heirs:

Bare ownership and usufruct. Where a surviving spouse takes a usufruct and the children take bare ownership, each interest is declared separately and valued differently. Declaring full ownership by mistake distorts both ENFIA and any later sale.
Shares among co-heirs. The sum of declared shares must reconcile. Where four siblings each assume somebody else declared the whole property, AADE ends up with a record that matches nothing.
Property descriptions. Surface areas, floor numbers, auxiliary spaces, parking and storage and plot details all feed the calculation. Copy them from the deed and the cadastral extract, not from memory.

A prepared E9 property declaration workflow can assemble the property schedule, shares and supporting extracts for your accountant to review and submit. Tax computations, reliefs and any correction of prior years remain matters for your appointed professional. If you are also managing the property day to day from overseas, the absentee property owner guide sets out the wider operating system for utilities, inspections and contractors.

Which documents need apostille and translation?

Cross-border estates generate two document problems: proving that a foreign public document is genuine, and making it usable in Greek.

Apostille. Under the 1961 Hague Convention, a public document issued in one contracting state can be certified for use in another by an apostille issued by a designated competent authority in the state of origin. So a death certificate issued in the United Kingdom, an affidavit sworn in South Africa or a notarial power of attorney executed in Canada will usually need an apostille from that country’s competent authority before a Greek notary or court will accept it. Check the HCCH status table for whether both states are parties and whether either has raised an objection affecting the relationship. Where the Convention does not apply, consular legalisation is the fallback and takes longer.

Greek public documents needed abroad follow the mirror route. Gov.gr operates an e-apostille service for qualifying Greek documents, which the holder uses with their own credentials. The Greek apostille documents guide explains the mechanics and the common failure points.

Translation. An apostille authenticates origin. It does not translate. Greek authorities generally require an official translation into Greek, and the accepted providers have changed over time following the closure of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs translation service, with certified translators and qualifying lawyers now doing the work. Ask the receiving authority, the notary or the court registry which form of translation they accept before commissioning one, because a translation accepted by a bank may be refused by a cadastral office.

Sequence. Apostille first, then translate the apostilled document including the apostille certificate itself. Translating first and apostilling afterwards produces a document that has to be redone. Order two or three certified copies of anything you will need in more than one place, because originals get retained.

How does a notarial power of attorney let you act remotely?

Most of a Greek inheritance can be handled without the heir boarding a plane, and the instrument that makes this possible is the special power of attorney.

Greek practice strongly favours a special power of attorney that names the exact acts authorised rather than a broad general authority. A well-drafted instrument for an inheritance will typically name the deceased, identify the estate and the specific property, and list the permitted acts individually: obtaining certificates, submitting the inheritance tax declaration, appearing before the notary to execute the acceptance of inheritance deed, paying fees, registering the deed, updating E9, and so on. If renunciation is contemplated, that requires its own specific authority and its own wording. A power of attorney drafted for acceptance will not authorise renunciation, and vice versa.

There are two normal execution routes from abroad:

Before a Greek consular authority. The consular officer exercises notarial functions, the document is produced in Greek, and no apostille is required because the document is Greek in origin. Appointment availability varies considerably by post.
Before a local notary in your country of residence. The document is then apostilled in that country and officially translated into Greek. This is often faster than waiting for a consular appointment, but the drafting must satisfy Greek requirements, so the Greek lawyer should supply or approve the text before you attend.

Whichever route you use, insist on reading a Greek-and-English or Greek-and-native-language version before signing, check the spelling of every name against your passport, confirm the duration and whether substitution by another attorney is permitted, and keep a copy. Ask how the authority is revoked and tell your lawyer when the work is finished.

A prepared notarial power of attorney workflow can coordinate the drafting brief, the consular or local notarial appointment, the apostille and the translation so that the instrument arrives in Greece in an acceptable form first time. The legal content of the authority is settled by your Greek lawyer and notary. Note also the separate, lighter gov.gr electronic authorisation service, which is suitable for some administrative acts but is not a substitute for a notarial power of attorney where a notarial act is required.

What if the estate carries debts or the facts are unclear?

A Greek inheritance transmits liabilities as well as assets. That can include mortgage debt secured on the property, unpaid ENFIA and other taxes, social security debts, unpaid communal building charges, utility arrears and liabilities arising from the deceased’s business activity. It can also include non-obvious exposures such as an unregularised extension, a boundary dispute with a neighbour, an undivided co-ownership with cousins nobody has spoken to in decades, or a property with no clear chain of title back through earlier undeclared successions.

The Civil Code’s answer to an insolvent or uncertain estate is the renunciation period and the option of acceptance with benefit of inventory. Both are time-bound and both require action, which is why the investigation phase has to be fast and structured rather than leisurely. A sensible investigation covers:

a land registry or cadastral office search for mortgages, prenotations, seizures and adverse entries;
an AADE position on the deceased’s outstanding tax obligations;
enquiries about ENFIA and municipal charges;
the building manager’s statement on communal arrears where the property is in a block;
an engineer’s view on planning and regularisation status where the property has been altered;
confirmation of whether any earlier succession in the chain was ever completed and registered;
identification of every co-heir and whether any of them has renounced.

Two further realities are worth stating plainly. First, a low-value rural plot can carry professional and administrative costs that exceed what it is worth, especially where earlier successions were never completed and several generations of certificates are required. Value the whole exercise, not just the asset. Second, nobody can promise you an outcome from a Greek court. If a deadline has passed, if a renunciation is contested, if entitlement is disputed or if a late filing needs to be accepted, the result depends on the tribunal, the evidence and the law. Be sceptical of any adviser who guarantees otherwise.

What can be done remotely and what needs someone in Greece?

Usually possible remotely, by you or by an appointed professional:

assembling the estate file and document inventory;
obtaining several court certificates digitally through gov.gr where the competent court is integrated;
obtaining an AFM through AADE’s current route for your category;
submitting the inheritance tax declaration through myPROPERTY or My Requests;
paying the tax digitally;
reviewing and approving draft deeds and declarations;
updating E9 through an appointed accountant;
executing a power of attorney at a consulate or local notary;
receiving the tax determination act through My Messages;
holding video meetings with the lawyer, notary and accountant.

Usually needs someone physically present in Greece, which can be your attorney under the power of attorney:

filing a renunciation declaration at the court registry;
physical searches at a land registry that is not digitised;
attending the notary for execution of the acceptance deed;
lodging the deed for registration and collecting the certificate;
attending a cadastral office for supplementary filings;
opening or regularising a Greek bank account in some cases;
physical inspection of the property and engineer’s survey work.

Always yours alone:

your identity verification where AADE or a court requires it personally;
your personal Taxisnet and myAADE credentials and one-time codes;
the decision to accept, to renounce or to accept with benefit of inventory;
approving the content of anything filed in your name;
signing the power of attorney.

What does a realistic staged timeline look like?

The table below is a planning frame, not a promise. Real timelines depend on the court, the municipality, the completeness of the deceased’s records and whether earlier successions in the chain were ever completed.

Stage	Typical work	Indicative elapsed time
1. Triage	Death certificate, asset identification, heir list, date evidence, no acts of ownership	First 2 to 4 weeks
2. Advice and decision	Applicable law, entitlement, deadline analysis, accept or renounce, debt investigation	Weeks 2 to 8, inside the renunciation period
3. Authority	Special power of attorney drafted, executed, apostilled and translated	2 to 8 weeks depending on route
4. Identifiers	AFM for each heir, deceased’s registry update by D210, credentials in place	2 to 8 weeks, can run in parallel
5. Certificates	Will search and publication position, heirship, non-renunciation, no-challenge certificates	4 to 16 weeks, court dependent
6. Tax declaration	Asset schedule, valuations, declaration via myPROPERTY or My Requests, assessment, payment	Inside the 9-month or 1-year period
7. Deed	Notarial acceptance of inheritance executed by heirs or attorneys	2 to 8 weeks after tax settled
8. Registration	Transcription or cadastral registration, certificate obtained, extract verified	2 to 12 weeks, office dependent
9. Property tax	E9 updated for each heir, ENFIA position reviewed and corrected if needed	Aligned with the declaration period
10. Aftercare	Utilities and building charges transferred, management arrangements, sale preparation	Ongoing

Stages 3, 4 and 5 should overlap. The single biggest saving available to an overseas heir is running the power of attorney, the AFM applications and the certificate requests concurrently instead of sequentially.

What is the complete overseas heir checklist?

Immediate

Death certificate obtained and, where foreign, apostilled
No acts of ownership taken over the property or contents
Date of death, date of knowledge and any publication date recorded with evidence
All potential heirs identified and contacted
One coordinating heir and one professional point of contact agreed
Deceased’s papers, deeds, ENFIA statements and correspondence secured

Advice and decision

Greek lawyer with cross-border succession experience engaged
Applicable law under Regulation 650/2012 assessed
Renunciation period calculated by the lawyer for each heir individually
Estate liabilities investigated at registry, AADE, municipality and building level
Accept, renounce or accept with benefit of inventory decided in writing
Consequences for children and next-in-line heirs considered
Any renunciation for a minor referred for the required court authorisation

Documents and authority

Will search completed and publication position certified
Certificate of close relatives obtained
Certificates of non-publication, non-renunciation and no challenge obtained
European Certificate of Succession considered where other Member States are involved
Special power of attorney drafted by the Greek lawyer
Power of attorney executed at consulate or apostilled and translated
Name spellings reconciled across every document

Tax and registration

Aftercare

Utilities, building charges and insurance transferred into the correct names
Management or keyholding arrangements established
Complete digital archive of deeds, certificates, filings and receipts retained
Professional fee invoices addressed to the heirs and paid directly

Which mistakes cost overseas heirs the most?

Assuming the clock starts at death. The renunciation period runs from knowledge of the devolution and its cause, and for testate heirs the tax period generally runs from publication of the will. People both miss deadlines they thought were later and abandon estates they thought were lost.
Acting as owner while undecided. Collecting rent, clearing the flat or paying the deceased’s bills from your own funds can be characterised as tacit acceptance.
Treating the tax declaration as the end. Paying inheritance tax does not make you the registered holder of the property. Without the acceptance deed and its registration, the public record still shows the deceased.
Choosing the wrong AADE route. Filing through My Requests when myPROPERTY applies, or the reverse, produces a rejection and lost weeks.
Drafting a power of attorney that is too narrow or too vague. A general authority may be refused by a notary; a specific authority that omits the registration step means a second instrument.
Apostilling and translating in the wrong order, or commissioning a translation the receiving office does not accept.
Ignoring earlier incomplete successions. If the deceased never completed an acceptance for a property inherited from their own parent, that succession has to be resolved first, which multiplies the certificates required.
Uncoordinated co-heirs. Four heirs instructing four lawyers in four countries is the most expensive way to handle one Greek flat.
Letting certificates go stale. Gathering everything nine months before the notary is ready means gathering it twice.
Sharing Taxisnet credentials. Use formal representative and authorisation mechanisms instead, and keep one-time codes private.
Valuing the asset without valuing the process. For low-value rural plots with broken title chains, the professional costs can exceed the property’s worth.
Believing a guaranteed outcome. No adviser controls a court registry, a tax office or a cadastral examiner.

How was this guide prepared?

This guide was prepared by separating the civil law strand of Greek succession from the tax strand and the registration strand, then mapping each to the authority that actually decides it. AADE’s guide to settling tax obligations arising from a loss of life and its heirs’ tax guide were used for the filing periods, the myPROPERTY and My Requests routes, the registry update by form D210 and the notification of the tax determination act. AADE’s service page for transfer, gift, parental grant and inheritance tax declarations was used for the boundary between the digital applications, together with its user guide for inheritance tax declarations without a contract. The renunciation framework was taken from Article 1847 of the Civil Code and the 2024 AADE circular guidance on whether a renunciation was made in time. Gov.gr was used for the digital issuance of succession certificates, the e-apostille service and electronic authorisation. The Hellenic Cadastre was used for the registration and declaration requirements, including the one-month period running from transcription during cadastral survey. The European e-Justice Portal was used for Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 and the European Certificate of Succession, and the HCCH Apostille Section for the authentication framework.

Last checked: 25 September 2026. Greek succession procedure, court organisation, AADE digital applications and cadastral requirements all change. Confirm the current position with the competent authority and with appropriately qualified Greek professionals before acting. This guide is practical information only. It is not legal, tax or immigration advice, it does not calculate your deadlines or your liability, and it does not predict the outcome of any court or administrative decision.

Frequently asked questions

How long do I have to renounce a Greek inheritance if I live abroad?

Article 1847 of the Greek Civil Code sets a four-month period running from when the heir learned of the devolution and its cause, extended to one year where the deceased’s last domicile was abroad or the heir learned of the devolution while living abroad. The start date is fact-sensitive, the period can be suspended on the same grounds as limitation, and renunciation is irrevocable once filed. Ask a Greek lawyer to fix your dates before you rely on any general figure.

What is the deadline for the Greek inheritance tax declaration?

AADE states that the inheritance tax declaration is submitted within nine months of death where the deceased died in Greece, or within one year where the death occurred abroad or the heirs were living abroad at the time of death. For heirs under a will, the period generally starts from publication of the will rather than from death. Special rules apply to usufruct, absence declarations and disputed entitlements.

Can I submit the Greek inheritance tax declaration online from abroad?

For deaths from 1 January 2022 onwards, AADE directs heirs to the myPROPERTY application on the myAADE portal. For other cases, including earlier deaths and situations myPROPERTY does not support, AADE directs heirs to the myAADE My Requests platform under the Capital thematic group. Both routes need a Greek AFM and working credentials, or an appointed representative submitting on your behalf.

Do I need to travel to Greece to accept an inheritance?

Often not. A Greek lawyer and notary can usually act under a special notarial power of attorney that names the exact acts permitted. The power of attorney is typically executed before a Greek consulate abroad, or before a local notary with an apostille and an accepted Greek translation. Whether every step in your particular case can be completed without you attending is a question for the professionals handling the file.

Does paying inheritance tax make me the registered owner of the Greek property?

No. The inheritance tax declaration is a tax filing. Title to immovable property is normally completed through a notarial acceptance of inheritance deed, which is then transcribed at the land registry or registered at the competent cadastral office. Until that registration is done, the public property record will not show you as the holder of the right.

What happens if the Greek estate has debts?

A Greek inheritance can pass liabilities as well as assets. The Civil Code allows renunciation within the applicable period, and it also allows acceptance with benefit of inventory, which is intended to limit the heir’s liability to the estate’s assets where the statutory conditions and time limits are met. Both routes are strictly time-bound and irreversible in practice, so obtain Greek legal advice before choosing or doing anything that could count as tacit acceptance.

Is a European Certificate of Succession enough to deal with a Greek property?

The European Certificate of Succession under Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 proves the status and powers of heirs, legatees, executors and administrators across participating Member States without a special recognition procedure. It does not replace the national registration steps that Greek property law requires for immovable property, so the acceptance deed and its registration are usually still needed.

Can someone in Greece use my Taxisnet or myAADE password to file for me?

No. Keep your personal credentials, recovery details and one-time codes private. Where a professional needs to file for you, use the formal representative and authorisation mechanisms that AADE and gov.gr provide, and keep copies of the submission and the resulting assessment.

Primary sources

These sources were checked when this guide was updated. Always open the current official page before acting.

About the author

Yanni writes practical, source-led guidance for people organising life and property in Greece. The guides explain administrative steps, not legal, tax or immigration advice.