If you die in Cyprus without a will, the Wills and Succession Law, Cap. 195 decides who inherits, and it leaves nobody any discretion. Your spouse or civil partner takes a fixed share first. The rest goes to your relatives in a strict order set out in the First Schedule to the Law: children, then parents and siblings, then grandparents, then anyone else related to you up to the sixth degree. If there is nobody within six degrees, section 47(2) hands what is left to the Republic.
The shares are not a matter of fairness or need. A stepchild you raised gets nothing. A partner you lived with for twenty years gets nothing unless you married or registered a civil union. A cousin you never met can take a quarter of the estate from your widow.
Does Cyprus law apply to your estate at all?
On paper, section 5 of Cap. 195 says the Law governs the whole estate of anyone domiciled in Cyprus and the immovable property in Cyprus of anyone who is not. For deaths on or after 17 August 2015 the EU Succession Regulation 650/2012 sits on top of that, and its default rule is the law of the state where you were habitually resident when you died.
In practice that gives two common outcomes for British readers:
- You lived in Cyprus. Cyprus intestacy rules will usually govern everything you owned, including a bank account in Manchester, as far as the Cypriot courts are concerned. A UK court may take its own view of UK assets.
- You lived in the UK and owned a flat in Paphos. The Regulation points to UK law, but English conflict rules send succession to land back to the law of the place where it sits, and Article 34 of the Regulation accepts that referral. The usual result is that Cyprus law decides who gets the Paphos flat and English law decides the rest.
Two sets of intestacy rules applying to one estate is exactly as awkward as it sounds, and it is the strongest argument for a will. Our guide to whether a UK will is valid in Cyprus explains how to avoid it.
What the surviving spouse gets
Section 44 sets the spouse's share, calculated after the estate's debts are paid. It depends on which relatives survive:
| Who else survives | Spouse's share |
|---|---|
| Any child, or descendants of a child who died earlier | The same share as each child |
| No descendants, but a parent, sibling, grandparent, niece, nephew, aunt or uncle (relatives up to the third degree) | One half |
| No relatives closer than the fourth degree, but at least one fourth-degree relative (a first cousin, for example) | Three quarters |
| Nobody within four degrees | The whole estate |
The first row is the one people get wrong. The spouse is counted as one more child. With one child, they split the estate half each. With three children, the spouse and each child take a quarter. With five children, the spouse takes a sixth. There is no fixed spousal minimum and no right to keep the family home.
Section 45 adds one wrinkle: property the surviving spouse already received from the deceased under a marriage contract is not counted against their share. If the deceased left more than one lawful spouse, the proviso to section 44 splits the spouse's share equally between them.
Civil partners and unmarried partners
Section 4 of the Civil Union Law 184(I)/2015 gives a registered civil union the same effects as a marriage, adoption apart, so a civil partner stands in the same position as a husband or wife under section 44. An unmarried partner has no entitlement at all under Cap. 195, however long the relationship. If that describes you, a will is the only way to provide for your partner.
Who inherits the rest: the four classes
Section 46 sends everything after the spouse's share to the relatives in the First Schedule. The rule that matters is in its proviso: anyone in a higher class shuts out everyone in a lower one.
- 1First class: children. Your children share equally. If a child died before you, that child's own children step into their parent's place and share the parent's portion between them (section 49 calls this taking per stirpes).
- 2Second class: parents and siblings. Only reached if there are no children or grandchildren. Surviving parents and brothers and sisters share equally, except that a half-brother or half-sister takes half the share of a full sibling. If neither parent is alive, the nearest living ascendant takes the parent's place. A sibling's children step into a sibling who died first.
- 3Third class: the nearest ascendants. Grandparents, or great-grandparents if no grandparent survives. Where there are ascendants of the same degree on both sides, the father's side takes half and the mother's side takes half.
- 4Fourth class: the nearest relatives up to the sixth degree. Uncles, aunts, cousins and so on, with the closer degree excluding the more distant one, and equal shares within the same degree.
Degrees are counted under section 48 by generations: up to the common ancestor and back down. Your parent is one degree away, a sibling two, a niece or uncle three, a first cousin four. The Second Schedule to Cap. 195 sets out the table to the sixth degree.
Three worked examples
A man domiciled in Limassol dies without a will, leaving a wife and two adult children. After debts, the estate is split into three equal parts: one for his wife and one for each child.
A woman dies leaving a husband, her mother and a brother, but no children. Her husband takes half. The other half goes to the second class, so her mother and brother take a quarter each. Had the brother been a half-brother, he would take half a full sibling's share, so the second-class half would be divided two-thirds to the mother and one-third to him.
A widower with no children, parents, siblings, nieces, nephews or grandparents dies leaving only two first cousins. They are the nearest relatives within six degrees, so they share the whole estate equally.
Stepchildren, adopted children and children born outside marriage
The First Schedule refers to the deceased's children. A stepchild who was never adopted is not one of them and has no claim on intestacy, however close the relationship. If you want stepchildren to inherit, put it in a will (subject to the forced-heirship limits covered in our wills and inheritance guide).
Adopted children and children born outside marriage are dealt with by other legislation, and the drafting of Cap. 195 still reflects its 1945 origins. If the estate depends on either question, have a lawyer confirm the current position on the facts before anything is distributed.
How the estate is actually dealt with
With no will there is no executor. Someone, usually a spouse or adult child, applies to the District Court for letters of administration under the Administration of Estates Law, Cap. 189, and section 17 directs the grant to one or more of the people entitled to the estate. Before the court issues it, the Tax Department must confirm it has no objection, and a statement of the deceased's assets and liabilities has to be filed within six months of the death. Our guide to probate in Cyprus walks through each step.
Two points ease the pain. There is no inheritance tax in Cyprus, as explained in our inheritance tax guide. And an heir who does not want an estate that owes more than it is worth can disclaim it within three months of learning of the death and of being an heir.
Where relatives disagree about who is entitled, or someone turns up claiming to be a child of the deceased, the dispute goes before the same District Court. The rules on challenging a distribution overlap with those in our guide to contesting a will in Cyprus.
The fix is cheap
Everything above is what happens by default. A short will, drafted with Cyprus law in mind and, if you are a British national, an express choice of law under Article 22 of the Succession Regulation, replaces almost all of it with your own decisions. It costs far less than an administration with two families and two legal systems pulling in different directions.
Dealing with an estate where there is no will, or want to make sure yours is not one? Browse wills and probate lawyers or search the lawyer directory for an advocate who can apply for letters of administration and confirm how Cap. 195 applies to your family. This guide reflects the law in force in October 2026 and is general information, not advice on a particular estate.