Glossary
Probate — explained for Turkish readers
The legal process in England and Wales of proving a will and obtaining authority to collect, manage and distribute a deceased person's estate.
Probate is the process by which the person named in a will, the executor, is given legal authority to deal with the estate of someone who has died. The executor applies to the Probate Registry, part of HMCTS, and pays inheritance tax where due before the grant is issued. Where there is no will, a relative applies instead for letters of administration under the intestacy rules.
Türkiye has no probate as such. Heirs obtain a veraset ilamı, now also called a mirasçılık belgesi, from a sulh hukuk mahkemesi or a noter, and that certificate lists the heirs and their shares by law; there is no executor, and the estate passes to the heirs directly. Translating “probate” into Turkish therefore needs a phrase rather than a word, and we usually render it as tereke işlemleri with an explanatory note.
Estates that include Turkish property involve both systems. See inheriting property in Turkey from the UK.