Checklist: inheritance (veraset) from the UK

Turkish succession is handled through documents, not conversations. Before a bank will release a balance or a tapu can be transferred, the heirs must be established on paper — and where the death or the heirs are British, that paper starts in England and has to travel.

Who this list is for

Families in the UK dealing with property, bank accounts or a business in Türkiye after a death, whether the deceased died in the UK or in Türkiye. It also covers British heirs of a Turkish relative, who face the same file from the other direction.

The documents

• UK death certificate — a certified copy from the register office or the GRO. It needs an FCDO apostille before translation, and GRO certificates are outside the electronic apostille service, so this is the paper route with its longer timetable. Translation into Turkish required.
• Will and grant of probate — where the estate is administered in England. Apostilled, then translated in full, including the schedule. A will disposing of Turkish immovable property does not automatically govern it, so expect the Turkish court to look at it in the light of Turkish law.
• Relationship evidence — marriage certificate and the heirs' Full Birth Certificates where the family is not already recorded in the Turkish register. Apostilled and translated.
• The deceased's Turkish civil record — the nüfus kayıt örneği showing the family tree. Obtained in Türkiye by a relative or a lawyer; nothing to translate.
• Veraset ilamı (certificate of inheritance) — the document everything else depends on. The consulates do not issue it. Where all the parties appear in the Turkish civil register a Turkish notary can produce it; where there is a foreign element, such as a British heir or a death registered abroad, it comes from the sulh hukuk mahkemesi.
• Power of attorney for a Turkish lawyer — nobody wants to fly for every hearing. Granted at the Consulate, or before a UK notary with an apostille and a notarised Turkish translation.
• Asset details — tapu records, bank and share account numbers, vehicle registration. Gathered in Türkiye; the inheritance and transfer tax declaration follows the veraset ilamı and has its own deadlines.
• Sequence — apostille, then translate, then notarise the translation. Turkish courts and notaries decline translations of documents that were not legalised first.

What people most often get wrong

The commonest misconception is that an English grant of probate is enough to deal with a flat in İzmir. It is not: the Turkish court establishes the heirs under Turkish law, and the grant is evidence within that process rather than a substitute for it. Families also book a consular appointment expecting a veraset ilamı and lose weeks discovering the consulate cannot issue one. And the short death certificate ordered for a UK bank will not do for legalisation, so a second, certified copy has to be ordered from the register office.

What we would translate and what it would cost

A representative file for a court application in Türkiye: death certificate (1 page), grant of probate with the will annexed (5 pages), marriage certificate (1 page) and two heirs' birth certificates (2 pages). At £6.50 a page in the English into Turkish direction, those nine pages come to £58.50. Turkish courts want notarised translations, so add the Ankara notary tariff of roughly £13.50 a page plus a £5 handling fee — about £126 — for a file of about £185. Add £15 if a Turkish apostille is requested on the notarised set, and £30 if the lawyer wants the wet-ink bundle couriered rather than printed locally.

Before you rely on this list

This page helps you assemble papers; it does not tell you who inherits, which is a matter of Turkish succession law and of the court handling the file. Take advice from a Turkish lawyer before spending money on translations, and use the FCDO's own guidance at gov.uk for what can and cannot be apostilled.