Binding Effect and Form of an Inheritance Agreement

Legal Article · 12 November 2026
Attorney Thomas Andreas Di Constantinople

An inheritance agreement is a transaction in which the deceased ties a testamentary arrangement to an agreement with the other party. A positive inheritance agreement may undertake to leave the inheritance or a particular asset to a contracting party or a third person. An agreement renouncing future inheritance concerns a person’s relinquishment of future status as an heir.

Official Form and Freedom of Disposition

Under TMK m. 545, an inheritance agreement is executed in the form of an official will. The parties must communicate their wishes to the official at the same time and sign the document before the official and two witnesses. An ordinary written family protocol does not replace this form.

Making an agreement does not freeze all of the deceased’s powers of disposition over their assets during life. Under TMK m. 527, the person may freely dispose of their assets; however, testamentary dispositions or gifts incompatible with the contractual obligation may be challenged. This limit cannot be interpreted as automatically invalidating every transfer of an asset.

Unlike a will, an inheritance agreement cannot in every case be freely revoked unilaterally. Circumstances such as a written agreement between the parties, a statutory ground for disinheritance or failure to perform the consideration are subject to separate conditions. The effect of renunciation on descendants may also vary according to whether consideration was received and the contents of the agreement.

Source

Turkish Civil Code No. 4721, m. 503, 527–530, 545–548.

This article has been prepared for general legal information purposes.