Infringement of Reserved Shares and Order of Reduction

Legal Article · 12 November 2026
Attorney Thomas Andreas Di Constantinople

Reduction reduces benefits exceeding the deceased’s freedom of disposition to the extent necessary to restore reserved shares. A disposition may be subject to reduction even if it is valid in terms of form and capacity. Reduction and annulment of a will are therefore different legal claims, with different grounds and effects.

Calculating the Infringement and Ordering the Benefits

Under TMK m. 560, an heir who has not received the value of their reserved share may seek reduction. The notional estate for calculation, the heir’s reserved share and the benefits actually received must first be established. Leaving immovable property to another person does not alone show that every heir’s reserved share has been infringed.

As a rule, testamentary dispositions are reduced first. If these are insufficient, lifetime benefits are addressed beginning with the most recent. The law provides a special last-in-order rule for benefits to public legal entities and public-benefit associations and foundations. It cannot be assumed that every lifetime gift is subject to reduction under the same conditions.

The right to bring proceedings must be exercised within one year of learning of the infringement of the reserved share and, in any event, within ten years, running from the opening of the will for wills and the opening of succession for other dispositions. These are forfeiture periods. TMK m. 571 separately protects the ability to raise reduction as a defence.

Source

Turkish Civil Code No. 4721, m. 560–571.

This article has been prepared for general legal information purposes.