Amendments to Greek Law of Wills and Testaments

Law 5221/2025 (Government Gazette 133A/28-07-2025,) is amending, among others, the Code of Civil Procedure and important articles of the Civil Code. The amendments to the Code of Civil Procedure (new Articles 807 para. 1, 808 and 808A), the Civil Code (Articles 1769, 1773 and 1778) and Legislative Decree 3082/1954 (Article 10), Government Gazette 257A, “on the publications of wills by notaries or consuls, etc.,” which concern the publication of wills and testaments and the declaration of a handwritten will as valid, shall enter into force on 1.11.2025, while the abolition of Articles 1770, 1771, 1772, 1774 and 1776 of the Civil Code concerning the above matters shall be effective from 1.1.2026.

Thus, in the event of the testator’s death before 1.11.2025, the publication of wills and the issuance of certificates shall continue to be carried out by the Courts of First Instance.

In the event of the testator’s death after 1.11.2025, the following shall apply:

• Competent for the publication of a testament is the Notary who drafted it or to whom it has been deposited or submitted, as well as, correspondingly, the Greek consular authorities (Art. 807 Code of Civil Procedure, 1769, 1773 Civil Code).
• The publication of a testament is effected by its entry, in its entirety, in the minutes drawn up and signed by the notary or the consul and the person who delivered it (in the case of a handwritten testament), a copy of which is entered in a special electronic platform for the publication of wills and testaments (“Register of Wills and Testaments”), the ownership, administration and management of which belongs to the notarial associations of the country (Art. 808 paras. 1,2 Code of Civil Procedure, 1769 para. 3, 1773 sec. d Civil Code).
• The originals of the testaments published, with their envelopes, shall be dated and signed by the notary or the consul and kept in their archive (Art. 808 para. 3 Code of Civil Procedure, 1769 para. 4, 1773 sec. c Civil Code).
• Copies of testaments and revocations of testaments, which have been published abroad, may be deposited with a Greek consular authority, and are sent to the Register of Wills and Testaments without delay, under the care of the consul who received them. The copies must be certified by the foreign authority that published the testament. If the testaments are drafted wholly or partly in a foreign language, there must be attached, upon their deposit, a translation into the Greek language of the foreign-language part, which is made by certified translators of the “Register of Certified Translators,” through the application “Certified Translators” of the Single Digital Portal “gov.gr,” a Greek consular authority, or a lawyer (Art. 808 para. 4 Code of Civil Procedure).
• The minutes of publication or refusal of publication of a testament by the notary or the consular authority may be challenged by opposition by any person having a legitimate interest before the single-member court of first instance of the place of residence or domicile of the deceased at the time of death, otherwise the single-member court of first instance of Athens (Art. 808 para. 6, 810 Code of Civil Procedure).
• Correspondingly, competent for declaring a published handwritten testament as valid is the notary who proceeded to its publication, and who is obliged to proceed to the declaration, by his act, provided that the applicant for the declaration appears before him through an attorney and with two (2) witnesses, who shall certify the authenticity of the handwriting and the signature of the testator, while in the case where, with the handwritten will, an exclusive heir is appointed who is not the spouse of the testator or a person with whom the testator has concluded a civil partnership or is not related to the testator by at least the fourth degree of kinship, the applicant for the declaration shall submit a handwriting expert’s report, in order to prove the authenticity of the handwriting and the signature of the testator. In this case, the minutes of publication shall be notified by the notary who proceeded to the declaration of the will as valid to the Greek State at the latest ten (10) days from the day following such declaration as valid (Art. 808A sec. a–d Code of Civil Procedure).
• For a testament published by a consular authority, competent to declare it valid is the notary who is designated through the Register of Wills and Testaments (Art. 808A sec. e Code of Civil Procedure).