Yes i know its a subject we don,t like talking about especially for us elderly married couples but sooner or later one of us is going to meet the grim reaper first
If your resident here in Cyprus,all your documents up to date,own your own house with title deeds and its in joint names,how easy ( or hard ) is it to get it named only in the surviving spouse,s name.
The reason i,m asking is that i heard a story the other afternoon in the local chamber of commerce ( the local bar of course ) that a lawyer charged an astronomical amount to get the probate and title transfer done.Was she for want of a better word ripped off or is this the norm??
Chaddy wrote: ↑Tue May 18, 2021 9:13 am
Yes i know its a subject we don,t like talking about especially for us elderly married couples but sooner or later one of us is going to meet the grim reaper first
If your resident here in Cyprus,all your documents up to date,own your own house with title deeds and its in joint names,how easy ( or hard ) is it to get it named only in the surviving spouse,s name.
The reason i,m asking is that i heard a story the other afternoon in the local chamber of commerce ( the local bar of course ) that a lawyer charged what she considered wasan astronomical amount to get the probate and title transfer done.Was she for want of a better word ripped off or is this the norm??
The Cyprus Bar Association has a list of fees that their members are obliged to charge - and that includes some astronomical percentage of the estate for being the executor of a will.
Probate over here can be expensive but even worse, a very lengthy process, adding insult to injury at an already distressing time. I am thankful that when my husband was given his terminal diagnosis, he immediately set about putting everything into my sole name in order to avoid probate hassles for me once he was gone.
I realise this is not usually possible for many couples, but so long as the house and vehicle are in joint names, the survivor should be able to take sole ownership relatively easily. For joint bank accounts, ensure the designation is "and/or" otherwise problems will arise if designation is only "and".
Kay Those who do not like cats, must have been mice in a former life!
Chaddy wrote: ↑Tue May 18, 2021 9:13 am
Yes i know its a subject we don,t like talking about especially for us elderly married couples but sooner or later one of us is going to meet the grim reaper first
If your resident here in Cyprus,all your documents up to date,own your own house with title deeds and its in joint names,how easy ( or hard ) is it to get it named only in the surviving spouse,s name.
The reason i,m asking is that i heard a story the other afternoon in the local chamber of commerce ( the local bar of course ) that a lawyer charged an astronomical amount to get the probate and title transfer done.Was she for want of a better word ripped off or is this the norm??
The first rule of thumb is never believe ''The I heard it down the Pub'' nonsense, the thing is everybody's situation is different, and generally you ask a hundred people, you will get a hundred different answers, do yourself a favor, go see a lawyer, pay for an hour of that lawyers time, and get the facts/costs etc. this is a serious, subject and not one to be answered by bar room lawyer wannabees.
The advice we were given by the lawyer who drew up up our Cypriot will was not to name them as executors of the will, as the fees for named executors are based on a % scale of the estate value and can work out to be very expensive. We have told our children to agree a fee before engaging the services of a Cypriot lawyer to sort out the will when the time comes (hopefully a few years off yet................)
PW in Polemi..
Kay, re "so long as the house and vehicle are in joint names " .. I was not aware that a house could be in Joint names. If two people own it ie husband and wife, I understood they each had a separate deed.
As you mentioned to avoid probate one share of the house needs transferring to the person most likely to live longest. Not an easy decision..
Having been through probate here in Cyprus, I can confirm the advice given. Never use your solicitor as an executor, have a matching will, with each of you nominated as each others executor. You will also need a second executor, if you have no relatives, chose a friend, preferably one who lives in Cyprus, as they will be required to sign various things. I had title deeds with my late husband (50% each) and provided you are the named beneficiary of their estate you can transfer the document into your sole name, but I would use a solicitor to do this.
It was not a particularly difficult process to gain probate, my solicitor guided me through it, but it can take time (18 months in my case), and tax clearance will have to be done before probate is issued. Again my solicitor arranged all this. Her fees were very reasonable (circa €3-5000, but this was 12 years ago).
I am currently just starting probate. Our wills were mirrored. Everything in joint names. You still have to have probate, as in most EU countries. The old fixed % percentage is no more. EU ruled against it a few years ago. You can now negotiate your fee. The our of court expenses and stamp costs are extra, plus VAT. You can do executor duties yourself but, unless you know Greek fluently you will have to pay to have them professionally translated, since you cannot sign a legal document without fully understanding it. I had a long talk with my lawyer and she assured me it was cheaper for her to do everything. Unfortunately there was no time in our case to transfer everything into my name, which would have negated probate. I will discuss this with her again because up to now, i haven't signed her up!
Some words of advice that we have learned: Our original wills were completed by a Cypriot Lawyer and they were the executors. Subsequently we found out that this can be very expensive so we redid our wills as mirror copies of the Lawyers and then registered them with the Paphos court for the normal fee and then we paid to destroy the old wills previously lodged.
We have named our son as executor of the wills and asked him to find a Lawyer in Cyprus and arrange a fee beforehand.
The reason we redid our wills is that we were informed that the whole of our estates Cyprus and the UK was chargeable by a Cypriot Lawyer and that would INCLUDE our English wills. Our Cypriot wills show that they are to be dealt with under UK Laws and not Cypriot laws to stop the joining of both UK and Cypriot wills. I believe this info to be correct at this time
I dont think its correct that the Cyprus executor/lawyer would have any involvement in Uk Wills as regards probate, fees etc. Anybody come accross this issue in "real life"
When my husband died 12 years ago we still had property in the UK and UK wills as well as our Cypriot property and wills. I had to go through probate in both the UK and Cyprus, totally separate. My Cypriot lawyer had no involvement in the UK probate whatsoever.
Hope this helps.
For what it's worth, we have just been to a Cypriot Lawyer and had drawn up mirror Power of Attorney docs. So that if one of becomes unable to function , incapacitated, then the partner can legally make decisions in regards to finance, cars , villa etc ...
I also understand,though not certain ,that UK LPA's are not recognized here....
I have just signed with my lawyer. Probate here only for Cyprus. The house has to be valued by a valuer. The log book goes off and is valued based on the information. The bank accounts are no longer under probate. All this is assuming joint ownership. Very upfront company, everything in plain English.
