Reduction Action: Protecting the Reserved Share of Forced Heirs

TMK art.506 lists the forced heirs exhaustively: descendants, parents and the surviving spouse. The reserved share is calculated as a fraction of the statutory share. For descendants it is one-half of the statutory share; for each of the parents it is one-quarter; for the surviving spouse it is the entirety of the statutory share where the spouse inherits with the descendants or the parents' branch, and three-quarters in the other cases.

Siblings held a reserved share under the original text of Code No. 4721 (art.506/3); that provision was repealed by Code No. 5650 of 4 May 2007. Siblings are therefore no longer forced heirs today and have no standing to bring a reduction action.

TMK art.560 provides that the dispositions of the testator may be reduced to the extent that they exceed the disposable portion. Both testamentary dispositions (wills and succession contracts) and certain inter vivos transfers are subject to reduction.

Under TMK art.565, the following are subject to reduction: inter vivos transfers credited to the heir's share; transfers intended to settle inheritance entitlements before death; gifts that the testator made reserving the right freely to revoke them, and gifts other than the customary gifts of the year preceding death; and transfers visibly intended to defeat the reserved-share rules.

In calculating the reduction, the assets and liabilities of the estate, the transfers subject to clawback (denkleştirme) and the reserved-share ratios are considered together; bank records, land-registry transfers and gift documents are accordingly important.

Under TMK art.571, the right to bring a reduction action lapses one year from the date on which the heirs learned that their reserved shares had been encroached upon, and in any event ten years from the opening date of the will or, in the case of other dispositions, from the opening of the succession. These periods are periods of forfeiture (hak düşürücü süre).

The court of subject-matter jurisdiction is the Civil Court of First Instance; the court of territorial jurisdiction is the court of the last domicile of the testator (TMK art.576).

In inheritance disputes, the first step is to clarify the status of the heirs, the scope of the estate and any dispositions on death. Civil-registry records, certificates of inheritance, land-registry records, bank correspondence, the records of the opening of a will and any transfers made by the deceased during their lifetime should be reviewed together.

The time limits and types of action for matters such as reduction, testator collusion, renunciation of inheritance, annulment of a will and inheritance waiver differ from one another. Correctly identifying the date of knowledge, the opening of the estate, the opening of the will and the date of any renunciation declaration prevents the loss of rights.

Because intra-family transactions are often conducted without written documents, bank receipts, the values reflected in the deed, the testator's economic needs, witness accounts and patterns of actual use are particularly important. The earlier the evidence is prepared, the more soundly the legal framework of the dispute can be established.