Vesti Baku
When one heir lives abroad and does not handle the paperwork, the other heirs may still document their own shares of an estate. The absent heir’s share, however, does not automatically pass to the relatives who complete the process.
Azerbaijani law distinguishes between registering inheritance rights, disposing of an individual share and selling an entire jointly owned property. The distinction matters when an apartment, house or other asset has several heirs, Vesti Baku reports.
One Heir’s Absence Does Not Block the Others
Under amendments signed into law on June 21, 2025, when a notary issues an inheritance certificate to an heir who applied for one, the notary must also determine and state the shares due to other heirs who did not apply for a certificate. Information about those heirs is entered in the relevant registry.
The change means relatives do not have to wait for every heir to return before confirming their own rights. It does not allow them to appropriate the absent person’s share. The text of the amendments is available on the official website of the president of Azerbaijan.
An Heir Abroad Can Appoint a Representative
An heir outside Azerbaijan may authorize a representative to collect documents and take the steps specified in a power of attorney.
The Justice Ministry’s Mobil Notariat service includes an inheritance power of attorney. The service describes it as a notarized document allowing another person to collect the documents needed for an inheritance case and complete actions required to register inherited property in the principal’s name.
The precise authority of the representative depends on the powers written into the document. A power to gather records or register property should not be treated as permission to sell the property unless the document expressly grants the necessary authority.
Failing to Apply Is Not the Same as Renouncing an Inheritance
Current law treats inheritance as arising by operation of law following the testator’s death. Merely failing to submit an application to a notary within three months does not, by itself, amount to giving up the inheritance.
Article 1256 of Azerbaijan’s Civil Code provides a three-month period to renounce an inheritance, running from the date the heir learned or should have learned that he or she had been called to inherit. The Constitutional Court has said that an heir who does not renounce the inheritance within the statutory period should be treated as having accepted it.
The current Civil Code and the Constitutional Court’s interpretation therefore distinguish inaction from a formal renunciation.
Disputes Over Division May Go to Court
If co-heirs cannot agree on how to use or divide a jointly owned apartment or house, the dispute may be resolved in court. Depending on the property and the circumstances, the outcome may involve allocating a share in kind, paying compensation or using a legally prescribed sale procedure and distributing the proceeds among the owners.
Registering one’s own share does not confer the right to sell the entire property alone. A sale of the whole asset affects every co-owner’s rights.
When an Heir May Be Declared Unworthy
A separate rule applies when a person is declared an unworthy heir. That status requires a court to establish grounds provided by law. Living abroad or refusing to deal with documents is not such a ground.
In the case described in the television report cited by Vesti Baku, a daughter asked a court to declare her father unworthy to inherit from her late mother.
According to the report, the man intentionally killed his wife with particular cruelty in 2023 and received a 17-year prison sentence. He argued in the inheritance lawsuit that he had supported the family financially for years and committed the crime out of jealousy rather than to obtain property.
The Nizami District Court granted the daughter’s claim. An appellate court upheld the decision, and the Supreme Court’s Civil Chamber later agreed with the lower courts. The absence of a profit motive did not preserve the man’s right to inherit from the wife he killed.
Article 1137 of the Civil Code governs exclusion of an unworthy heir. A Constitutional Court decision discussing the provision confirms that unworthy-heir status is determined through judicial proceedings.
The two situations have fundamentally different consequences: an heir who is absent while documents are processed retains a share, while a person declared unworthy loses inheritance rights by court decision.
Vesti Baku