Registration in Greek Population Registers

By George Athanasiadis

Lawyer

SYDNEY AUSTRALIA

email: athanasiadis.g@hotmail.com

Tel: 0061 2 92613144

        +61 421 969 172

Registration in Greek Population Registers

Thousands of Greek Aussies need to register their marriages, births or deaths of their beloved persons to the Greek Population Registers. In life there is always a serious reason to do that especially for the ones they have property in Greece and want to keep it or donate it to their descendants.

Sometimes they leave wills about their property either in Australia or in Greece. Their heirs to accept the given by will or left without a will property they have to face problems with the law and bureaucracy in Greece. They have to prove that they are the children or wives of husbands of the deceased person. Greek law demands this for the safety of the property and the rights of the heirs. The heir must prove that he is the son or daughter or wife/husband or any kind of relative who has rights on the deceased’s property according the Greek law.

To prove this, all necessary certifications must be provided to the Greek authorities from the Greek registers office (municipalities etc) that he/she the person entitled as heir. And there is the problem! If the deceased person when was in life had never done the required registrations about his family situation the problem would appear.

Too many people here in Australia think that as they have registered their marriages or their children’s births here, automatically someone had registered them to the Greek authorities. This is a big mistake. 

If somebody got married in Australia, 40 years ago and had never register his marriage followed be his kids births in Greece he officially appears in Greece as single and never married. His/her kids in Greece not exist as never born. So if this person pass away and has property in Greece,   his/her heirs (children or alive wife/husband) they must register immediately. This procedure commences  from their father’s/mother’s marriage registration followed by their one birth registration. This is a very serious process and needs enough time to be completed, plus more expenses after their ancestor death. They will face fines and lots of other expenses to complete all this procedure with the registration. The registration starts from the special registry office in Athens (Eidiko lixiarhio Athinon) followed by the registration in their local municipality in Greece where the deceased was born or was living by the time he left Greece.

All the above are necessary requirements  for a property to be transferred from any testator to his heirs. At the moment in Greece fines are applying for the omission of the registrations needed but are very low. The applied fines will be increased very soon in Greece and they will be not very low anymore. Any omission of registrations will cost enough if if it has passed a long period from the date of any event (marriage, birth, death) occurred overseas.

Our advice is that you would start doing this process soon if you left such outstanding issues for a long time.

We are here to assist you with this any time and our contact details are:

Athena Touriki - George Athanasiadis

Solicitors and Lawyers

SYDNEY AUSTRALIA

email: athanasiadis.g@hotmail.com

Tel: 0061 2 92613144

        +61 421 969 172