Inheriting property in Albania in 2026: certificate of inheritance, deadlines, costs and ASHK registration

When the owner of a home in Albania dies, the heirs acquire the inheritance at that moment (Civil Code, Article 330), but in the cadastre the property stays in the name of the deceased. To sell it, divide it or mortgage it, you need two steps: the certificate of inheritance (dëshmia e trashëgimisë), which a notary issues for 10,000 lek (15,000 lek when there is a will), and its registration with ASHK (the State Cadastre Agency, Agjencia Shtetërore e Kadastrës) within 30 days, at 2,000 lek per property. Children, the spouse, parents, brothers and sisters pay no tax on an inherited property in Albania.

Certificate of legal inheritance from the notary; 15,000 lek with a will

10,000 lek

ASHK registration per property, within 30 days

2,000 lek

Deadline to renounce the inheritance; 6 months when you live abroad

3 or 6 months

Tax for children, spouse, parents, brothers and sisters

0 lek

Who inherits: by law or by will

When there is no will, or the will is invalid or covers only part of the estate, the inheritance is divided according to the law, by order of heirs: one order inherits only when there are no heirs in the previous order (Civil Code, Articles 317 and 369).

When there are no heirs in the first three orders, the spouse takes everything (Article 361). Adopted children inherit in the same way as other children (Article 362).

Example: an apartment bought during the marriage

When the spouses have not chosen a different property regime, half of an apartment bought during the marriage belongs to the surviving spouse and is not inherited (Family Code, Articles 96 and 103; Civil Code, Article 358; Law no. 110/2018, Article 112). If the father leaves his wife and two children, his half is divided into three parts: the mother ends up with 1/2 + 1/6 = 2/3 of the apartment and each child with 1/6. Property that the deceased had inherited or received as a gift is personal property and is inherited in full (Family Code, Article 77).

When there is a will

A will is either holographic, written entirely by hand, dated and signed, or notarial (Civil Code, Articles 392 to 397); if it has been registered, the notary finds it through the National Register of Wills (Law no. 110/2018, Article 111). It cannot take away the legal share of minor children and of heirs unable to work, such as men from age 60, women from age 55 and people with first- or second-group disabilities (Articles 371 and 379). How a will is drawn up at a notary and what it costs is explained in the notarial will for property.

Article 377, which allowed a will in favour of anyone only when the deceased had no descendants, ascendants, brothers or sisters, was declared incompatible with the Constitution (Constitutional Court, decision no. 69 of 27 December 2023) and has not been replaced in the Code as updated on 10 August 2026. Since the law in force when the succession opened applies (Article 318/2), get legal advice for a contested will.

How to obtain the certificate of inheritance from the notary

The certificate of inheritance is the notarial act that confirms who the heirs of the deceased are and how large each heir's share is. The certificate of legal inheritance is issued by a notary (noter) in the municipality where the deceased had their last residence; when there is a will, by the notary where the last will was drawn up or deposited (Civil Code, Article 348). The law sets no deadline for requesting it, but without it you cannot register the property.

Photo: Gabrielle Henderson / Unsplash

A request from one heir is enough: the notary draws up as many copies as there are heirs, and the others collect theirs later (Article 348). The National Chamber of Notaries checks the registers of wills and certificates within 3 days, and within 3 days of that reply the notary issues the certificate or refers you to the competent notary (Law no. 110/2018, Article 111). A copy of the certificate goes to the cadastre (Article 113).

When you need a court

A notary does not settle disputes: when the will is contested, when an heir who was left out claims their share, or when you cannot agree on the division, the court of the deceased's last place of residence decides (Code of Civil Procedure, Article 46). An heir's claim for their share does not become time-barred, except for acquisitive prescription of individual items (Civil Code, Articles 349 and 351). Before Law no. 121/2013 the certificate was issued by a court, and ASHK still accepts those court decisions.

Renunciation, debts and deadlines

You do not accept an inheritance by declaration: you acquire it when the person leaving it dies (Civil Code, Articles 330 and 331). If you do not want it, renounce it before a notary, in person or through a special power of attorney, within the deadlines in the table (Articles 333 and 335). The fee instruction has no separate item for this declaration: the item "Declaration with other content" costs 2,000 lek, while "Declaration renouncing ownership" costs 3,000 lek (Instruction no. 22/2020).

The debts of the deceased and the funeral expenses are paid by the heirs according to their shares, but not beyond the value they receive (Civil Code, Article 341). To find out what the estate contains, a notary can draw up an inventory for 6,000 lek (Article 343; Instruction no. 22/2020).

What it costs and when tax is due

Notary fees have not changed since 2020, while ASHK fees went up with Council of Ministers Decision (VKM) no. 462/2025. For a sale, see notary fees for buying and selling.

A mother and two children who inherit an apartment by law pay 12,000 lek, about 131 € (1 € = 91.65 lek, Bank of Albania, 9 October 2026): 10,000 at the notary and 2,000 at ASHK. With the notary's request to ASHK and an ownership certificate for each of them, the total comes to 25,000 lek, about 273 €.

Inheritance tax

Law no. 29/2023 taxes inheritance at 15%, with broad exemptions (Article 60):

• No tax: children and the descendants who take their place, the spouse, parents, brothers and sisters.
• Others, such as grandparents, children of brothers and sisters or a person named in a will, pay nothing on real estate up to 5,000,000 lek per person, about 54,600 €. Above that value, the 15% tax is calculated as in a sale: on the difference between the value of the property at the reference price, or the last taxed value when that is higher, and the value at which the deceased had acquired it. It is paid before registration (Instruction no. 34/2023, points 2.3 and 4.1).

When you later sell, the 15% tax on the gain is calculated using the value recorded in the deeds or in the revaluation, or, for buildings, the official usage cost (kosto e shfrytëzimit) of the year the certificate was registered (point 4.3): examples are in the 15% tax when you sell property. Revaluation with a 5% tax is open until 31 December 2026 (Law no. 85/2025): see the revaluation guide.

How to register the inheritance with ASHK

The notary declares the certificate to the cadastre only as a provisional registration; your names enter the property record when final registration is requested and the fee is paid, which the person who requested the certificate must do within 30 days (Law no. 111/2018, Article 24; Law no. 110/2018, Article 112). The service on e-Albania (the government services portal), "Aplikim për regjistrim të aktit të trashëgimisë" (application to register the inheritance act, KP5), can also be used by the notary on your behalf:

• Upload the certificate, or the court decision for older inheritances, and the civil status certificate for the property regime when the certificate does not state it.
• Pay the bill within 30 days and send the originals by post to the local ASHK directorate.
• The reply arrives in "Dokumentet e mia" (My documents), within 8 working days when the property has not been digitised.

The fee is paid per property (VKM no. 389/2020, point 5), and each day of delay costs 10% of it, up to 300,000 lek (Law no. 111/2018, Article 25).

For official information on the deceased's properties, use the ASHK service "Informacion zyrtar i pasurisë" (official property information, no. 63, 2,000 lek) on e-Albania, proving your legitimate interest as an heir. A house without a registered title must first be given one, because ASHK refuses acts that do not follow on from the registered titles (Law no. 111/2018, Article 24): see homes without an ownership title. An ASHK error in the property record is corrected free of charge (Law no. 111/2018, Article 16): see errors in the ownership certificate.

After registration: co-ownership and division

The heirs become co-owners according to the shares in the certificate: they share income and expenses, and anyone who uses the property alone owes the others compensation from the day they ask for it in writing (Civil Code, Articles 200 to 202). The whole property can only be sold with everyone's consent, while each co-owner must first offer their own share to the other co-owners (Articles 204 and 208).

Division can be requested at any time, by agreement before a notary or in court (Articles 353 and 354). The court divides the property in kind, assigns it to those who pay out the others' shares, or sells it at auction, and leaves the family home to whoever lives there or needs it most (Article 207).

Giving your share to a brother or sister as a gift is not taxed (Law no. 29/2023, Article 60): see gifting property within the family. For the price of the shares, start with a free property valuation, and when you decide to sell it all together, you can sell with an agent; the buyer's checks are covered in buying an inherited property.

When the heir lives abroad

• The certificate: you do not need to travel, another heir can request it (Civil Code, Article 348).
• Renunciation: 6 months from the death, also through a special power of attorney (Articles 333 and 335).
• Power of attorney: consulates do not issue powers of attorney for transferring ownership of real estate (e-Albania), so they are made before a local notary, with an apostille and translation: see a special power of attorney from abroad.
• The law: for properties in Albania Albanian law applies even when the deceased lived abroad, unless they chose, in the form of a will, the law of the country of which they were a citizen or where they lived; a will made abroad is valid as to form when, among other cases, it complies with the law of the country where it was made (Law no. 10428/2011, Articles 33 and 35).
• Tax: the exemptions also apply to non-residents (Law no. 29/2023, Article 60). How to sell a property without coming to Albania is explained in the article on selling property from abroad.

The dates that changed the rules

Frequently asked questions