The ability for notaries to publish and validate wills, even when the testator’s death occurred before November 1, 2025, is provided by an amendment from the Ministry of Justice in the OPEKEPE bill. This regulation comes to fill the gap for approximately 14,000 wills that are currently pending publication in the country’s courts, as announced by Justice Minister Giorgos Floridis.
Wills: The new amended framework
With the amendment of Article 126 of Law 5221/2025, the transitional framework for implementing changes to the Civil Procedure Code is expanded. Specifically, a provision is added to paragraph 2 stating that notaries can now proceed with the publication of wills for deaths that occurred prior to November 1, 2025. The same provision includes special arrangements for cases where an application for publication has already been filed in a court: the procedure can be transferred to the new platform, provided that the applicant withdraws the application from the court, with relevant certification from the registry. At the same time, the possibility of continuing the procedure in the court is not excluded, if the interested party so chooses.
Initially, it was announced that the platform would exclusively concern wills related to deaths from November 1, 2025, onwards. However, given the pending cases, it was deemed necessary to include a special transitional provision, which was ultimately incorporated into the bill, facilitating the publication process for thousands of inheritance cases.
