A guide to probate in Iran

I am an attorney in the US. This website is not giving legal advice. I have created this site to help with the process of probate (enhesar verasat) in Iran. This process is convoluted and rather time consuming.

  1. Burial

Note: If the deceased is a muslim and has property in Iran, then he/she must be buried and not cremated. My understanding is those who authorize cremation of the deceased may not inherit from the deceased because they cremated (did not pay to bury the deceased.) If the government of the foreign country orders the cremation that may not cause a problem. This for example happens in the US when a body is not claimed in 3-6 months.

  1. Death certificate

a. In Iran

b. Outside of Iran

  1. Register for a sena number

  2. Hiring an attorney

  3. Answering court's questions (Estelaam)

  4. Publication of notice of probate

  5. Court issuing its order

  6. Opening a file in the tax office (edareh maliat)

a. Documents needed

i. National identity card (cart meli) of the person opening the file and his or her mobile number. Note the mobile number must be in the name of this person. (In Iran, every mobile phone is registered in the name the person. That person needs to present the national identity card to get a SIM card. The ID of this person must match with the ID of the person opening the file.). All future communications are made to this number. The person opening the file must be either a beneficiary, an attorney-in-fact (an attorney or some one has power of attorney from the beneficiaries), or guardian of the beneficiaries.

ii. National identification card (cart meli,) and birth certificate (shenasnameh) of the deceased.

iii. Postal code (code posti) of the person opening the file

iv. Postal code (code posti) of the last place the deceased person's residence.

v. Tax unit code (code vahed maliati) - this may be obtained from your local tax office (edareh maliat)

vi. Death certificate

vii . Martyrdom death certificate if the cause of death is martyrdom.

viii. Probate court order (govahi hasr verasat)

ix. evidence of all property owned by the deceased - automobiles, real property title document (sanad), all bank branches that the deceased had account in (Note: If a deceased had account in multiple branches of the same bank, each branch must be individually identified. Each branch will receive a separate request from tax office, each account taxes are individually paid, and the money from each branch is separately release eventually. This creates a lot of unnecessary visits and paper work and seem counter intuitive, but that is how it is.)

x. Dowry (mehrieh) - If the deceases was a married mail whose wife is still alive, a copy of their marriage contract (qabaleh) is needed. This document determines what the wife is entitled to in case of divorce. This is often specified as a number of gold coins. The value of mehrieh is exempted from taxes.

xi. If the deceased has died less than one year, then certain expenses are exempt from taxes, such as hospitalization expenses, prayer expenses. burial expenses, deceased debt to others (government, third part or beneficiaries), khoms and zakat expenses.