Mag. Balazs Esztegar LL.M.
Attorney-at-law Vienna


Piaristengasse 41/10
1080 Vienna, Austria
Tel. +43 1 997 4102
Fax +43 1 997 4102-99
office@esztegar.at

Inheritance Law in Hungary

WEKA Handbook of Inheritance Law (Edited by Dr. Wolfgang Schöberl)

Attorney-at-law Balazs Esztegar is the author of the chapter on Hungarian inheritance law in the WEKA Handbook of Inheritance Law, which was fundamentally reformed in 2014 on the occasion of the recodification of the Hungarian Civil Code (Polgári Törvénykönyv, Ptk). In addition to numerous aspects of intestate succession, the reform primarily brought significant changes to spousal inheritance law, where a statutory spousal inheritance right was now established replacing the widow's right, which had long been typical of Hungarian inheritance law. 

Other peculiarities of Hungarian inheritance law, such as the so-called "reversionary inheritance", however, remained. 

Particularly because of the - limited - choice of law for testamentary dispositions made possible by Regulation (EU) No. 650/2012 (Succession Regulation, EuErbVO, EU Inheritance Regulation), knowledge of the basic features of the succession laws of individual Member States of the European Union has become more important. The summary of Hungarian inheritance law in this handbook makes a contribution to this for inheritance law in Hungary.