Solicitor for a Death Abroad: When You Need a UK Solicitor, a Greek Lawyer, or Both

After a death in Greece, UK families assume they need either a UK solicitor or a Greek lawyer. In most cases, they need both — but for completely different things, at different stages, and the wrong one at the wrong time wastes money without advancing anything.

What a Greek Lawyer Handles

A Greek lawyer (dikigoros) is essential for anything that touches the Greek legal system. The key situations:

Body release and forensic delays. If the public prosecutor has ordered a mandatory autopsy and the forensic report is backlogged, a Greek lawyer can help pursue the body-release process and any related court application. Without legal representation, families are entirely dependent on the prosecutor's timeline.

Power of Attorney. A UK family managing the process from home can grant a Power of Attorney (plirexousio) to a Greek lawyer or funeral director. This allows the representative to register the death, collect documents, interact with the Lixiarcheio, and handle the Apostille application on the family's behalf. The Power of Attorney must be notarised and, if executed in the UK, apostilled by the FCDO and translated into Greek.

One critical point: a Power of Attorney granted to someone during the deceased's lifetime becomes invalid at death. A new one must be executed by the heir or executor — naming a Greek lawyer — specifically to handle post-death estate matters.

Greek inheritance. If the deceased owned property, bank accounts, or a vehicle in Greece, a Greek lawyer files the inheritance tax return with the AADE, manages the acceptance or renunciation of the inheritance (the renunciation deadline is strictly four months for heirs resident in Greece, one year for those abroad), and handles property transfer through the Ktimatologio cadastre system.

Organ retention and evidence. If the Greek forensic pathologist retained organs during the autopsy, a Greek lawyer petitions the court for their return. This is a separate legal process from the body release.

Budget around €250–€400 for a Greek lawyer Power of Attorney and €1,000–€2,500 for a Deed of Acceptance of Inheritance; other inheritance or criminal work needs a separate quote.

What a UK Solicitor Handles

A UK solicitor operates on the other side of the border. Their role begins once documents arrive in the UK:

Probate application. The executor applies for a Grant of Probate through HMCTS, submitting the apostilled and translated Greek death certificate with Form PA19. A solicitor experienced in foreign death probate knows the specific presentation that the Probate Registry requires — roughly one in three applications involving foreign death certificates is initially rejected due to documentation errors.

UK inheritance tax. If the deceased was UK-domiciled, their worldwide estate (including Greek assets) falls within UK IHT. The solicitor coordinates the IHT return, claims unilateral relief for Greek inheritance tax already paid, and manages the estate account.

Insurance and liability claims. If the death involved potential third-party liability — a faulty rental scooter, inadequate safety measures at a tour operator's facility, a hotel pool without lifeguard coverage — a UK solicitor can pursue a cross-border personal injury claim. Greek embalming complicates secondary forensic evidence, so the solicitor needs to coordinate with the Greek lawyer on timing before the body is prepared for transport.

Tell Us Once and bank notifications. While not strictly legal work, many UK solicitors acting as executors handle the DWP Tell Us Once notification and bank bereavement processes as part of their estate administration.

When You Need Both Working Together

The most common failure mode is hiring a Greek lawyer to deal with the body and then hiring a UK solicitor months later for probate — only to discover that the Greek death certificate was apostilled incorrectly, the translation does not meet Form PA19 standards, or the inheritance tax filing deadlines have passed.

Both professionals need to be engaged early. The Greek lawyer handles the ground work — body release, death registration, Apostille, Greek tax filings — while the UK solicitor receives the documents and files probate in parallel. The two systems have different deadlines that run concurrently, not sequentially: the Greek inheritance tax return is due within twelve months for non-resident heirs, and missing it triggers penalties that accrue regardless of whether UK probate is complete.

Finding the Right Professionals

The FCDO maintains lists of English-speaking lawyers in Greece, available through the British Embassy in Athens. For UK solicitors, look for firms with specific experience in foreign death probate — not every high-street solicitor has handled a Form PA19 or knows the Apostille chain requirements.

The British Person Dies in Greece — Family Emergency Guide includes contact directories for both sides and a coordination timeline showing which professional handles which step, and when, so the two processes run in parallel without gaps.