Reserved portion and disinheritance in Malta

The action to demand the reserved portion lapses ten years from the opening of the succession; for minors and interdicted persons it does not lapse until one year after majority or the end of the interdiction (article 845 of Cap. 16). Interest runs from the date of death only if the portion is claimed within two years of the death; after that it runs from service of a judicial act (article 615(2)). The action to reduce donations is barred after five years from the opening of the succession, and this time runs against minors too (article 1823). A surviving spouse must claim damages for a wrongful sale of the home within one year of the sale (article 633(6)).

1. Establish whether you belong to the protected class. Only descendants and the surviving spouse have a reserved portion (article 615(1) of the Civil Code). “Children” covers children born in or out of wedlock and adopted children, and includes the descendants of a child in any degree, who count together for the child from whom they descend (articles 616 and 617). Parents, brothers and sisters of the deceased have no reserved portion: the provision on ascendants was repealed in 2004.

   Obtain the death certificate and ask a notary to carry out searches for wills in the Public Registry and the Notarial Archives. You need the last will, and any earlier one it does not revoke, to see whether you were left out, left less than your portion, or expressly disinherited.

2. Work out the fraction. For children the reserved portion is one-third of the value of the estate where there are up to four children and one-half where there are five or more; it is divided among them in equal shares, and an only child takes the whole third (article 616). Children who have been disinherited, who are incapable of receiving or who have renounced are still counted when determining the number of children, and their shares pass to the other children taking the reserved portion, unless they themselves have descendants (articles 618, 608 and 626).

   For the surviving spouse the portion is one-fourth of the value of the estate in full ownership if the deceased left descendants, and one-third if not (articles 631 and 632). The tenement over which the spouse has the right of habitation is excluded from the estate on which the spouse's portion is calculated (article 633(3)).

3. Value the estate on which the fraction is applied. The reserved portion is calculated on the whole estate after deducting the debts due by the estate and the funeral expenses (article 620(2)). All property which the deceased disposed of by gratuitous title during life, in favour of any person, is then added back; the only exception is expenses for the education of children or other descendants (article 620(3)). For abatement purposes donated property is reckoned at its value at the time of the donation (article 648(b)).

   In practice you need the deeds of donation (traceable through Public Registry searches against the deceased's name), bank statements at the date of death, valuations of immovables by an architect and a list of debts.

4. Deduct what you have already received. A person claiming the reserved portion must impute to it everything received from the deceased that is subject to collation under articles 913 to 938, in other words lifetime donations for which the donor did not grant an exemption (article 620(4)). Even where an exemption from collation was granted, a child may keep the donation only up to the disposable portion (article 915).

   Anything left to you in the will also counts towards your share. You cannot renounce a testamentary disposition in your favour and claim the reserved portion instead, unless the disposition is a usufruct, a right of use or habitation, or an annuity (article 620(5)). Where the will leaves someone else a usufruct or life annuity that you believe exceeds the disposable portion, you may either abide by the will or take your reserved portion free of charge and abandon the disposable portion to the beneficiary (article 621).

5. If the will disinherits you, test the disherison against the Code. The deprivation must be a specific declaration of the testator, on a ground specified in the Code, stated in the will itself (article 622). For descendants the grounds are exhaustive: refusing maintenance to the testator without reason; abandoning a testator who had become insane; failing without reasonable ground to release the testator from prison; striking the testator or cruelty towards him; grievous injury against the testator; prostitution without the testator's connivance; and the cases in articles 27 to 29 where a parent is freed from the duty of maintenance by reason of the descendant's marriage (article 623). A further case is the heavily indebted or prodigal descendant, whose portion may be bequeathed to his or her own children (article 630).

   The burden of proof lies on whoever alleges the disherison; where several grounds are stated, proof of one is enough (article 625). If no ground is stated, or none is proved, you are entitled to the reserved portion (article 629).

6. If you are the surviving spouse, secure your rights over the home. Apart from the money claim, you have a right of habitation over the tenement you occupied as your principal residence at the time of death, provided the deceased held it in full ownership or emphyteusis, alone or jointly with you (article 633(1)). The right cannot be cut down because you now need less space, and it prevails even if it reduces other persons' reserved portions during your lifetime (article 633(2) and (5)). You also have the right of use over the deceased's furniture in the home (article 635).

   These rights end on remarriage or on entering a public deed of cohabitation (article 633(8)) and may have been excluded or reduced by a pre-nuptial or post-nuptial agreement (article 633(7)). A spouse separated by judgment who forfeited succession rights, a spouse deprived by will on the grounds in article 623(a) to (e) or for adultery, and an unworthy spouse cannot claim (article 638).

7. Make the claim in writing and early. Because the reserved portion is a credit against the estate, start by having your advocate quantify it and send the heirs a judicial letter (ittra uffiċjali) through the court registry. Service of a judicial act fixes the date from which interest runs if two years have already passed since the death; a claim made within two years carries interest from the date of death at the rate in article 1139, which is eight per cent a year, although the court may reduce or refuse interest where the circumstances so require (article 615(2)).

   If the heirs do not settle, the claim is brought by sworn application before the First Hall of the Civil Court, or before the Court of Magistrates (Gozo) in its superior jurisdiction where the case belongs to Gozo.

8. Where the estate is not enough, seek abatement and reduction. Testamentary dispositions that exceed the disposable portion are abated to that portion, provided the demand is made within the ten years of article 845 (article 647). Legacies and institutions abate proportionately, without distinction between heirs and legatees, unless the testator expressly gave one disposition preference (articles 651 and 652). If lifetime donations alone equal or exceed the disposable portion, all testamentary dispositions are ineffectual (article 650).

   Only when the property disposed of by will is exhausted may donations be reduced, starting with the most recent and working backwards (articles 1813 and 1818). The action for reduction, against donees or against third parties who acquired the immovable from them, is barred after five years from the opening of the succession (article 1823), so it must be brought much sooner than the reserved portion claim itself.

• Waiting more than two years. The claim survives for ten years, but after two years interest runs only from service of a judicial act, not from the date of death (article 615(2)). On a large estate the difference can be substantial.
• Missing the five-year limit for donations. If the estate left at death is too small and you must attack lifetime gifts, the action for reduction is prescribed five years after the death, and this period runs even against minors and interdicted persons (article 1823).
• Being an heir entitled to the reserved portion and not making an inventory. An heir to whom the reserved portion would be due and who neglects to make up the inventory forfeits the right to have donations or legacies in favour of anyone other than a co-heir reduced (article 894).
• Assuming that a will which simply omits you is a disinheritance. Omission is not disherison: without a stated and proved statutory ground you keep the reserved portion (articles 622 and 629). Conversely, a stated ground is not final; the heirs must prove it (article 625).
• Forgetting gifts you received yourself. Donations subject to collation and anything bequeathed to you are set off against your portion (article 620(4) and (5)). A claimant who was generously helped during the parent's life may find the credit reduced to little or nothing.
• Overlooking unworthiness. A person who wilfully killed or tried to kill the testator or the testator's spouse, falsely accused them of a crime, or forced, prevented or falsified a will is incapable of receiving under it (article 605), though the testator may rehabilitate him or her by a later will or public deed (article 606).

Analyse my document →Legal guideContract templatesCountry home page

Last updated: 14/11/2026 · Sources: Civil Code (Cap. 16), arts 615–621 (reserved portion: nature, shares of children, calculation, imputation), Civil Code (Cap. 16), arts 622–630 (disherison: grounds, proof, rights of the disinherited person's descendants), Civil Code (Cap. 16), arts 631–639 (surviving spouse: share, right of habitation, use of furniture, exclusions), Civil Code (Cap. 16), arts 605–608, 647–653, 845 and 1813–1823 (unworthiness, abatement, ten-year limit, reduction of donations), legislation.mt, EUR-Lex

Explanations are generated from the official legal text and are indicative; only the full text, which every page links to, is binding. Europaius provides legal information, not legal services.