When a child cannot be raised by their parents — because the parents have died, have lost their parental rights or are unable to care for the child — someone else has to step in, and that person is usually a relative: a grandparent, an aunt or uncle, an adult brother or sister. Most people […]
People making a Belarusian will — or expecting to inherit under one — usually assume the will has the final say: whatever it says goes, and a testator can leave everything to anyone they choose. That is mostly true, but not entirely, and the exception has a name: the obligatory share. Belarusian law reserves a […]
People who married or divorced abroad and now have dealings in Belarus — a foreign couple relocating here, a mixed-nationality couple, a Belarusian who married or divorced overseas — often come to us with the same worry: that they must go through some Belarusian procedure to “make it count”, or that their marital status has […]
You’ve just found out that you’ve inherited an apartment in Belarus — perhaps from a relative, and perhaps you’re a foreigner who has never dealt with the country before. Most people react in one of two ways, and both are mistakes: they panic and freeze because they don’t know where to start, or they assume […]
In Belarus, couples who live together without registering often say they are in a “civil marriage”. The term is misleading — in English, a civil marriage is a registered, non-religious wedding — and it quietly persuades many couples that enough years together create something close to marriage: that they will split property down the middle, […]
A foreigner with property in Belarus — a Minsk flat, a stake in a company, a bank account — usually assumes one of two things: that the will they already have at home covers it, or that they can simply write down their wishes, sign them and be done. In Belarus, neither holds. A Belarusian […]
Every startup founder eventually wants the same thing: to give the early team a slice of the upside, so the people building the company share in what they build. In most of the world that means stock options. In Belarus, for years, the honest answer to a founder who promised an engineer “two percent when […]
You expected an inheritance to be good news — a flat, a car, some savings — and then you find out there was a loan behind it, or a mortgage, or unpaid bills. The worry that follows is immediate: if I take the inheritance, do the debts come with it, and can the creditors come […]
Losing a relative is difficult enough without a legal clock ticking in the background. Yet in Belarus, that is exactly what happens. From the moment a person dies, their heirs have a limited window to formally claim what is theirs. Miss it, and the property you expected to inherit can pass to other relatives, be […]
Surrogacy is one of the few areas of family life where biology, medicine and intention can point in different directions at the same time. A woman carries and delivers a child, yet she may share none of that child’s genes. A couple contributes the genetic material and the wish to raise the child, yet neither […]
A power of attorney is one of the most common documents Belarusians and foreign nationals encounter when they need to act through a representative in Belarus. A parent asks an adult child to sell a flat in Minsk; a shareholder authorises a local director to sign a contract; an heir living abroad instructs a lawyer […]
Foreign interest in Belarusian residential property remains steady in 2026. Relatively affordable houses in the suburbs of Minsk and regional centres, continued demand from citizens of Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Middle Eastern countries, and the gradual liberalisation of land legislation that began in 2023 all play a role. The process for a foreign buyer, however, […]
