Liquidation of estate according to bankruptcy law provisions

Estate liquidation in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Code is a way enabling bankruptcy liquidation of an estate even though it is essentially not subject to bankruptcy. An estate can be liquidated according to bankruptcy provisions in cases where either all of the closest legal heirs disclaim the inheritance or the inheritance is judicially disclaimed; or it is understood that total amount of the inheritance will not be sufficient for the discharge of debts if it is officially liquidated through ordinary proceedings.Although liquidation of an estate according to bankruptcy provisions is one of the official liquidation procedures set out in the Civil Code, it is considerably different from ordinary official liquidation. The aim of ordinary official liquidation is to minimize the loss of inheritance, realize only the amount of assets that will be sufficient for the discharge of debts and eventually provide the transmission of the remaining inheritance to lawful heirs. In bankruptcy liquidation however, the aim is to sell all the inheritance assets at optimum price regardless of whether it covers the debt or not, since the interests of creditors have higher priority than the interests of heirs.It is set forth in Article 180 of the Execution and Bankruptcy Code that bankruptcy liquidation of estate shall be performed within the framework of the provisions of this law while the provisions in the Civil Code about ?official liquidation? are to be reserved at the same time. Yet this does not mean that provisions of the Execution and Bankruptcy Code will be left aside and only the Civil Code provisions will be enforced during the bankruptcy liquidation process of an estate.Although bankruptcy liquidation of an estate shall be performed in accordance with relevant provisions of the Execution and Bankruptcy Code, it is not possible to apply some of those provisions fully due to the nature of the issue. A real bankruptcy liquidation of estate is not meant here. Furthermore, since the debtor whose inheritance is to be liquidated has already deceased, there is also no bankrupt in the literal sense.During the liquidation process of an estate according to bankruptcy provisions, commercial courts and enforcement courts are replaced by peace courts while bankruptcy administrations are replaced by liquidators. Bankruptcy offices should also work here as they do during an ordinary bankruptcy liquidation process and meetings should be held by creditors who constitute the decision making body for liquidation.If there are any leftovers after the bankruptcy liquidation of an inheritance which is disclaimed by all of the closest legal heirs, it is given to the beneficiaries, which means the legal heirs, as if they did not disclaim the inheritance at all. Even though it is not clearly stated in the Civil Code, this situation is also valid if the inheritance is liquidated according to bankruptcy provisions when it is judicially disclaimed and the existing inheritance is not sufficient for the discharge of debts if officially liquidated through ordinary proceedings.KEY WORDS:1) Estate, Inheritance2) Official Liquidation3) Bankruptcy Liquidation4) Insolvent5) Disclaimer of Inheritance