Administration of Estates

When a person dies then their estate needs to be administered.  This means that someone has to identify all of the potential beneficiaries, call in all of the assets, pay all of the debts, account to the taxman for any tax due and distribute the estate.

To be able to deal with the estate there needs to be a grant of representation.  The purpose of the grant is to confirm the validity of any will or that the deceased died intestate and to provide authority to the personal representatives of the deceased to deal with the estate.  There are 3 basic forms of grant namely:

  • probate; or
  • letters of administration with Will; or
  • letters of administration without a Will.

A grant of probate can only be made where there is a valid will and at least one valid executor.  Should that executor die before they have finished administering the estate then their executor takes over.

If there is a valid Will but no executor then a grant of letters of administration with Will is made.  The order in which people are entitled to a grant are dependent on their interest under the Will.  Basically, the greater your interest the greater your entitlement to deal with the estate.  However the interest in residue (i.e. what is left after all specific legacies are dealt with) is regarded as having the most major interest.

If there is no Will then it is a grant of letters of administration without a Will.  The entitlement to apply for a grant follows the order of entitlement to a share in the intestacy, so goes as follows:

  1. surviving spouse or civil partner;
  2. children (or grandchildren if child dies before intestate person);
  3. parents;
  4. siblings of the whole blood (or their children if they die before intestate person);
  5. siblings of the half blood (or their children if they die before intestate person);
  6. grandparents;
  7. uncles and aunts of the whole blood (or their children if they die before intestate person);
  8. uncles and aunts of the half blood (or their children if they die before intestate person);
  9. the Treasury Solicitor on behalf of the Crown;
  10. any creditor of the deceased.

To apply for the grant you normally have to file a tax return and provide an oath.  An affidavit may also be required.

A grant normally gives general powers for all the purposes of administration of the estate.  However, limited grants can be made.  This is more complicated than this section is designed to deal with.

The Court may make an Order preventing a grant being made.  This is called a caveat and normally permits only the person who applied for the caveat to apply for a grant. 

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