Kavee­ta Per­sad

When a per­son dies, they of­ten leave be­hind prop­er­ty, whether in the form of mon­ey, jew­el­ry, ve­hi­cles, fur­ni­ture, stocks or land. The ad­min­is­tra­tion of es­tates is con­cerned with the dis­tri­b­u­tion of this prop­er­ty, sub­ject to the pay­ment of the de­ceased's fu­ner­al ex­pens­es and oth­er debts.

To dis­trib­ute the prop­er­ty legal­ly, a grant of rep­re­sen­ta­tion must first be ob­tained. There are two ba­sic grants of rep­re­sen­ta­tion, which may be is­sued out of the High Court. The first is called a grant of pro­bate, which is ob­tained when there is a valid will.

The sec­ond is a grant of let­ters of ad­min­is­tra­tion, which is ap­plied for when the de­ceased per­son died with­out mak­ing a will or where a will has been in­val­i­dat­ed by the court. A per­son who ap­plies for and ob­tains a grant of rep­re­sen­ta­tion is known as the le­gal per­son­al rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the de­ceased.

To ob­tain a grant of pro­bate, the de­ceased must have left a valid will. The per­son who makes a will is called a tes­ta­tor and the per­sons to whom prop­er­ty is giv­en in the will are known as ben­e­fi­cia­ries. The will al­so usu­al­ly names a per­son to be the ex­ecu­tor of the es­tate. The ex­ecu­tor is re­spon­si­ble, af­ter the death of the tes­ta­tor, for ob­tain­ing the grant of pro­bate and for ad­min­is­ter­ing the es­tate of the tes­ta­tor in ac­cor­dance with the will.

The ap­pli­ca­tion for the grant is filed at the pro­bate reg­istry of the High Court. Some of the es­sen­tial doc­u­ments, which must be sub­mit­ted along with the ap­pli­ca­tion are:

• An af­fi­davit of the ex­ecu­tor named in the will

• A cer­ti­fied copy of the death cer­tifi­cate

• The orig­i­nal will

• An af­fi­davit of due ex­e­cu­tion from one of the wit­ness­es to the sign­ing of the will

• An in­ven­to­ry con­tain­ing the items of prop­er­ty and the es­ti­mat­ed val­ue of the es­tate at the date of the de­ceased's death

• A cer­tifi­cate of search from the reg­is­trar, which states that there is no oth­er ap­pli­ca­tion for pro­bate filed in re­spect of the de­ceased's es­tate and there is no oth­er will de­posit­ed at the reg­istry

• A fil­ing-fee re­ceipt for the pay­ment of the ap­pli­ca­tion fees

Once these doc­u­ments are filed, the ap­pli­ca­tion is ad­ver­tised in a dai­ly news­pa­per and in the Trinidad and To­ba­go Gazette. If there is no ob­jec­tion to the ap­pli­ca­tion, the grant of pro­bate will be is­sued in the name of the ex­ecu­tor and sealed by the court.

Af­ter ob­tain­ing the grant, the ex­ecu­tor will be re­quired to first pay the debts and ex­pens­es of the de­ceased out of the prop­er­ty of the es­tate. The re­main­ing prop­er­ty is then dis­trib­uted to the ben­e­fi­cia­ries ac­cord­ing to the will. De­pend­ing on the type of prop­er­ty, a for­mal deed of as­sent may be re­quired, such as for land. Oth­er­wise, de­liv­ery of the item to the ben­e­fi­cia­ry may suf­fice for the pur­pos­es of dis­tri­b­u­tion.

This col­umn is not le­gal ad­vice. If you have a le­gal prob­lem, you should con­sult a le­gal ad­vis­er.