Kavee­ta Per­sad

This week we deal with the grant of let­ters of ad­min­is­tra­tion. The peo­ple en­ti­tled to ap­ply for this grant are gov­erned by law, as there is no valid will. A per­son who ob­tains this grant is called an "ad­min­is­tra­tor." The per­sons en­ti­tled to ap­ply for this grant in or­der of pri­or­i­ty are:

• The sur­viv­ing spouse of the de­ceased, in­clud­ing a spouse who is sep­a­rat­ed from the de­ceased, but not a di­vorced spouse

• The chil­dren of the de­ceased, in­clud­ing adopt­ed chil­dren, al­though in some cas­es proof of pa­ter­ni­ty is re­quired

• The grand­chil­dren; then the great-grand­chil­dren of the de­ceased.

Where there is no spouse or chil­dren, the par­ents, then the broth­ers and sis­ters, fol­lowed by the un­cles and aunts and then the nephews or nieces of the de­ceased may ap­ply for the grant. To ob­tain the grant, the fol­low­ing doc­u­ments must be filed at the Pro­bate Reg­istry:

• An ap­pli­ca­tion for the grant made through an at­tor­ney-at-law

• Sup­port­ing af­fi­davit by the ad­min­is­tra­tor

• Copy of the death cer­tifi­cate

• Cer­ti­fied copy of the mar­riage cer­tifi­cate, birth cer­tifi­cate, pa­ter­ni­ty or­der or adop­tion cer­tifi­cate, whichev­er ap­plies.

• In­ven­to­ry of the es­tate, list­ing the items of prop­er­ty and the es­ti­mat­ed val­ue of the es­tate

• Cer­tifi­cate of search show­ing that no oth­er ap­pli­ca­tion for a grant of rep­re­sen­ta­tion has been made and there is no will lodged at the reg­istry

• Fil­ing fee re­ceipt, show­ing the pay­ment of the ap­pli­ca­tion fees; and con­sents or no­tices, which are used when there is more than one per­son en­ti­tled to ap­ply for the grant, but not all of them are ap­ply­ing for the grant.

Af­ter this is done, the ap­pli­ca­tion will be ad­ver­tised and if there is no ob­jec­tion, the grant will be is­sued by the court. Af­ter the grant is ob­tained, the ad­min­is­tra­tor must pay the debts of the de­ceased and then dis­trib­ute the re­main­der of the es­tate ac­cord­ing to cer­tain le­gal rules.

If there is a sur­viv­ing spouse and no chil­dren, the es­tate will be dis­trib­uted to the spouse. If there is a sur­viv­ing spouse and at least one sur­viv­ing child, then half of the es­tate goes to the sur­viv­ing spouse and the oth­er half will be dis­trib­uted to the child or chil­dren in equal amounts.