What happens if a person dies without a Will in NSW? If a person dies without a Will it is up to a family member or a friend to apply to the Supreme Court for Letters of Administration. The process is very similar to obtaining a grant of Probate on a Will, but there are a few more steps involved. When someone leaves a Will, they are entitled to leave their items to whomever they please. However, in the absence of a Will, a person’s property is distributed in accordance with the law. It will automatically pass to a person’s spouse, then any children, then parents and so on and so on. Things can become complicated very quickly where there is more than one “spouse”. Because the definition of spouse is fairly flexible, it is possible for someone to have separated from their husband or wife without being divorced and living in a de facto relationship and then there are two potential spouses to deal with. Things can also become complicated where there have been deaths, divorces and remarriages or other events that have changed people’s surnames- generally where this has happened, the Court requires original birth, deaths and marriages certificates. So the paperwork required can become pretty expensive, pretty quickly. All applications for Letters of Administration would be filed within 6 months of the person passing away. Sometimes a person has left document that is meant to be a Will but it has issues, such as it is not signed by the deceased, or it was signed by the deceased but not witnessed, or, not clear what the person wanted. Another situation can arise where a valid Will has been made but the executor or executors named have all since passed away. In these cases Letters of Administration is still applied for but these documents are attached.
If someone has passed away and they only owed joint property, for example a joint bank account and they owned a house as a joint tenant, then it’s probably not necessary to apply for Letters of Administration. However, you still need to transfer the property into the survivor’s sole name to ensure the title deed is updated.
Coutts Lawyers and Conveyancers are skilled at preparing the necessary affidavits, detailing how it is known there isn’t a Will and the thorough searches for the Will that have been undertaken and applying for Letters of Administration. We can provide advice about which family members will be inheriting and undertake all of the communication, as well as explaining to other disgruntled people why they might be missing out.
If you are next of Kin to someone who has died without a Will, contact Coutts Lawyers & Conveyancers for expert advice on 1300 268 887.
If you are an Executor of a Will and want to know what to do, read this article – I am an Executor… what do I do?
