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Administration Of Estates - Preliminary (Ss 1-3)


Published: 1974-07-01

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ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

 

PART I
Preliminary

 

SECTION

 

1.        Short title

2.        Interpretation

3.        Limits of application of Act

 

PART II
Administration

 

4.        Appointment of Master

5.        Assistant Master

6.        Jurisdiction of Master

7.        Master to keep registers of executors, etc.

8.        Records of Master's office

9.        Appointment of appraisers

10.        Oath of appraisers, and restriction on action

11.        Master's fees

 

PART III
Estates of Deceased Persons

 

12.        Death notices to the Master

13.        Deposit of wills with Master

14.        Transmission or delivery of wills to Master and registration thereof

15.        Warrants to search for concealed wills

16.        Application by Master for order to deliver

17.        Inventory of estate in community of property

18.        Inventory on death of persons not married in community

19.        Transmission of inventory to Master

20.        Inventory by order of court or Master

21.        Particulars of immovable property required

22.        Master to furnish certain returns

23.        Temporary custody of estates

24.        Temporary custody of estates of persons married in community

25.        Liability of persons disposing of property in estates without authority, etc.

26.        Duty of person in possession of assets of estate of deceased person

27.        Appointment of curator bonis until issue of letters of administration

28.        Grant of letters of administration

29.        Letters of administration to executors appointed by will

30.        Assumption of executors under power contained in will

31.        Proceedings on failure of nomination of executors or on death, incapacity or refusal to act, etc.

32.        Competition for the office of executor dative

33.        Preference of minor's tutor for the appointment of executor

34.        Removal from office of executor

35.        Security for due administration

36.        Limits of application of sections 37 and 38 respecting external letters of administration

37.        Signing and sealing of letters of administration granted in another country

38.        Admissibility of copy certified by Master and certificate by Master

39.        Inventories by executors

40.        Master may appoint appraiser to value assets

41.        Public notice to lodge claims

42.        Suspension of execution of judgements

43.        Payment of debts; insolvent estates

44.        Liability of executor

45.        Disputed claims

46.        Rejected claims

47.        Taking over by surviving spouse of estate or portion thereof

48.        Sales by executor

49.        Master may consent to subdivision of immovable property on behalf of minor, mental patient or unborn heir

50.        Movable property to which minors and moneys to which absentees or persons under curatorship are entitled

51.        Movable property to which minor or unborn heir is entitled subject to usufructuary or fiduciary rights or other like interests

52.        Conditions under which survivor married in community of property may deal with such property

53.        Duty of executor in case of bequests of immovable property

54.        Duty of Registrar of Deeds

55.        Penalty for refusing to deliver title deed to executor when required

56.        Endorsement against title deeds of immovable property of the terms of trusts in a will

57.        Transfer of immovables out of estate

58.        Payment of portion accruing to minor or person under curatorship domiciled outside Botswana

59.        Master may fix time for lodging claims and account

60.        Estates of persons not resident and not owning property other than shares in Botswana

61.        Liquidation and distribution accounts

62.        Remuneration of executors

63.        Continuance of pending legal proceedings by remaining or new executor

64.        Discharge of executors, and proceedings against discharged executors

 

PART IV
Administrators

 

65.        Property not to be administered in certain cases without certificate of authority

66.        Orders by Master prohibiting administration without certificate of authority

67.        Certificates of authority to administrators nominated by deceased persons, and endorsements in case of assumed administrators

68.        Proceedings on failure of nomination of administrators or on death, incapacity or refusal to act, etc.

69.        Competition for office of administrator

70.        Foreign certificates of authority

71.        Security by administrators

72.        Transfer and mortgage of immovable property by or in favour of administrators

73.        Accounts by administrators

74.        Movable property to which minors and moneys to which absentees or persons under curatorship are entitled

75.        Payment of moneys to minors or persons under curatorship domiciled outside Botswana

76.        Administrator making wrong distribution

77.        Remuneration of administrators

78.        Application of certain sections to administrators

 

PART V
 Estates of Minors and Absent Persons

 

79.        Persons who may appoint tutors to minors

80.        Tutors testamentary

81.        Mode of granting letters of confirmation

82.        Letters of confirmation to curators nominate

83.        Security rem pupilli salvam fore by curators nominate and tutors testamentary

84.        Appointment of tutors dative by Master

85.        Assumption by tutors testamentary and curators nominate

86.        Proceedings in case of death, incapacity or removal of tutors or curators

87.        Revocation of letters of confirmation

88.        Appointment of curator dative of property belonging to absent person

89.        Appointment of curator ad litem by the court and of curator bonis by Master

90.        Security for due administration by tutors and curators

91.        Circumstances under which women may be tutors or curators

92.        Removal of insolvent tutors and curators

93.        Inventories by tutors and curators

94.        Duties and liabilities of curators

95.        Restriction on alienation or mortgage of immovable property by natural guardian, tutor or curator

96.        Restriction on purchase by tutor or curator of property administered

97.        Payment to Master of moneys not immediately required

98.        Accounts of administration by tutors and curators

99.        Remuneration of tutors and curators

100.        Application of certain sections to tutors and curators

 

PART VI
The Guardian's Fund

 

101.        Guardian's Fund continued

102.        Statements of unclaimed moneys to be published, and amounts to be paid into Guardian's Fund

103.        Interest on certain moneys in Guardian's Fund

104.        Guardian's Fund to be available for investment

105.        Ordinary payments from Guardian's Fund

106.        Extraordinary payments from Guardian's Fund

107.        List of unclaimed moneys to be published annually

108.        Lapse to the State of moneys unclaimed for 30 years

 

PART VII
Miscellaneous

 

109.        Failure to lodge administration account

110.        Failure to pay over moneys

111.        Master's costs when not otherwise recoverable payable out of Guardian's Fund

112.        Form of court proceedings taken by Master

113.        Report by Master to the court otherwise than upon formal application

114.        Statement of case by Master to the court in certain events

115.        Review of Master's appointments, etc.

116.        Penalties

117.        Forfeiture on omission by surviving spouse to make inventory, or true inventory

118.        No substitution or surrogation

119.        Master not to act as executor, etc.

120.        Reduction of security tendered by executors, administrators, tutors and curators in certain cases

121.        Effect of massing of joint estate

122.        Estate account

123.        Meetings before District Commissioner or other officer

124.        Exemption from liability for acts or omissions in Master's office or Deeds Registry

125.        Regulations

 

First Schedule - Forms

Second Schedule - Fees

 

Act 20, 1972,
Act 41, 1972,
Act 23, 1979.

An Act to make provision for the administration of estates of deceased persons, minors, persons under curatorship, absent persons and all property given in trust by deceased persons and to provide for incidental matters.

[Date of Commencement: 1st July, 1974]

 

PART I
Preliminary (ss 1-3)

[Ch3101s1]1.       Short title

            (1) This Act may be cited as the Administration of Estates Act.

[Ch3101s2]2.       Interpretation

            In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires-

            "absentee" means any person of whom the Master, after enquiry, believes that his whereabouts are unknown and that he has no legal representative in Botswana;

            "appraiser" means a person appointed or deemed to have been appointed under section 9;

            "commissioner of oaths" means any person who is a commissioner of oaths under the Commissioner of Cap. 05:03 Oaths Act;

            "court" means the High Court of Botswana;

            "letters of administration" includes any document issued or a copy of such document duly certified by any competent authority in any country, from which it appears that any person named or designated therein has the authority to administer for the benefit, in whole or in part, of any other person, any property given under the control of such first mentioned person by a deceased person to be so administered;

            "Master" means the Master of the High Court;

            "mental patient" means a person who is the subject of a reception order made under the Cap. 63:02 Mental Disorders Act, or who is confined under the provisions of Part XII of the Cap. 08:02 Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, or any other person who, by reason of mental disorder or defect, is incapable of managing his own affairs;

            "person under curatorship" includes any person whose property has been placed under the care of a curator;

            "property" means all property whether movable or immovable and includes rights and any contingent interest in property;

            "Registrar of Deeds" means the person appointed as Registrar of Deeds under the Cap. 33:02 Deeds Registry Act;

            "tribesman" means a member of a tribe or tribal community of Botswana or a member of a tribe or similar group of any other country in Africa prescribed for the purposes of this Act;

            "tribal community" means any community which is living outside a tribal territory but is organized in a tribal manner;

            "will" includes a codicil and every kind of testamentary writing.

[Ch3101s3]3.       Limits of application of Act

            This Act shall not apply-

     (a)     to the estates of deceased tribesmen, which as heretofore, shall be administered according to the customary law:

                      Provided that whenever a tribesman dies after the commencement of this Act leaving a will valid in accordance with the Cap. 31:04 Wills Act, this Act shall, notwithstanding any partial intestacy, apply as far as may be to the administration of the whole of his estate; and for the purpose of such application informal testamentary instructions in accordance with any written law relating to customary succession, given by the deceased shall be deemed, in so far as they are not inconsistent with the will, to be part of the will;

     (b)     to the property of any person belonging to and serving with any visiting forces who dies within Botswana while on service with those forces, unless it is shown to the satisfaction of the court or the Master that for the preservation or due administration of that property it is expedient that it should be dealt with under this Act.