Published: 1974-07-01
Key Benefits:
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)
(1) This Act may be cited as the Administration of Estates Act.
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.