There have been some changes to the court of Kings Bench rules with respect to Probate and Administration. Probate and Administration are the court processes that deal with a person’s assets, including land, after they have deceased. A Last Will and testament (“will”) of course is a document that disposes of all your earthly assets and property when you die.
Probate is the process of dealing with someone’s assets and property if they died with a Will, Administration is the process of dealing with the assets and property of a deceased person if they died without a will.
A person who owns property and dies with a will (estate) and a person who dies without a will (intestate) are treated differently when it comes to selling property. If a deceased person has a Will, then their Will should name a person in charge of their affairs (an executor or trustee). This makes dealing with property easier because the person who is named as the executor or trustee can sign a listing contract and an offer to purchase if it is presented, even before they have received probate back from the court. The property cannot be transferred in the property registry until the forms are completed and probate is applied for and received from the court, so the process and possession date must be timed, but at least the process can be well underway. If there is no Will then of course there is no named executor or trustee, so if the deceased person owns land, then someone must apply to the courts to be the Administrator or trustee of the estate and land (there is law that gives priority to certain people in the deceased persons life).
The crucial difference is that the person applying for administration does not have the ability to sign the listing agreement or an offer to purchase if it’s presented until they have completed the process of being named the Administrator by the court. As part of these new court changes the court forms are almost completely different than they were not even a year ago and the process of probate and administration is currently taking longer than it did prior, so it is making sales or property being probated more challenging and it is quite delaying the sale of property under application for administration. Even more reason that everyone should have a Will.
This information is courtesy of……
GORD STEEVES
B.A., LL.B.Barrister, Solicitor and Notary Public
200 600 St. Anne’s Road
WINNIPEG, MB., R2M 2S2
For more information, please contact……
Michael Leclerc
Royal LePage Top Producers
Winnipeg MB
Phone (204) 792-6453