1The following proviso shall be inserted at the end of subsection (7) of section one hundred and fifty-five of the principal Act:—
“Provided that the court in granting administration may act on such prima facie evidence, furnished by the applicant or any other person, as to whether or not there is a minority or life interest, as may be prescribed by probate rules.”
2(1)In subsection (7) of section one hundred and fifty-six of the principal Act the words “or in respect of a trust estate ” only “shall be inserted after ” there is no personal estate. "
(2)The following proviso shall be inserted at the end of the said subsection :—
“Provided that where the estate of the deceased is known to be insolvent the grant of representation to the real and personal estate shall not be severed except as regards a trust estate.”
3(1)The following paragraph shall be inserted at the end of subsection (5) of section one hundred and fifty-seven of the principal Act:—
“This subsection does not apply to securities registered or inscribed in the name of a syndic, or to land or a charge registered under the Land Transfer Acts, in the name of a syndic, but such securities, land or charge shall be transferred by the syndic to the corporation or as the corporation may direct.”
(2)At the end of the said section the following words shall be inserted:—
“and no such vesting or transfer as aforesaid shall operate as a breach of a covenant or condition against alienation or give rise to a forfeiture.”
4The following subsections shall be inserted at the end of section two of the Intestates Estates Act, 1884 :—
“(2)The Treasury Solicitor shall not be required when applying for or obtaining administration of the estate of a deceased person for the use or benefit of His Majesty, to deliver, nor shall the Probate, Divorce afid Admiralty Division of the High Court or the Commissioners of Inland Revenue be entitled to receive in connexion with any such application or grant of administration any affidavit, statutory declaration, account, certificate, or other statement verified on oath; but the Treasury Solicitor shall deliver and the said Division and Commissioners respectively shall accept, in lieu thereof, an account or particulars of the estate of the deceased signed by or on behalf of the Treasury Solicitor.
(3)References in sections two, four, six and seven of the Treasury Solicitor Act, 1876, and in subsection (3) of section three of the Duchy of Lancaster Act, 1920, to “personal estate ” shall include real estate.”
5The following section shall be substituted for section one hundred and fifty-eight of the principal Act:—
“158(1)A personal representative may assent to the vesting in any person who (whether by devise, bequest, devolution, appropriation or otherwise) may be entitled thereto, either beneficially or as a trustee or personal representative of any estate or interest in real estate to which the testator or intestate was entitled or over which he exercised a general power of appointment by his will (including the statutory power to dispose of entailed interests), and which devolved upon the personal representative.
(2)The assent shall operate to vest in that person the estate or interest to which the assent relates, and, unless a contrary intention appears, the assent shall relate back to the death of the deceased.
(3)The statutory covenants implied by a person being expressed to convey as personal representative, may be implied in an assent in like manner as in a conveyance by deed.
(4)An assent to the vesting of a legal estate shall be in writing, signed by the personal representative, and shall name the person in whose favour it is given and shall operate to vest in that person the legal estate to which it relates; and an assent not in writing or not in favour of a named person shall not be effectual to pass a legal estate.
(5)Any person in whose favour an assent or conveyance of a legal estate is made by a personal representative. may require that notice of the assent or conveyance be written or endorsed on or permanently annexed to the probate or letters of administration, at the cost of the estate of the deceased, and that the probate or letters of administration be produced at the like cost, to prove that the notice has been placed thereon or annexed thereto.
(6)A statement in writing by a personal representative that he has not given or made an assent or conveyance in respect of a legal estate, shall, in favour of a purchaser (but without prejudice to any previous disposition made in favour of another purchaser deriving title mediately or immediately under the personal representative), be sufficient evidence that an assent or conveyance has not been given or made in respect of the legal estate to which the statement relates, unless notice of a previous assent or conveyance affecting that estate has been placed on or annexed to the probate or administration.
A conveyance by a personal representative of a legal estate to a purchaser accepted on the faith of such a statement shall (without prejudice as aforesaid and unless notice of a previous assent or conveyance affecting that estate has been placed on or annexed to the probate or administration) operate to transfer or create the legal estate expressed to be conveyed in like manner as if no previous assent or conveyance had been made by the personal representative.
A personal representative making a false statement, in regard to any such matter shall be liable in like manner as if the statement had been contained in a statutory declaration.
(7)An assent or conveyance by a personal representative in respect of a legal estate shall, in favour of a purchaser, unless notice of a previous assent or conveyance affecting that legal estate has been placed on or annexed to the probate or administration, be taken as sufficient evidence that the person in whose favour the assent or conveyance is given or made is the person entitled to have the legal estate conveyed to him, and upon the proper trusts (if any), but shall not otherwise prejudicially affect the claim of any person rightfully entitled to the estate vested or conveyed or any charge thereon.
(8)A conveyance of a legal estate by a personal representative to a purchaser shall not be invalidated by reason only that the purchaser may have notice that all the debts, liabilities, funeral, and testamentary or administration expenses, duties, and legacies of the deceased have been discharged or provided for.
(9)An assent or conveyance given or made by a personal representative shall not, except in favour of a purchaser of a legal estate, prejudice the right of the personal representative or any other person to recover the estate or interest to which the assent or conveyance relates, or to be indemnified out of such estate or interest against any duties, debt, or liability to which such estate or interest would have been subject if there had not been any assent or conveyance.
(10)A personal representative may, as a condition of giving an assent or making a conveyance, require security for the discharge of any such duties, debt, or liability, but shall not be entitled to postpone the giving of an assent merely by reason of the subsistence of any such duties, debt or liability if reasonable arrangements have been made for discharging the same; and an assent may be given subject to any legal estate or charge by way of legal mortgage.
(11)Nothing in this section shall impose any stamp duty in respect of an assent.
(12)In this section “purchaser ” means a purchaser for money or money's worth.
(13)This section applies to assents and conveyances made after the commencement of this Act, whether the testator or intestate died before or after such commencement.”
6The following paragraphs shall be respectively substituted for paragraphs (a) and (c) of subsection (3) of section one hundred and fifty of the principal Act:—
“(a)references to any Statutes of Distribution in an instrument inter vivos made or in a will coming into operation after the commencement of this Act, shall be construed as references to this Part of this Act; and references in such an instrument or will to statutory next of kin shall be construed, unless the context otherwise requires, as referring to the persons who would take beneficially on an intestacy under the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act;”
“(c)trusts declared in an instrument inter vivos made, or in a will coming into operation, before the commencement of this Act by reference to the Statutes of Distribution, shall, unless the contrary thereby appears, be construed as referring to the enactments (other than the Intestates' Estates Act, 1890) relating to the distribution of effects of intestates which were in force immediately before the commencement of this Act.”
7The words “or alter the incidence of death duties” shall be inserted at the end of section one hundred and fifty-three of the principal Act.