A person who dies without making a will is said to have died ‘intestate”. Sometimes, even if a person makes a will it can fail for a number of reasons. For example, the will may not be signed at the end, or there may be only one witness instead of two. In this situation, the deceased is also regarded as being intestate.

In Anguilla land disputes occupy a great deal of court time. Unfortunately, many of these disputes spring from the fact that the deceased owners of the land died without leaving a will, and leaving a large number of off-spring. Some of the children may feel as if they deserve a greater share of the estate, for example because they stayed in Anguilla and took care of the parents while their siblings moved away to the United States or England. This can obviously lead to serious disagreements. Then there is the question of children born outside of marriage: do they get the same share as the children of the marriage?

The law dealing with the property of persons dying without making a will is called the Intestates Estates Act. The law does its best to provide for a fair and equal distribution of the deceased’s property (called his “estate”) between his children and spouse.

The estate of an intestate person cannot be divided or distributed until it is dealt with in the way stated by the Act. Firstly, someone must apply for Letters of Administration and to be appointed as the Administrator of the estate. This person will stand in the shoes of the deceased, as if he were the legal owner of the estate, and will be responsible for giving the children and spouse of the deceased what they are entitled to under the Act. The person appointed as Administrator can be the spouse or one of the children, or a lawyer or other person authorized by the family to apply for Letters of Administration.

Generally speaking, what does the Act say about how an estate is to be divided? Firstly, the spouse is totally entitled to all of the personal effects of the deceased, plus 10% of the net value of the estate. Secondly, the rest of the estate is held on trust as follows: (a) 50% for the spouse for her lifetime, and (b) 50% equally to the children. After the spouse’s death, the 50% of the spouse goes to the children equally.

If there are no children or spouse, the estate is held on trust for the following persons, in this order: parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents or uncles and aunts. If no relatives can be found the property is vested in the Crown.

This is obviously a very complicated area of the law. The above information is intended only to state the general position, and should not be applied to a specific situation without seeking legal advice.

Alex Richardson is Managing Partner of the law firm Alex Richardson & Associates, P O Box 371, The Babrow Building, The Valley, Anguilla, Tel: 264 498 4224, Fax: 264 498 4220, email: hardson@anguillanet.com. He is also Managing Director of Paragon Corporate Services Ltd.

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