South Africa - How to report the estate of a deceased person

Advertisement

Procedure

Apply In-Person:

1. To apply for reporting the estate of a deceased person in person, the person who wishes to report should visit the nearest office of Master of High court or Service point of the Master in the jurisdiction where the deceased person lived.
2. Please click the following link for the contact and address details of the Master’s office in all provinces: Link
3. Find the address of the office applicable to your location and pay a visit to the office to lodge an application on reporting the estate of a deceased person (J294).
4. Obtain the Death Notice from the concerned department at the office. Complete the application form as required with relevant details and information about the particulars of the deceased, children of the deceased, surviving or deceased spouse of the deceased and applicant.
5. Make sure that you have all the documents listed in the “Required documents” section of this page.
6. Attach all the documents with the application form and submit the application package at the Master’s office. And pay the prescribed fees.
7. If all the documents and application has been submitted as required and are found in order, a file will be opened in the name of the deceased.
8. After that, the application and submitted documents will be examined keenly by an examiner.
9. And the deceased’s will (if any) is considered by the assistant master and further accepted or rejected accordingly.

Apply through Post

1. To apply for reporting the estate of a deceased person electronically, the applicant must complete the application forms and post the application and supporting documents package to the nearest office of Master or Service point of the Master in the jurisdiction where the deceased person lived.
2. The postal address details of the Master of High Court office in all provinces can be found in the following link: Link
3. Download the application on reporting the estate of a deceased person (J294) by clicking on the following link: Link
4. The download links for other required documents can be found in the “Documents to use” section of this page.
5. Complete the application form as required with relevant details and information about the particulars of the deceased, children of the deceased, surviving or deceased spouse of the deceased and applicant.
6. Make a hard copy of the completed application and all the documents listed in the “Required documents” section of this page.
7. Attach all the documents with the application form and send the application package to the postal address of the Master’s office. And pay the prescribed fees.
8. If all the documents and application has been submitted as required and are found in order, a file will be opened in the name of the deceased.
9. After that, the application and submitted documents will be examined keenly by an examiner.
10. And the deceased’s will (if any) is considered by the assistant master and further accepted or rejected accordingly.

Advertisement

Required Documents

• Completed Death notice (J294)
• Original or certified copy of Death certificate
• Original or certified copy of Marriage certificate
• Completed Subsisting marriages declaration
• Original will and supporting documents or documents deemed to be a will
• Completed Next-of-Kin Affidavit (J192)
• Completed Inventory ( J243)
• Letter of nomination

NOTE: The above listed are common and the categorical requirements list can be found in the following link: Link

Office Locations & Contacts

Department of Justice and Constitutional Development Head Office
Physical Adsress: Momentum Centre, 329
Pretorius Street,
Pretoria,
0001
South Africa
Postal Adsress:Private Bag X81
Pretoria,
0001
South Africa
Tel: 080 002 0007
Email:[email protected]
Website link

Eligibility

• Any interested party, who wishes to report the estate of a deceased person, can apply.
• Any person that has control or possession of any property or a will of the deceased, can report the death
• The person applying can be a surviving spouse, nearest blood relative or connection residing in the district of death occurrence or a person who is made to give the notice by the above mentioned people.

Fees

The fees structure can be found in the following document: Link

Validity

Explain the time until which the certificate/document is valid.
e.g. Birth Certificate Valid Forever

Documents to Use

• Completed Death notice (J294) - Link
• Completed Subsisting marriages declaration - Link
• Completed Next-of-Kin Affidavit (J192) - Link
• Completed Inventory ( J243) - Link
• Letter of nomination - Link
• Undertaking and bond of security (J262) - Link
• Reporting Affidavit - Link
• Acceptance of Master’s Directions ( J155) - Link

Sample Documents

Please attach sample completed documents that would help other people.

Processing Time

Please explain processing time taken in obtaining the document/certificate.

Related Videos

Videos explaining the procedure or to fill the applications.
Attach videos using the following tag <&video type='website'>video ID|width|height<&/video&> from external websites.
Please remove the '&' inside the tags during implementation.
Website = allocine, blip, dailymotion, facebook, gametrailers, googlevideo, html5, metacafe, myspace, revver,
sevenload, viddler, vimeo, youku, youtube
width = 560, height = 340, Video ID = Can be obtained from the URL of webpage where the video is displayed.
e.g In the following url 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0US7oR_t3M' Video ID is 'Y0US7oR_t3M'.

Instructions

• The person applying should have either seen the occurrence of death or should have identified the deceased properly. The estate of a deceased person must be reported to the Master of the High Court within 14 days of the date of death.
• An executor of the estate is normally nominated in the will to do this as well as carry out the directives you set out in your will.
• The Magistrates’ Office service points will only have jurisdiction if the deceased did not leave a valid will and the gross value of the estate is less than R125 000 where there is no Paperless Estates Administration System (PEAS).

Required Information

• Particulars of the deceased
• Particulars of the spouse
• Particulars of the children of deceased
• Particulars of the applicant
• Identification document number
• Passport number

Need for the Document

A deceased estate comes into existence when a person dies and leaves property or a will. Such an estate must then be administered and distributed in terms of the deceased’s will or, if there is no valid will, in terms of the Intestate Succession Act (Act 81 of 1987). This is performed by the Master of the court when an application on the Notice of death has been lodged in the prescribed format with all the required documentation.

Information which might help

• Proof of marriage or an alleged permanent same-sex life partnership must be lodged in all instances where such relationship is indicated in the death notice; except in instances where the surviving spouse or same-sex life partner is an heir in terms of a valid will.
• For more information refer: Link

Other uses of the Document/Certificate

Please explain what are other uses of obtaining this document/certificate.
e.g. Birth Certificate can be used as proof of identity.

External Links

Place some external links which might help.

Others

Link