How long does it take to wind up a deceased estate?

Every deceased estate has different circumstances that impacts on the timelines for winding up the deceased estate.

Factors that speed up the finalising of a deceased estate include whether or not the deceased left a valid testament or not, family disputes, the complexity of the estate which includes factors such as the amount, nature and the location of the assets of the deceased, legal disputes, cooperation from the family with the processes of the deceased estate, the interaction with the offices of the Master of the High Court as well as SARS, the debts in the estate and many other factors. Given those factors, deceased estates may therefore be wound up in a matter of months or take several years to conclude.

Should there be no valid will, then it is important for the family and the potential heirs of the estate to agree on the important factors such as the nomination of a person or a company (such as law firm) that may become the Executor in the deceased estate, as well as what should happen to the assets of the deceased.

It is important to remember that while a valid testament may nominate or recommend an Executor, that the Master of the High Court takes the final decision in the appointment of the Executor. The Master of the High Court may decide to appoint a different Executor, should the Executor that was nominated in the testament lack the required experience, skills or the ability to carry out the duties of an Executor. The Master of the High Court will review factors such as the value of the deceased estate, the complexity of the assets, concerns by debtors such as banks and many other factors, in taking the decision of the appointment of the Executor.

Many families are not aware the death of a homeowner should be reported urgently to the Master of the High Court, whether that home owner is married or not. It often occurs that married homeowners both pass away in a short space of months or even die a few years apart from one another and in these cases, the estate of each of those deceased spouses should be wound up. Surviving spouses also remarry, while the estate of the deceased former spouse was never reported to the Master of the High Court and the deceased estate never wound up.

In other cases, heirs pass away after inheriting immovable property, while neither the deaths of the first dying home owner/s or their heirs who also died in the meanwhile, were ever reported to the Master of the High Court. In such cases, the estates of each of the deceased needs to be wound up with the Master of the High Court.

It is therefore advisable to consult attorneys such as Julies Attorneys Inc. on the specific circumstances of your deceased estate matters.