Two published checkpoints
According to the SOURCE, the quickest public route for following a deceased estate is through its statutory notices. Every estate dealt with in terms of the Administration of Estates Act 66 of 1965 goes through two published checkpoints. The first is the Section 29 notice to creditors (Form J193). The second is a notice under section 35(5) (Form J187), which tells the public that the Liquidation and Distribution Account is available for inspection. Both appear in the Government Gazette. Both also appear in a newspaper or online newspaper such as Nuusflits, and both can be searched.
Section 29: administration has begun
The SOURCE states that publication of a Section 29 notice to creditors shows that the executor holds Letters of Executorship and has begun administering the estate. The notice also sets the period within which creditors must lodge their claims. Under section 29(1), that period may be no shorter than thirty days and no longer than three months.
Section 35(5): the account is open to inspection
A published Section 35(5) notice, the SOURCE states, shows that the Master now holds the Liquidation and Distribution Account. The account is open to inspection for 21 days. The SOURCE describes this as the last step before distribution, and as the period in which interested parties may lodge an objection.
A missing notice
The SOURCE also treats silence as telling. If Letters of Executorship were issued some months earlier but no Section 29 notice has been published, it says the estate has not properly started.
What the notice record contains
Every notice placed through Legal Notice Publishing is added to the Nuusflits legal notice library. Users can search the library by keyword and narrow the results by category (deceased estates; estates: creditors and debtors; estates: liquidation and distribution), by province and by publication date range. Each notice gives the following details: the name and identity number of the deceased, the date of birth and the date of death, the last known address, and the estate number. It also names the Master's Office dealing with the estate, gives the executor or authorised agent together with contact details, and states the date of publication.
Limits of the notice record
The library is the public notice record. It shows which notices have appeared for an estate, the date of publication and the person administering it. The Master of the High Court has its own separate online portals for reporting and administration. For a status query at the Master's Office, the SOURCE advises quoting the estate number shown on the notice. The archive of weekly editions can also be used to check the date and the edition in which a notice ran.
Read the full article: Tracking Deceased Estates Online in South Africa on LegalNotice.co.za.
