Administration Act 1903

This Act may be cited as the Administration Act 1903 and shall be construed as one with the Supreme Court Act 1935.

[Section 1 inserted: No. 57 of 1984 s. 2.]

[2. Omitted under Reprints Act 1984 s. 7(4)(f).]

In this Act, unless the contrary appears —

administration includes letters of administration of the estate and effects of deceased persons, whether with or without the will annexed, and whether granted for general, special, or limited purposes; and also exemplification of letters of administration with or without the will annexed and such other evidence of letters of administration purporting to be under the seal of a court of competent jurisdiction as in the opinion of the Court is sufficient;

administrator includes the Public Trustee and any other person to whom administration, as hereinafter defined, is granted;

Court means the Supreme Court or any judge thereof;

insolvent, in relation to the estate of a deceased person, means insufficient for the payment in full of the debts and liabilities of the estate of the deceased person;

personal estate extends to leasehold estates and other chattels real, and also to all other property whatsoever which, prior to the coming into operation of The Real Estates Administration Act ¹, by law devolved upon the executor or administrator, and to any share or interest therein;

prescribed means prescribed by this Act or the rules or regulations thereunder;

Principal Registrar means the person for the time being holding or acting in the office designated under the Supreme Court Act 1935, “Principal Registrar of the Supreme Court”;

probate includes exemplification of probate and such other formal evidence of probate purporting to be under the seal of a court of competent jurisdiction, as in the opinion of the Court is sufficient;

Public Trustee means the Public Trustee under the Public Trustee Act 1941;

real estate extends to messuages, lands, rents and hereditaments of freehold or any other tenure, and whether corporeal, incorporeal, or personal, and to any undivided share thereof, and to any estate, right, or interest (other than a chattel interest) therein;

registrar means a person for the time being holding or acting in an office designated under the Supreme Court Act 1935, “registrar of the Supreme Court”, and a reference to a registrar may include a reference to the Principal Registrar or a deputy registrar;

will extends to a testament, and to a codicil, and to an appointment by will or by writing in the nature of a will in exercise of a power and also to a disposition by will and testament, or devise of the custody and tuition of any child by virtue of the Imperial Act Twelfth Charles the Second, Chapter 24, and to any other testamentary disposition.

[Section 3 amended: No. 62 of 1955 s. 2; No. 67 of 1979 s. 42; No. 72 of 1984 s. 3.]

The Courts and Tribunals (Electronic Processes Facilitation) Act 2013 Part 2 applies to this Act.

[Section 3A inserted: No. 34 of 2020 s. 53

The jurisdiction and authority heretofore vested in or exercised by the Court in respect of the estates of deceased persons shall continue to be so vested and exercised.

The Court shall have jurisdiction to grant probate of the will or administration of the estate of any deceased person leaving property, whether real or personal, in Western Australia.

The Court may grant probate to one or more of the executors named in any will, reserving leave to the other, who has not renounced, to come in and apply.

All real estate held by any person in trust shall vest as aforesaid, subject to the trusts and equities affecting the same.

The real as well as the personal estate of every deceased person shall be assets in the hands of the executor to whom probate has been granted or administrator, for the payment of all duties and fees and of the debts of the deceased in the ordinary course of administration.

No executor or administrator shall hereafter have or exercise any right of retainer.

An executor to whom probate has been granted or administrator may, for the purposes of administration, sell or lease such real estate, or mortgage the same, with or without a power of sale, and assure the same to a purchaser or mortgagee in as full and effectual a manner as the deceased could have done in his lifetime.

An executor or administrator of the estate of a person who dies on or after the day on which the Acts Amendment (Insolvent Estates) Act 1984 comes into operation shall not have or exercise any right to give preference as between creditors standing in equal degree.

Notwithstanding subsection (4), an executor or administrator who —

in good faith and at a time when he has no reason to believe that the estate of the deceased is insolvent, pays a debt, other than a debt payable to himself in his own right, of a person who is a creditor of the estate; or

not being an administrator to whom letters of administration have been granted solely by reason of his being a creditor, in good faith and at a time when he has no reason to believe that the estate of the deceased is insolvent, pays a debt payable to himself in his own right as a creditor of the estate,

shall not, if it subsequently appears that the estate is insolvent, be liable to account to a creditor of the same degree as the paid creditor for the sum so paid.

[Section 10 amended: No. 62 of 1955 s. 3; No. 72 of 1984 s. 4.]

10A. Insolvent estates

Where the estate of a person dying on or after the day on which the Acts Amendment (Insolvent Estates) Act 1984 comes into operation is insolvent, his real and personal estate shall be administered in accordance with the rules set out in the Fifth Schedule.

This section binds the Crown.

[Section 10A inserted: No. 72 of 1984 s. 5.]

Subject as aforesaid, the real estate of every deceased person shall be held by the executor to whom probate has been granted or the administrator with the will annexed according to the trusts and dispositions of such will.

The executor to whom probate has been granted, or administrator, shall have the same rights and be subject to the same duties with respect to the real estate of the deceased that executors or administrators respectively heretofore have had or been subject to with reference to personal assets.

12A. Entitlement to participation in distribution of intestate estates

Where, after the coming into operation of the Administration Act Amendment Act 1971, any person dies intestate as respects all or any of his property, for the purpose of determining who is entitled to participate in the distribution of that part of his estate to which the intestacy applies the relationship between a child and his parents shall be determined irrespective of whether the parents are or have been married to each other, and all other relationships, whether lineal or collateral, shall be determined accordingly.

In any proceedings where a person relies on a matter of fact made relevant by the provisions of subsection (1) —

that fact shall not be taken to be proved unless it is established to the reasonable satisfaction of the Court; and

where the parents are not, or have not been, married to each other, the relationship between a child and his parent, and all other lineal or collateral relationships, shall be recognized only —

if parentage is admitted by or established against the parent in his lifetime; and

where the purpose for which the relationship is to be determined enures for the benefit of the parent, if parentage has been so admitted or established in the lifetime of the child.

Subsection (2)(b) does not apply to or in respect of a relationship established by the Artificial Conception Act 1985.

The estates of all persons who have died intestate as to the whole or any part thereof before the coming into operation of the Administration Act Amendment Act 1971, shall be distributed in accordance with the enactments and rules of law which would have applied to them if that Act had not been passed.

The estates of all persons who have died intestate as to the whole or any part thereof before the coming into operation of Part 2 of the Acts Amendment (Lesbian and Gay Law Reform) Act 2002 shall be distributed in accordance with the enactments and rules of law which would have applied to them if that Act had not been passed.

[Section 12A inserted: No. 18 of 1971 s. 3; amended: No. 14 of 1985 s. 8; No. 3 of 2002 s. 4.]

12B. Relationships of whole and half blood

Where a person dies intestate as respects all or any of his property, for the purpose of determining who is entitled to participate in the distribution of that part of his estate to which the intestacy applies it is immaterial whether a relationship is of the whole blood or of the half blood.

[Section 12B inserted: No. 57 of 1984 s. 3.]