Asked by Vezi on 29-11-2023 00:26:28
Question posted in the General Law category relating to Gauteng

My husband passed away during the first week of October 2023 without any "will" I am aware of and we are married in community of property. When I tried to obtain the Letter of Executorship (LE) with the assistance of a lawyer in order to attend to the "winding up"of the Deceased Estate I was told that there is a lady which has already been issued with the Letter of Executorship. That lady applied for it under the pretence of being my husband sister and even produced the certified copies of the Death Certificate, our Marriage Certificate and my S.A. ID copy. But I have never shared the above documents except with the colleague of my late husband who was facilitating my claim of a Group Funeral cover that was arranged via my late-husband EMPLOYER. I suspect that this "colleague"has a hand in sharing this important documents with the "fraudster lady". Since I do not have finacial resources at present to hire the services of a lawyer to stop the ïfraudulently issued LE", will it be possible to get assistance from your team of lawyers and undertake to pay for their services upon the successful winding-up of our Late Estate? Hope to hear from yourselves. Regards. Mrs Sibisi  

Further information relating to Question:

While your Attorney assist to STOP the issued LE, can I open a criminal case against the person who obtained this LE using my ID and marriage certificate without my permission?

Posted by Att. Patrick on 29-11-2023 08:53:03

Hi there Mrs Sibisi and thank you for your question,

I am a practicing attorney based in South Africa and I will assist you with your question. Please feel free to ask as many follow up questions in order to clarify your question. If you have a new question, you must please open a new thread.  Please keep in mind that our discussions is for general information purposes only. Our engagement on this website does not create an attorney-client relationship. 

We unfortunately can't represent you directly in any dispute that you have, however we are able to advise you and assist you along the way with what you should be doing. 

Is it correct that your late husband's name is Christopher?

The first thing that you need to do is to report this to the Master of the High Court, and explain the fraud, and request the Master to contact the fraudster lady directly in order to demand that she returns the LE to the Master. 

You must also ask the Master to contact the executor and withdraw the LE from the executor on the basis that the LE should never have been issued to her, and that the Master must instead appoint you as the executor. 

Do I need the services of an Advocate to approach the Master of the Supreme Court? If yes, can you refer me to one with whom I can negotiate payment terms since I am expecting to get some liquidity from the estate late to be wound-up?

Posted by Att. Patrick on 29-11-2023 14:01:56

You do not need the services of an Advocate to approach the Master of the High Court. You can write a letter to the Master yourself. You'll obviously need to attach whatever evidence you have. You must also explain that the lady who was appointed as the executor is NOT known to you and that there is no reason why she should be the executor!