My Father passed on in 2020 without a wi...

Asked by Zinziswa Ngodi on 05-03-2024 19:34:51
Question posted in the General Law category relating to Eastern Cape

My Father passed on in 2020 without a will, he had bought a house months before my mother died..his first wife. 10 years later he remarried in community of property and there was said to be no will when he died. He has built a second property for my step mom before he died. Now the stepmom is demanding both properties and kicking us out of our home, me and my siblings and grandchildren of the deceased. Her lawyer is claiming that in virtue of her marriage and the interstate succession act she is entitled to everything, and the heirs or us have to leave with nothing and also be evicted from our home. The estate lawyers were never transparent to us about the administration of the estate and no communication was made with us, we just received a letter stating that they are finalising the estate and they had laid the L&D account for inspection in 2023 with no objections. We had no idea that his was happening hence we did not object and there is no record of this on the estate notices from the Government Gazette or the newspapers. The executor, who is the stepmom had also listed false assets on the account.what can we do as the deceased's children? Does the law take away everything from us in virtue of these laws? Can we try to fight for anything or how do we oppose this process and this false informed account?

If you would like to view the entire answer, you will need to either login or register a FREE account.

Disclaimer

DISCLAIMER: Advice or answers from Lawyers on South African Legal Advice are not substitutes for the proper advice of an Lawyer. South African Legal Advice is a public forum and questions and responses are not private or confidential or protected by the attorney-client privilege. The Lawyer who assists with your question is not your Lawyer, and the response above is not to be considered to be legal advice. You should not read this response to propose specific action or address specific circumstances, but only to give you a sense of general principles of law that might affect the situation you describe. Application of these general principles to particular circumstances must be done by a lawyer who has spoken with you in confidence, learned all relevant information, and explored various options. Before acting on these general principles, you should hire a lawyer licensed to practice law in the jurisdiction to which your question pertains. The responses above are from individual Lawyers, not South African Legal Advice. The site and services are provided “as is”. This site is not for emergency questions which should be directed immediately by telephone or in-person to qualified professionals. Please carefully read the Terms of Service.