By BarefootLawyers.
Okello lost his wife 20 years ago and decided to only focus on their Mateo, Yona and Yosefu. 20 years later, Okello had 7 acres of land, a successful poultry business, and sinotrucks for hire. Early this year, Okello got a call telling him that one of his trucks knocked a boda boda. Okello decided to rush to see if he could sort it out before police became involved. Unfortunately, he never made it, as he was entering the main road, another trailer rammed into him and killed him instantly.
After Okello had been laid to rest, his sons sat down and divided the property amongst themselves. However, of late, Yosefu the last born has started complaining that he was cheated, and he wants to be given something else because most of the chicken in the chicken business died of a fever.
Can Yosefu cancel the distribution and demand for something else?
WHAT DOES THE LAW SAY?
Once a person dies, their property does not automatically stop being theirs. Instead, the law has put up ways that this property can be shared or given away to certain people. (These people like the husband/wife, children, parents or certain relatives are called beneficiaries).
When a person writes down how and to who their property should be given when they die, we say this person left a will (or died testate). This person even appoints someone to distribute their property and manage it.
However, if a person dies without leaving a will like Okello, we say that person has died intestate (without a will). The law says the family must appoint someone to distribute and manage the deceased person’s property. That authority is called letters of administration and the people with this authority are known as administrators of an estate.
When someone starts distributing property without this legal authority, we say that person is intermeddling (the crime of dealing with property of a dead person without legal permission).
If family members agree about the distribution, they cannot later come back and say they were cheated when they received exactly what they agreed to. However, to avoid legal issues, the person who is appointed to distribute and share out the property must get letters of administration otherwise any transaction such as land sales will not be legal, because the land will still be in the names of the deceased person and that person cannot sell land from the grave.
📷: Unsplash
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