I don’t want a share in the property

Dear Mrs Macaulay,

My parents died and left a house behind in Jamaica. My mother, who was married to my father, had four kids with him. My father had two outside children.

This property has been a source of constant problems. I am one of the kids for both parents.

How can I get rid of my share in the property? I don’t want any future benefits from it, or issues associated with it to come back and haunt me.

I understand what you want to do, which is to remove yourself completely from any involvement with the house your parents died owning in Jamaica.

Your letter is, however, very short of relevant facts which would enable me to give you as complete an answer as possible. I shall have to assume certain things and as regards your parents’ death, deal with different scenarios.

My first assumption is that neither of your parents left a will. In such a case, since they died intestate, an application ought to have been made for Letters of Application, so that the estate property of the deceased person could be legally administered by the administrator and to ensure that it passed to those entitled in the shares stated in the Intestates (Estates and Property Charges) Act.

Relevant facts missing from your letter are:

1. Were both your parents registered on the title as proprietors of the property?

2. If so, were they joint or tenants-in-common?

3. Who died first, your mother or your father?

4. Was your father the sole registered owner?

5. Was it the family home?

6. Was the Administrator General’s office informed of the death of each of your parents?

7. Was the estate ever administered legally?

The answers to these questions would affect the question of who are in fact beneficiaries of the estate. For example, assuming that the property was jointly owned and that your father died first, the whole property would have passed by law to your mother. In this case, when your mother died, those entitled to a share in the property would only be her four children. Your father’s other two children would not have any right to any share in it, as upon this assumption, the property would have been solely hers when she died and only her children could inherit from her.

If, on the other hand, your parents held the property as tenants-in-common and again your father died first, then his share of the property would be his intestate estate and this 50 per cent share would by law be shareable between your mother and all his children.

I have assumed that the estates of your parents were never legally administered, that they left no wills and so died intestate and that no one applied for Letters of Administration following either parent’s death.

I do not assume that your parents died together, at the same time, as this would be too extraordinary. In any event, in such a case, the younger of the two would by law be deemed to have died last and so would have inherited from the older one.

Anyway, let me get to your specific question of how you can get rid of your share in the property. Since you are a child of both your mother and father, you would, without a doubt, in fact and in law be entitled to a share in the property, the size of which would be determined on whether your mother died as the owner of the whole property or a part, albeit, the larger part.

Since you say the property has been a source of constant problems, this led me to conclude that no one had ever reported the deaths of your parents to the Administrator General or applied to the court for letters for the estate. This being the case, those who have been on the property or who assumed control of it have been intermeddling in the estate. That is to say that they have been messing around with the estate without obtaining lawful authority to do anything on or with it.

Since you say you wish to get rid of your share in it and in such a way that nothing relating to it will get back to you, you should renounce any interest you may have in it by executing a deed to this effect. You could have it recorded in the Islands’ Registry at the Records Office in Spanish Town. Then I suggest that to make doubly sure that you get the forms, report the deaths of both your parents to the Administrator General, in which you have to name all your siblings and include their addresses. You should attach to such reports, a certified copy of the recorded deed of renunciation of your interest. That office will contact your siblings and see about the applications for the grants of Letters of Application and to the settlement of the estates to those of your siblings who are entitled to share in the estates, excluding you of course. Or you can report the deaths to the Administrator General as I stated and then when that office has opened its files and assigned an officer to your parents’ estates, you can then renounce your interest to that office.

I hope I have clarified the situation for you.

May I take this opportunity to wish you and all my readers a truly blessed, happy, healthy, safe and contented 2015.

Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law, Supreme Court mediator, notary public and women’s and children’s rights advocate. Send questions via

e-mail to allwoman@jamaicaobserver. com; or write to All Woman, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5.

DISCLAIMER:

The contents of this article are for informational purposes only and must not be relied upon as an alternative to legal advice from your own attorney.