For Those Who Are“Ti Ki” + Poor Like Me
Upon the death of a person, a member of his family or a person interested in his estate must take charge to administer and distribute his estate.
When a person passes away, his assets, such as his bank account, Shares, properties, cars are all frozen. No one can deal with them and things will be left in limbo.
If he left with a will, then they can apply to the High Court for what is called a grant of probate(GP), by which an executor to his estate will be appointed in accordance with the will. If he died intestate (left without a will), then they can apply for letters of administration (LA) and to be appointed as the administrator of his estate.
For my friends who are "Tiki" like me, there are 3 ways to obtaining the LA :
They can apply to the High Court. Of course, they need a lawyer, and the cost will be definitely higher compared to those who obtain the Grand of Probate. The tricky part is the administration needs to be bond by two sureties.
They can apply to Public Trustee of Malaysia-Amanah Raya Berhad (ARB). But, this is for those cases where the estate consists of only movable assets and the value of the gross estate must not exceed RM2mil. No administration bond is required. For the Estate administration fee, you guys may refer to their website.
They may apply to the Estate Distribution Unit of the Department of the Director-General of Lands and Mines (JKPTG) or the Land Office where the deceased’s immovable property is located. This is done under the Small Estates (Distribution) Act 1955. However, the value of the gross estate must not exceed RM2mil. Secondly, the estate must be intestate (Die without a will). Lastly, the estate must consist wholly of immovable assets (e.g, land, house or apartment) or partially immovable assets in the name of the deceased within the jurisdiction of the land office.
If you are "Tiki"+ poor like me, you can opt for option 3. In my case, even I have a property, my gross assets are still less than RM2mil. This is a cheaper and faster way among these 3 choices.
The SOP on how to apply the LA to JKPTG is stated clearly on their website. The checklist for application and form can be download from the site as well.
However, I can't see the fee to obtain the grant of LA on the website. But luckily I able to source this information from the news posted on Sep 2008. The fee stated as below:
Fees are payable for the grant of LA to be issued:
> RM10, if the value of the estate is between RM1 to RM1,000
> RM30, if the value of the estate is between RM1,001 to RM50,000
> 0.2% of the value of the estate, if it is more than RM50,000.
If the fee structure is still relevant, meaning they are really charging you at the very reasonable fee. Anyway, somehow I felt that this is just relevant to me only. I realized that all my friends are rich and famous except me. So, if you are rich and famous, and yet "Tiki" and don't want to write a will for yourself. Think again...
The legal fee to apply LA to the high court is much higher than the fee to apply GP to high court plus the fee to write a will.
Besides, if you are rich & famous, most probably you need two sureties for your LA application.
Do you want to become the sureties/guarantor for someone else?
Meaning to say, if the administrator runaway with the money, then the sureties will be required to pay the lost amount to the rightful beneficiaries.
Sometimes, people really take a long time to get the sureties, or never. The application of LA might be just pending forever.
This column is brought to you by Christopher Chong for your information only. It does not constitute legal advice. Just for sharing.
