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Study Unit 3: Law of Intestate Succession Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by

Explination of how Intestate Succession works in SA

This is a draft cheat sheet. It is a work in progress and is not finished yet.

When the Law of Intestate Succession Applies:

1. When deceased left no will
2. When will left is invali­d/not condonable in terms of s2(3) of Wills Act.
3. When will left becomes inoper­ative
4. When will regulates some assets, but not all.

Parentela

Particula parental group and it's descen­dants
Parentala 1:
Spouse and Decsce­ndants
Parentala 2:
Parents and their descen­dants (excluding 1st Parentala)
Parentala 3:
Grandp­arents and their descen­dansts

Blood Relati­onship

A deceased person’s blood relatives are his/her principal intestate heirs
Descen­dants
Blood relatives who decend directly from you (i.e. children and grandc­hil­dren).
Ascendants
Bblood relatives from whom you descend directly (Parents and Grandp­arents)
Collat­erals
Blood relatives other than ascendants and descen­dants with whom you share at least one common ascendant
- Full blood collat­erals
Two common ascendants (Sibli­ngs­/un­cles)
- Half - blood collat­erals
One Common ascendant (half siblings)
 

Stirps

Surviving child of the deceased who can be intestate heir AND deceased children with surviving descen­dan­ts/­kids.
- The number of children the preceased child had does not affect how many stipes the deceased has. For Example: A has 4 kids: B dead with 2 kids; C dead with 1 child; D dead; E alive
A has 3 stripes: B; C and E. Dead dead w no children, so he is not a stripe

Repres­ent­ation

Occurs when the place of a would be heir who cannot­/do­esn't want to inherit is taken by their descen­dants who qualifies to inherit.
In above example, B cannot inherent because they predec­eased A. B's 2 children will split the inheri­tance B would have gotten equally.

Degrees of Relati­onship

Distance between various blood relatives.
To determine calculate the number of genera­tions between ascendants and decend­ants,
Example: One degree between from parent to child. Two Degrees between A and B's kids, two degrees between grand parents and grandkids, three in great grandp­arent relati­onship)
To determine degrees of relati­onship between collat­eral, calculate no. of genera­tions (repre­sented by the vertical lines in family diagram) from the deceased to the first common ascend­ant/s and then the number of genera­tions from the common ascend­ant(s) to the collateral in question.
Example: 2 degrees of relati­onship between siblings (one from descendant to common parent, then one from said parent to sibling). 3 degrees between uncle.
 

No Intestate heirs

The executor of the deceased’s estate will hand over to the Master of the High Court the monies from the intestate estate
Admini­str­ation of estates Act: The Master shall then place the monies in the Guardian’s Fund on behalf of any person who may come forward to claim it
If still not claimed after 30 years, it is forfeited to the State as bona vacantia