The law of succession involves the management of the property of a deceased person. There are two ways to deal with a deceased person’s property depending on whether at death they had left a will or not.

The authority given to an executor/executrix (a person named in the will to distribute the property) is called a grant of probate

The authority given to an administrator (person given authority to distribute the property of a person who died without a will) is called letters of administration.

A grant of probate or letters of administration may be cancelled for in the following reasons;

• Where the grant/letters were obtained fraudulently by making a false suggestion or by concealing from court information
• Where the grant has become useless/inoperative for example where the administrator dies or becomes insane or where the administrator uses the deceased s estate for their personal gain to the detriment of the beneficiaries.
• Where the person to whom the grant was made has refused to distribute the estate, to file an inventory and or an account.

One may cancel a will in two ways by;

• Making another will
• By writing to declare that the original will is cancelled
• By marriage. Once one gets married, the will that was made before that marriage is automatically cancelled.