ADMINISTRATION OF ESTATES ACT - 1961 (ACT 63)

Section - 96 - Effect of Assent or Conveyance by Personal Representative

(1) A personal representative may assent to the vesting, in the form set out in the Third Schedule to this Act, in any person who (whether by devise, bequest, devolution, appropriation or otherwise) may be entitled thereto, either beneficially or as a trustee or personal representative, of any estate or interest in immovable property to which the testator or intestate was entitled or over which he exercised a general power of appointment by his will, and which devolved upon the personal representative.

(2) The assent shall operate to vest in that person the estate or interest to which the assent relates, and, unless a contrary intention appears, the assent shall relate back to the death of the deceased.

(3) The covenants implied by a person being expressed to convey as personal representative may be implied in an assent in like manner as in a conveyance by deed.

(4) Any person in whose favour an assent or conveyance of the property is made by a personal representative may require that notice of the assent or conveyance be written or endorsed on or permanently annexed to the probate or letters of administration, at the cost of the estate of the deceased, and that the probate or letters of administration be produced, at the like cost, to prove that the notice has been placed thereon and annexed thereto.

(5) A statement in writing by a personal representative that he has not given or made an assent or conveyance in respect of an immovable property, shall, in favour of a purchaser, but without prejudice to any previous disposition made in favour of another purchaser deriving title immediately or immediately under the personal representative, be sufficient evidence that an assent or conveyance has not been given or made in respect of the property to which the statement relates, unless notice of a conveyance affecting that property has been placed on or annexed to the probate or administration.

A conveyance by a personal representative to a purchaser accepted on the faith of such a statement shall (without prejudice as aforesaid and unless notice of a previous assent or conveyance affecting the property has been placed on or annexed to the probate or administration) operate to transfer or create the property expressed to be conveyed in like manner as if no previous assent or conveyance had been made by the personal representative.

A personal representative making a false statement, in regard to any such matter, shall be liable in like manner as if the statement had been contained in a statutory declaration.

(6) An assent or conveyance by a personal representative shall, in favour of a purchaser, unless notice of a previous assent or conveyance affecting the property has been placed on or annexed to the probate or administration, be taken as sufficient evidence that the person in whose favour the assent or conveyance is given or made is the person entitled to have the property conveyed to him, and upon the proper trusts, if any, but shall not otherwise prejudicially affect the claim of any person rightfully entitled to the estate vested or conveyed or any charge thereon.

(7) A conveyance by a personal representative to a purchaser shall not be invalidated by reason only that the purchaser may have notice that all the debts, liabilities and testamentary or administration expenses, duties and legacies of the deceased have been discharged or provided for. [As Substituted by Administration of Estates (Amendment) Law, 1985 (PNDCL 113) s. 8].

(8) An assent or conveyance given or made by a personal representative shall not, except in favour of a purchaser, prejudice the right of the personal representative or any other person to recover the estate or interest to which the assent or conveyance relates, or to be indemnified out of that estate or interest against any debt or liability to which that estate or interest would have been subject if there had not been any assent or conveyance.

(9) A personal representative may, as a condition of giving an assent or making a conveyance, require security for the discharge of any debt or liability, but shall not be entitled to postpone the giving of an assent merely by reason of the subsistence of debt or liability if reasonable arrangements have been made for discharging it; and an assent may be given subject to any charge by way of mortgage.

(10) This section shall not operate to impose any stamp duty in respect of an assent, and in this section "purchaser" means a purchaser for money or money's worth.

(11) This section applies to assents and conveyances made after the commencement of this Act, whether the testator or intestate died before or after such commencement.