Any person who deals with a part of the estate of a deceased person which is not set out in the schedule or additional schedule annexed to a grant of probate made in respect of the estate commits an offence.
Section 60J, Probate and Administration Ordinance, Cap.10
In order to be able to deal with any estate property in Hong Kong, you must first obtain a grant of probate from the Hong Kong Court.
In instances where a grant of probate to administer the deceased’s estate has already been obtained from one of the following jurisdictions – namely, the Australian states of Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia and the Northern Territory of Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom and Scotland – then a grant of probate can be achieved by ‘resealing’.
This is a relatively simple process, which can be sorted as soon as the original grant is issued from one of the jurisdictions mentioned above.
Hong Kong’s Probate Registry Requires the Following Documents to Achieve This:
- The Death Certificate, certified by the issuing authority;
- A complete copy of the original Grant of Probate, certified by the issuing court; and
- A certified copy of the identification documents of both the deceased and the executor/administrator.
NB: it is no longer necessary to conduct estate clearance since estate duty was abolished in Hong Kong after 11 February 2006.
To ensure our overseas clients do not have to undergo the inconvenience of travelling to Hong Kong and going through the process of resealing probate process themselves, we at Hugill & Ip offer the following assistance:
We will:
- Ascertain the Deceased’s assets in Hong Kong as at the date of death with the relevant bank and/ or authorities;
- Prepare all papers needed to apply for resealing a foreign grant of probate;
- Obtain / prepare / create the deposing affidavit to verify the Deceased’s local estate;
- Attest the copy of the foreign grant;
- Collect the assets with the resealed grant of probate; and
- Administer the assets in accordance with the instructions of the executor.
Hugill & Ip’s comprehensive package of services for the resealing of foreign grants of probate in Hong Kong are intended to make the process both convenient and efficient. For more information, please contact Alfred Ip or Jacqueline Cheng.
Please contact us for further information about the following areas:
- Resealing UK probate in Hong Kong
- Resealing Scottish probate in Hong Kong
- Resealing Singaporean probate in Hong Kong
- Resealing Australian probate in Hong Kong
- Resealing New Zealand probate in Hong Kong
Our team at Hugill & Ip has extensive experience in dealing with Private Client, Probate & Trust issues – so if you need further advice on these subjects, please get in touch with us.
This article is for information purposes only. Its contents do not constitute legal advice and readers should not regard this article as a substitute for detailed advice in individual instances.
