A Probate Grant From England or Canada: Using It in Jamaica

Jamaica reseals a grant of probate or administration made by a Court of Probate in a part of the Commonwealth, or by a narrow class of British court sitting in a foreign country. A grant from England and Wales or from a Canadian province usually qualifies. A grant from an ordinary United States state court does not, and the family applies for a Jamaican grant instead. If the grant is from the United States, read A Will Was Probated in the United States: What Happens to Jamaican Assets?.

The person to whom the foreign grant was made applies, or an agent that person has authorised in writing. The application is made on oath to the Probate Registry with certified copies of the grant and the Will. Where years have passed since the death, the delay has to be explained on oath as well.

Before the application is made, it is advertised once, in the Gazette or in another newspaper the Registrar directs. That is the rule. The Registry's practice adds a step the rule does not spell out: it may require the proposed notice to be approved before it is published.

The two are not the same thing, and the practice point is where money is lost. A family that drafts its own notice and pays a newspaper to run it can find the Registry will not accept it, and the advertisement is paid for twice. We confirm the Registry's current process, the approved wording and the outlet before anything is published.

Authority in Jamaica, and no more. A resealed grant does not update a land title, release a bank account or transfer shares by itself. The executor still has to satisfy the National Land Agency, the bank or whoever holds the asset. For registered land, the NLA requires a Commonwealth grant to be resealed before a transmission can proceed, so the Mandeville title does not move until this is done.

A file is not ready when the grant comes from a court outside the Commonwealth, when the copies are not certified in the form the Registry requires, when the applicant is not the grantee and has no written authority, when names or dates conflict across the documents or when the advertisement was published without following the Registrar's directions. Each of those is a requisition, and each requisition is weeks. Resealing usually takes some months, and there is no fixed promise.

The law that fixes which grants can be resealed is the Probates (Re-Sealing) Act. The court's rules add the advertisement and the sworn application.

If the grant is from a Commonwealth court, send us the grant, the Will and the death certificate before anything is advertised, and we will tell you whether it can be resealed.