The House Is Still in Your Late Father's Name

Everything turns on how your father held the land, and the title says. If he owned it alone, or owned a share with others as tenants in common, his interest went into his estate when he died. If he held it as a joint tenant with your mother, it passed to her the moment he died, and only her death would put it into an estate.

A family that treats a tenant in common's share as if it had passed to the survivor finds out at the point of sale, when the buyer's attorney reads the title and asks for a court grant that was never obtained.

Where the land was held as joint tenants and one owner survives, the death is noted on the title at the NLA. A difference between the name on the title and the name on the death certificate must be explained before the Titles Office will act. If the last surviving joint tenant has also died, that person's executor or administrator usually needs a grant first.

Here the estate must be opened in court before the title can move. The executor applies for probate if there is a valid Will. If there is no Will, the person entitled applies for Letters of Administration. A grant issued abroad may need to be resealed in Jamaica, and a grant from a court in the United States generally calls for a separate Jamaican grant. The Probate Registry examines the Will, the evidence of death and the sworn papers, and a difference between the deceased's name on the title, the death certificate and the Will sends the application back if it is not dealt with early. This usually takes months.

Before anything is lodged at the Titles Office the estate's tax position is settled with Tax Administration Jamaica, which issues the certificate the NLA requires. Not every transfer on death is free of tax, and no relief applies by itself.

With the grant in hand, the executor or administrator is registered on the title in the deceased owner's place. That step is called transmission. Only then can the land go to the person entitled under the Will or on intestacy, be transferred under a written family arrangement or be sold with the proceeds shared through the estate. Those are different transactions with different tax consequences. Living in the house is not one of them.

If the duplicate title has been lost, the NLA has its own procedure for replacing it, and that comes first. Where more than one registered owner has died, read Family Land in Jamaica When Several Registered Owners Have Died. The order in which the estates are dealt with matters. The NLA sets out the two routes in its guidance on recording the death of a registered owner.

Bring the title and the death certificate to the first meeting and we will tell you which route the file takes.