Administration of Estates Act 1925

Text of statute as originally enactedRevised text of statute as amended

The Administration of Estates Act 1925 (15 & 16 Geo. 5. c. 23) is an act passed in 1925 by the British Parliament that consolidated, reformed, and simplified the rules relating to the administration of estates in England and Wales.

All authority that a personal representative had with respect to chattels real (such as fixtures) was extended to cover any matter dealing with real estate as well.^[1]

With respect to the property of any estate (excepting entailed interests), there were abolished:^[2]

• all existing rules of descent (whether arising from the common law, custom, gavelkind, Borough English or otherwise)
• tenancy by the curtesy and any other estate a husband may have where his wife dies intestate
• dower, freebench and any other estate a wife may have where her husband dies intestate
• escheat to the Crown, the Duchy of Lancaster, the Duchy of Cornwall, or to a mesne lord

The rules governing the distribution of intestate estates were replaced by a single statutory framework.^[3]

The Act has been subsequently amended in certain respects by the following:

• Intestates' Estates Act 1952
• Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975
• Estates of Deceased Persons (Forfeiture Rule and Law of Succession) Act 2011
• Inheritance and Trustees' Powers Act 2014

The Act plays a major role (as the 'Property Act') in the 1927 mystery novel Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers, its commencement with respect to intestate estates providing the motive for a seemingly motiveless murder which Lord Peter Wimsey must solve.

• Administration of an estate on death
• Ultimogeniture