Duty of personal representative to file accounts

(1) Every executor and administrator shall administer and distribute the estate which he is appointed to administer according to law and the provisions of any valid will relating to that estate and, as soon as may be after the expiration of the period notified in the Gazette in accordance with rules of court and not later than twelve months from the day on which probate or letters of administration are issued to him, unless upon application to the Registrar on sufficient cause shown to his satisfaction further time is granted by the Registrar for that purpose, file in the Registry a full and true account, verified by affidavit and supported by vouchers, of the administration and distribution of the estate. (2) If the account is not the final account it shall set forth all debts due to the estate still outstanding and all property, goods and effects, still unsold and unrealised, and the reason why they have not been collected, sold or realised, as the case may be. 44 Administration of Estates Act (3) The executor or administrator shall, every twelve months after the filing of the first account, render further accounts of his administration and distribution until the estate is fully administered, and if he fails to do so, shall be liable to be dealt with in accordance with section 50. (4) The account shall be open at the Registry for inspection, during office hours for not less than twenty-one days after it is filed, by any person interested in the estate. (5) The Registrar shall, immediately after the account is filed, give notice on two successive Saturdays that it is so open to inspection, by publication in the Gazette and in some newspaper circulating in the town or district in which the deceased ordinarily resided, and shall state in the notice the period and place during and at which the account will be open for inspection. (6) Anyone interested in the estate may, at any time before the expiration of the period allowed for inspection, file with the Registrar objection in writing to the account with the reasons therefore. (7) If the Registrar is of opinion that an objection ought to be sustained, he shall direct the executor or administrator to amend the account or shall give any other directions he thinks fit, provided that– (a) the executor or administrator or any other person aggrieved by the direction of the Registrar may, within twenty-one days after the date of that direction and after giving notice to all other interested parties, apply to the court for an order to set it aside, and the court may make any order it thinks just; and Administration of Estates Act 45 (b) when the direction affects the interests of a person who has not lodged an objection, the account so amended shall be again open for inspection in the manner and with the notices aforesaid, unless the person so affected consents in writing to the account being acted upon. (8) The executor or administrator shall, forthwith after filing with the Registrar any account, forward through the post to every creditor, beneficiary and other person interested in the estate a notice stating that he has filed his account and shall, in the affidavit verifying the account, set forth the names and postal addresses of the persons to whom he intends to forward that (9) The executor or administrator shall, as against the estate, be entitled to the costs and expenses of and attendant on the rendering and filing of an account and the forwarding of notices, if the account is filed within the time prescribed, but not otherwise.