The administration of deceased persons’ estates in Guyana: wills, intestacy, probate and letters of administration

The statutory framework

The administration of a deceased person’s estate in Guyana is governed principally by three statutes. The Wills Act (Cap. 12:02, Act 12 of 1906) sets out the formalities for a will made in Guyana. The Civil Law of Guyana Act (Cap. 6:01, Act 15 of 1916) contains, in section 5, the rules of succession on intestacy. The Deceased Persons Estates’ Administration Act (Cap. 12:01, Act 10 of 1917, in force from 1 January 1920) provides for grants of probate and of letters of administration, for the duties of executors and administrators, and for the recognition of certain grants made outside Guyana. Grants are made by the Registrar of the Supreme Court upon an order of the High Court. Those chapters have been affected by later Acts that should be read with them, including the Status of Children Act (Cap. 46:05, Act No. 19 of 2009), the Civil Law of Guyana (Amendment) Act 2021 (Act No. 12 of 2021), the Deceased Persons Estates’ Administration (Amendment) Acts 2021 and 2024 (Acts Nos. 3 of 2021 and 17 of 2024), and the Wills (Amendment) Act 2024 (Act No. 21 of 2024). The Public Trustee Act (Cap. 13:01) and, for registered land, the Land Registry Act (Cap. 5:02) are also relevant. This note is a factual outline of those provisions as they stand at November 2026. It is not a substitute for the statutes, or for advice on a particular estate.

Making a valid will

By section 4 of the Wills Act, no will made in Guyana is valid unless it is in writing and executed in the manner there set out. It must be signed at the foot or end by the testator, or by some other person in the testator’s presence and by the testator’s direction, and that signature must be made or acknowledged by the testator in the presence of two or more witnesses present at the same time. Those witnesses must attest and subscribe the will in the presence of the testator. No particular form of attestation is necessary. Section 5 elaborates when a signature is taken to be at the foot or end, and provides that a signature does not give effect to any disposition underneath it, following it, or inserted after the signature is made. A person above the age of fourteen who is competent to give evidence in a Guyanese court is competent to attest (section 6). A beneficial gift to a witness, or to the witness’s husband or wife, other than a charge or direction for the payment of a debt, is void so far as concerns the witness, the spouse and anyone claiming under them, but the execution of the will is not affected (section 7). An appointment of a witness, or of the witness’s husband or wife, as executor, administrator or guardian is likewise void (section 8). A person who is to take a gift under a will, or to act as executor, should not therefore be a witness, and neither should that person’s spouse. Notarial wills may no longer be made in Guyana, saving a notarial will duly made before the commencement of the Act and not subsequently revoked (section 3).

The Wills (Amendment) Act 2024, passed on 18 December 2024 and published in the Official Gazette (Legal Supplement A) of 27 December 2024, inserted a new section 6A. One of the attesting witnesses may swear an affidavit of due execution immediately after the will is executed, or as soon as practicable afterwards. The affidavit may be stated at the bottom of the will, on a separate page annexed to it, or in a separate document. Notwithstanding any other law or practice, an affidavit from one attesting witness is sufficient evidence of due execution unless the Court orders otherwise. The same Act inserted a new section 14, under which the Minister may make regulations, including for offences, with penalties not exceeding a fine of one million dollars and imprisonment for five years, subject to negative resolution. As at the date of this note, this review has not identified regulations made under that section.

The Wills Act itself does not set out a test of testamentary capacity, nor the ways in which a will may be revoked. By section 6 of the Civil Law of Guyana Act, where the Wills Act and any other Act dealing with wills is silent, the Wills Act 1837 of the United Kingdom, except section 7 thereof so far as it relates to personal property, is part of the law of Guyana and applies to both movable and immovable property; and in the absence of any provision by Act the English common law applies. The 1837 Act, as so incorporated, contains provisions on revocation, including revocation by marriage, by a later will or codicil, by a writing declaring an intention to revoke and executed in the same manner as a will, and by destruction of the will by the testator, or by another person in the testator’s presence and by the testator’s direction, with the intention of revoking it. Those provisions should be taken from the 1837 Act as it is part of the law of Guyana. A testator has a wide freedom of disposition: section 9 of the Wills Act abolishes any deduction by an heir under the Falcidian and Trebellianic laws, and section 6 of the Civil Law of Guyana Act provides that no descendant or ascendant may claim a legitimate portion, though effect is to be given to a testamentary direction that bequeaths such a portion. A will may be lodged with the Registrar of the Supreme Court for safe custody (section 5 of the Deceased Persons Estates’ Administration Act). A person who has in his or her possession a document purporting to be the last will of another must, within fourteen days of the death, deposit it in the registry, or deliver it to the executor and notify the Registrar, or lodge it with the Registrar for safe custody (section 6 of that Act).

Intestate succession

Section 5 of the Civil Law of Guyana Act provides a single law of succession for every person dying intestate, after debts, funeral expenses and just expenses have first been allowed and deducted. The same rules apply to immovable and movable property (section 5(2)), and whether the intestate is a husband or a wife (section 5(1)(f)). If there are descendants, one-third of the surplus is allotted to the widow or widower and the residue is divided equally among the children, the descendants of a deceased child taking per stirpes (section 5(1)(a)). A child who has received an advancement in the intestate’s lifetime, or an estate by a settlement of the intestate, must bring it into hotchpot so far as is necessary to equalise the children’s shares. If there is no widow or widower, the whole estate is divided equally among the children, the grandchildren of a deceased child taking per stirpes (section 5(1)(c)).

Where there are no descendants, the rule is now that in section 5(1)(b) as substituted by the Civil Law of Guyana (Amendment) Act 2021, passed on 9 August 2021 and published in the Official Gazette (Legal Supplement A) of 11 August 2021: “if there are no descendants, the widow or widower shall take the whole estate.” The former rule, under which the surviving spouse took one-half and the residue passed to the next of kin, is no longer the law. If there is no widow or widower and no descendant, the whole estate is distributed among the next of kin who are in equal degree, their descendants taking per stirpes (section 5(1)(d)). The father and mother rank equally (section 5(1)(e)). In any matter not provided for by section 5, the common law of England applies (section 5(4)). In the absence of all blood relations and of a surviving wife or husband, the residuary estate belongs to the State as bona vacantia (section 5(6)). Section 5(1)(g) still provides that if the estate does not exceed 480 dollars the surviving spouse takes the whole, and that if it exceeds that sum the spouse is entitled to 480 dollars as a just charge, without prejudice to or diminution of his or her share. This review has not identified a later amendment of that figure.

Children born out of wedlock take on the same footing as children born in wedlock. The Children Born Out of Wedlock (Removal of Discrimination) Act 1983 first so provided for deaths on or after 21 May 1983. That Act was repealed and re-enacted by the Status of Children Act, which commenced on 31 May 2010. Section 4 of the 2009 Act provides that the status, rights, privileges and obligations of a child born out of wedlock are identical in all respects to those of a child born in wedlock. Section 9, which applies to the intestacy of persons dying on or after 21 May 1983, entitles such a child (or the child’s issue, if the child is dead) to take, on the intestacy of a relative including a parent, any interest the child or issue would have taken if the child’s parents had been married to each other when the child was born; and, conversely, entitles a relative including a parent to take, on the intestacy of such a child, any interest the relative would have taken if the parents had been married.

A surviving spouse, for these purposes, includes a person who qualifies under the Civil Law (Rights of Persons in Common Law Union) Act 2012 (Act No. 10 of 2012). Official accounts of that Act’s passage describe a qualifying union as a single man and a single woman who have lived together in a common-law union for at least five years, and treat such a person as entitled to the same rights on intestacy as a widow or widower. The official gazetted text of Act No. 10 of 2012 has not been inspected for this note. The statutory definition, the period of cohabitation, and any condition that only one such union is recognised, should be confirmed from the Act itself.

Probate, letters of administration and small estates

By section 24 of the Deceased Persons Estates’ Administration Act, the estates of all persons dying testate or intestate vest in the personal representative of the deceased and are administered and distributed according to law under a grant of probate or of letters of administration, issued by the Registrar upon an order of the Court. An inventory of the property which the deceased possessed at death must be attached to the grant, and no one may distribute or transfer property of the deceased that is not contained in that inventory (section 24A). Where a person dies leaving property in Guyana, or leaving a will, a notice of death is to be given within thirty days (section 3). An inventory of property liable to the process fee described below must be delivered to the proper officer within two months after a death in Guyana, or within six months after a death out of Guyana, and verified by a declaration (section 13). The High Court may extend that period. The proper officer issues a certificate that the inventory and declaration have been delivered and that any process fee payable has been paid; no will is to be received for deposit or recording unless that certificate accompanies it (section 15D).

Where the deceased has appointed an executor, the Registrar, on the executor’s written application and on an order of the Court, is to grant probate once the will has been deposited in the registry (section 26). Probate is not to be granted where a caveat has been entered, until the caveat is cleared off. Probate is not to be granted to an executor who, at the time of the application, is or resides beyond the limits of Guyana, or whom the Registrar has reason to believe will not remain in Guyana until the estate has been fully administered, unless the executor finds security to the Registrar’s satisfaction and appoints an attorney within Guyana. The Court may appoint an administrator where the person dies intestate, dies leaving a will but appoints no executor, or the executor is insolvent, has died, is absent and unrepresented, or renounces or is unwilling to act, and in the other cases in section 16. The administrator has the same powers as if appointed executor and, where there is a will, must administer in accordance with it, subject to the terms of the appointment (section 18). The Court may require an administrator, before letters of administration issue, to give security for due administration and accounting, in the amount and with the sureties the Court deems reasonable; and, on the application of an interested person, may require the same of an executor to whom probate has already been granted (section 30).

The Deceased Persons Estates’ Administration (Amendment) Act 2021, passed on 11 February 2021 and published in the Official Gazette (Legal Supplement A) of 16 February 2021, raised several thresholds from one thousand dollars to 750,000 dollars and provided that a grant of letters of administration or probate is not required in the cases listed in section 25(1). Those cases include administration undertaken by the Public Trustee under section 6 of the Public Trustee Act of an estate which in the Public Trustee’s opinion does not exceed 750,000 dollars, and a new paragraph (e): a grant is not required where the total value of the net estate does not exceed 750,000 dollars. In the Public Trustee cases the estate vests in the Public Trustee, who is deemed to be the personal representative. Under section 6 of the Public Trustee Act, a person who, in the Public Trustee’s opinion, would be entitled to apply to the Court for the appointment of an administrator may apply to the Public Trustee to administer the estate; the Public Trustee is to administer it unless he sees good reason to refuse, and, on depositing a written undertaking in the Deeds Registry, has the same power as if appointed executor by will. Until some other person is appointed Public Trustee, the Official Receiver is the Public Trustee (section 4 of that Act). Section 19, as amended in 2021, also allows the Registrar, where the assets do not exceed 750,000 dollars, to appoint the Public Trustee or any other person summarily.

Section 20, as substituted by the 2024 Amendment Act (passed on 25 November 2024 and published in the Official Gazette (Legal Supplement A) of 9 December 2024), permits a limited payment without a grant. A “person” may pay to a claimant a sum not exceeding 750,000 dollars from monies to which the deceased is entitled, or from monies held by that person for the deceased, in the absence of a grant, and upon a written application by the surviving spouse or an heir on intestacy stating that the deceased died intestate or, where the deceased died testate, by the executor. The payer may call for proof of identity or other verification. A receipt from the claimant is a legal, valid and effectual discharge. The payment does not affect any claim against the estate, and the payer is not liable in respect of any claim in connection with the payment. For this section, “person” includes a body of persons corporate or unincorporate, a financial institution (as defined in the Financial Institutions Act), a national insurance body, and the State. The facility is a payment of a limited sum; it is not a substitute for a grant where a grant is otherwise required in order to administer the estate or to deal with land or other property.

The duties of executors and administrators

As soon as probate or administration has been granted, every executor and administrator must make an inventory in the manner prescribed by section 13, showing the value of all property belonging to the estate, unless the Registrar considers that a sufficient inventory has already been furnished, and must file further inventories as other property comes to light (section 33). Within fourteen days after the grant, a notice must be published in the Gazette and in a newspaper circulating in the district or county in which the deceased ordinarily resided, calling on creditors to lodge their claims within three months from the first publication. The notice is to be published at least twice, with an interval of a week between each publication (section 36). On the expiry of that period the representative is to rank the claims according to their legal order of preference and to pay them in that order as soon as the necessary funds have been realised (section 38). Section 39 sets out a statutory order of preference after the fees and expenses of complying with the Act, beginning with funeral expenses so far as suitable to the condition of the deceased in life, then medical attendance and medicine for the four months preceding death, sums due to the State, local rates and taxes, certain wages, arrears of rent for six months before the grant, and tacit and conventional mortgages according to their nature and priority. A creditor who does not lodge a claim within the notified period, or before distribution is completed, has, in the circumstances set out in section 38(2), no claim against a duly appointed representative in respect of a distribution made after that period expired and before the claim was known.

If the will does not provide otherwise, and if the terms of an administrator’s appointment are not opposed, every executor and administrator has full power to sell the property of the deceased and to transport immovable property for the purpose of realisation and distribution (section 42). The sale is to be by public auction unless the Registrar, at the request of an interested party and after due inquiry, authorises a sale out of hand. The representative must administer and distribute the estate according to law and any valid will, and must, as soon as may be after the expiry of the Gazette period for claims and not later than twelve months from the day on which the grant is issued (unless the Registrar allows further time), file with the Registrar a full and true account, verified by affidavit and supported by vouchers (section 46). If the account is not final, further accounts are to be filed every twelve months until the estate is fully administered. The account is open for inspection at the registry for not less than three weeks, and the Registrar is to give notice of that inspection, on two successive Saturdays, in the Gazette and in a newspaper.

Land, foreign grants, and Guyana assets of a deceased person

Land in Guyana is held under the dual title system described in the firm’s [note on real estate and land title](/insights/real-estate-and-land-title-in-guyana): transports and leases at the Deeds Registry, and certificates of title at the Land Registry. For registered land, section 97 of the Land Registry Act provides that the executor or administrator of a deceased proprietor may apply to be registered as proprietor by transmission, and that the Registrar, upon proof of the transmission, is to register the applicant. A person claiming under the will or intestacy may, if the representative has not been registered, apply to be registered by transmission, but only with the representative’s written consent or on satisfying the Registrar that a transfer by the representative cannot be obtained. Upon production of a grant of probate or letters of administration, the Registrar may, without first registering the representative, register a transfer by the executor or administrator in pursuance of the will or by way of distribution on intestacy, and certain other dealings (section 98). On registration of a transmission, the title of the person registered relates back to the event on which the transmission took place (section 105). The Land Registry’s published service for a transfer by vesting requires, among the documents listed, a transfer, an affidavit of vesting title, certified letters of administration or probate, and the original certificate of title. For transported land, section 42 of the Deceased Persons Estates’ Administration Act confers on the personal representative the power to transport immovable property for realisation and distribution. Although section 25, as amended, provides that a grant is not required in certain small estates, the Land Registry provisions are framed in terms of an executor or administrator and of the production of a grant. The path for a particular parcel should be confirmed before any dealing is attempted.

A grant of probate or letters of administration made by a court of probate in any part of the Commonwealth, or by a Commonwealth court in a foreign country, may be sealed by the High Court of Guyana under section 32 of the Deceased Persons Estates’ Administration Act. On being produced to the Court, and a copy deposited with it, and on being sealed, the grant has the like force and effect, and the same operation in Guyana, as if it had been granted by that Court. Before sealing, the Court must be satisfied that probate duty has been paid in respect of so much of the estate, if any, as is liable to probate duty in Guyana (in practice, the process fee described below), and, in the case of letters of administration, that security has been given in a sum sufficient to cover the property in Guyana. It may require evidence of the deceased’s domicile, and, on a creditor’s application, adequate security for debts due to creditors residing in Guyana. The Deceased Persons Estates’ Administration Rules, made under section 32, provide for the application to be made by the executor, administrator or a lawfully authorised attorney, for notice of the application to have been advertised in the Gazette, and, on an application to record letters of administration, for a bond covering the estate of the deceased within Guyana. The prescribed form of advertisement states that application will be made after the expiration of fourteen days from publication. If the application is made more than three years after the death, the reason for the delay is to be certified to the Registrar. Section 32 is confined to Commonwealth grants. This review has not identified a corresponding statutory facility for sealing a grant made by a court that is not a Commonwealth court of probate. In that case a local grant would be required in order to administer assets in Guyana.

Shares in a Guyana company, and balances in Guyana bank accounts and with other institutions, form part of the estate. A company or institution will ordinarily require production of a Guyana grant, or of a Commonwealth grant sealed under section 32, before it will register a transmission of shares or release a balance, subject only to the limited statutory payment of a sum not exceeding 750,000 dollars under section 20, described above. If the deceased was, at death, domiciled in Guyana, “property” for the purposes of the Deceased Persons Estates’ Administration Act includes movable property and effects wherever situate (section 2). A foreign executor who resides outside Guyana must, as already noted, find security and appoint an attorney within Guyana before probate will be granted (section 26). Estate duty is no longer charged. The Estate Duty Act was repealed by Act No. 6 of 1991 (the Taxation Laws (Relief) Act), which also amended the Deceased Persons Estates’ Administration Act. In its place a process fee is charged on the property of persons who died after that enactment. Sections 13 to 15K of the Deceased Persons Estates’ Administration Act, as inserted or amended in 1991, provide for the inventory and declaration, for assessment and payment of the fee, and for the certificate of the proper officer, who is an officer of what is now the Guyana Revenue Authority. The Authority’s published guidance states that the process fee is nil where the gross value of the property does not exceed 100,000 dollars, and that where the gross value exceeds 100,000 dollars the fee is one-half of one per cent of the gross value. The official text of Act No. 6 of 1991, and of the provision that prescribes the rate, should be confirmed, together with the Authority’s current guidance, by a person preparing an inventory. Wilfully making a false inventory is a summary offence (section 34).