Property disposable in a will

A person can use their will to give away all of their real and personal property, including things they own at the time of their death and things they may acquire later. This includes things like property that someone else may have an interest in, future interests in property that haven't yet been realized, and certain rights to enter the property.

Gifts to persons predeceasing testator

If a person named in a will dies before the person making the will, their share of the inheritance doesn't disappear if they have a living spouse or children.

• This applies if the person who died was a child, sibling, or other relatives of the person making the will, and they were supposed to inherit property that wouldn't end at their death. Instead, the inheritance goes to the deceased person's living spouse or children, as if the inheritance had been left directly to them in the will.

Appointment by general gift

Unless the will states otherwise, a general gift of real property or personal property in the will includes any property that the testator has the power to appoint in any way they want.

Subsequent conveyances

Any actions taken by the testator (the person who made the will) after creating the will, such as selling or mortgaging property, do not change the distribution of the estate as stated in the will, as long as the testator had the power to dispose of that property in the will.

if the testator has devised (given) real property to someone in the will, and later sells the property or grants someone the option to buy it, the beneficiary named in the will still gets the testator's interest in that property, unless the will states otherwise.

Void devices

if someone writes a will and leaves a piece of property to someone, but that person dies before the person who wrote the will, or if the gift is not allowed by law, then the property will go to whoever is named in the "residuary devise" (which is part of the will that deals with everything else that wasn't specifically mentioned). This is true unless the will says something different.

Mortgaged devises

If the person did not indicate otherwise in their will or any other legal document, their property will be used to pay off the mortgage debt before it is distributed to any heirs or beneficiaries.

• Each person who has a claim to the property will share in the responsibility of paying off the mortgage debt based on the value of their share of the property.

  • This rule applies to all types of mortgages, including those that are not traditional mortgages, such as liens for the unpaid purchase money.

• The holder of the mortgage still has the right to seek payment from the deceased person's other assets if necessary.

Executor as trustee of residue

If the person had appointed an executor (someone to carry out their wishes as stated in the will), the executor is responsible for managing and distributing any remaining property or assets to the person who would have inherited it if the person had died without a will (intestate).

• If the will indicates that the executor is supposed to receive the remaining property or assets, then they are entitled to keep it.

SK WA s.21, 22, 25, 26, 27, 35