PROPERTY & YOU – BY PAUL MCKENZIE, ABS CONVEYANCING
After you bought and settled on a property in New South Wales, or any other Australian state or territory, very important Property Buying you have an updated will in place.
Regardless of the misinformation, a will should be properly prepared by your lawyer/solicitor, signed by you, your lawyer/ solicitor and witnessed by two other people. Any do it yourself will kit, is not an acceptable will, after death, in the Supreme Court, with Wills Probate administration. Recent Australian states supreme courts, when wills are challenged, have seen do it yourself wills become null and voided, as they were not prepared and counter-signed by the deceased’s lawyer/solicitor.
The updated will should include details of your property/ies, any mortgages to paid off/discharge and the beneficiaries. If there is a mortgage on the property, then regular payments must continue, after the deceased has died, to avoid any bank/lender exercising powers of mortgagee-inpossession and sale.
A very sad case in Queensland, where by the deceased man, after a motorbike accident, was the sole owner of the family home, with a mortgage on the property, with no will in place. The poor wife, widow, with their son, was forced to move out, as the mortgage payments were not kept up to date, and no will in place.
