Commentary on Sections Schedule 14: Wills, administration of estates and family provision: Northern Ireland
691.Schedule 14 makes provision for amending the Wills and Administration Proceedings (Northern Ireland) Order 1994, Administration of Estates Act (Northern Ireland) 1955 and Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) (Northern Ireland) Order 1979 so that civil partners are given the same rights as those that exist for married people.
692.Paragraph 2 amends Article 4(1) of the Wills and Administration Proceedings (Northern Ireland) Order 1994 so that a will made by a person who is under eighteen years shall be valid if that person is or has been in a civil partnership.
693.Paragraph 3 amends Article 8(1) and (3) of the Wills and Administration Proceedings (Northern Ireland) Order 1994 so as to prevent the passing of property to a civil partner who attests to the signature of the testator except where the will would have been valid without that signature.
694.Paragraph 4 amends Article 9 of the Wills and Administration Proceedings (Northern Ireland) Order 1994 so that where the civil partner of a creditor of the testator witnesses the will, he or she may be admitted as a witness in proceedings about the will.
695.Paragraph 5 inserts new Articles 13A and 13B in the Wills and Administration Proceedings (Northern Ireland) Order 1994. The effect of these amendments is that, with the same limited exceptions as apply to marriage, a will is revoked when the testator forms a civil partnership with someone. They will also - once the civil partnership has been dissolved, annulled or made the subject of a presumption of death order - prevent former civil partners, where named as executors in the will, from becoming executors, and former civil partners named as beneficiaries in the will, from inheriting, unless the will provides otherwise.
696.Paragraph 6 amends Article 14 of the Wills and Administration Proceedings (Northern Ireland) Order 1994 to recognise a will is revocable by a marriage or formation of a civil partnership.
697.Paragraph 7 amends Article 23 of the Wills and Administration Proceedings (Northern Ireland) Order 1994 so that the deceased’s civil partner has priority over the issue of the testator should the testator bequeath the same gift separately to both of them.
698.Paragraph 8 amends Article 27(3) of the Wills and Administration Proceedings (Northern Ireland) Order 1994 so that its scope includes issue who are in civil partnerships as well as those who are married.
699.Paragraph 9 amends section 6A of the Administration of Estates Act (Northern Ireland) 1955 so that where an intestate dies leaving a civil partner and that civil partner dies within 28 days of the intestate’s death, the provisions relating to the distribution of property on intestacy shall have effect as regards the intestate as if the civil partner had not survived the intestate.
700.Paragraph 10 amends section 7 of the Administration of Estates Act (Northern Ireland) 1955 to allow surviving civil partners to inherit the estate of their deceased civil partner under the intestacy rules in the same way as surviving spouses, and so that the fact that an intestate person does not leave a surviving civil partner is taken into account in the same way as the fact that there is no surviving spouse in determining the succession to his real and personal estate.
701.Paragraph 11 amends section 8 of the Administration of Estates Act (Northern Ireland) 1955 so that the distribution of an intestate’s property to his/her issue shall be subject to the rights of a surviving civil partner.
702.Paragraph 12 amends section 9 of the Administration of Estates Act (Northern Ireland) 1955 so that the rights of an intestate’s parents to the property of an intestate who leaves no issue, shall be subject to the rights of a surviving civil partner or spouse.
703.Paragraph 13 amends section 10 of the Administration of Estates Act (Northern Ireland) 1955 so that the rights of an intestate’s siblings to the property of an intestate who leaves neither issue nor parent, shall be subject to the rights of a surviving civil partner or spouse.
704.Paragraph 14 amends section 11 of the Administration of Estates Act (Northern Ireland) 1955 so as to provide that the rights of the intestate’s next-of-kin to the intestate’s property shall be subject to the rights of a surviving civil partner in the same way as they would be subject to the rights of a surviving spouse.
705.Paragraph 15 amends section 38 of the Administration of Estates Act (Northern Ireland) 1955 so that an intestate’s residuary or whole estate may be held on trust for those of his children (or their issue if they predecease the intestate) who reach the age of 18, or marry, or form a civil partnership, under that age.
706.Paragraph 16 amends Article 2 of the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) (Northern Ireland) Order 1979, the interpretation section, to insert references to civil partners and civil partnership as appropriate.
707.Paragraph 17 amends Article 3 of the 1979 Order by adding civil partners and former civil partners to the class of persons entitled to make an application for reasonable financial provision from the estate of their deceased civil partner. Article 3 is also amended to provide that a person who lived in the same household as the deceased as if they were civil partners (for the two year period immediately preceding the date of death of the deceased) is entitled to make an application for reasonable financial provision.
708.Paragraph 18 amends Article 4 of the 1979 Order by extending the court’s powers to enable it to make orders varying any settlement made on the civil partners either during the civil partnership, or in anticipation of one being formed, including any variation in favour of any children of both the civil partners or of any person treated by the civil partners as a child of the family in relation to the civil partnership.
709.Paragraph 19 amends Article 5 of the 1979 Order by providing that the court, when considering an application for reasonable financial provision from the deceased’s estate by a civil partner or a former civil partner, shall take into account the duration of the civil partnership and what the applicant might have received had the civil partnership been ended by being dissolved instead of by death.
710.Paragraph 20 amends Article 5(2A) of the 1979 Order by providing that the court, when considering an application for reasonable financial provision from the deceased’s estate by any person who was living in the same household as the deceased as a civil partner, shall take into account the age of the applicant, the length of time during which the applicant lived as a civil partner with the deceased and the contribution made by the applicant to the welfare of the family of the deceased.
711.Paragraph 21 amends Article 8(3) and (10) of the 1979 Order by adding the formation of a subsequent civil partnership as an exception to the events that can cause an order for periodical payment to cease to have effect.
712.Paragraph 22 inserts a new Article 16A into the 1979 Order. Article 16A provides that if a civil partner dies within a year of the making of a dissolution, nullity or separation order in relation to the civil partnership, and no application for financial provision has been made or determined, the court may treat a surviving civil partner who applies for an order under the 1979 Order as if the dissolution, nullity or separation order had not been made.
713.Paragraph 23 inserts a new Article 17ZA into the 1979 Order. Article 17ZA empowers the court, when making an order to end a civil partnership either by dissolution, or by nullity, or by separation or by presumption of death, (or at any time after making such an order), to order that neither of the civil partners, on the death of the other, shall be allowed to make an application for reasonable financial provision out of the deceased partner’s estate.
714.Paragraph 24 inserts a new Article 17B into the 1979 Order. Article 17B extends the powers contained in section 17ZA to civil partnerships that were ended overseas.
715.Paragraph 25 amends Article 18(1) of the 1979 Order so that a court hearing an application for reasonable financial provision from the deceased’s estate can vary or discharge secured periodical payments orders made prior to the death of the deceased under Schedule 15 (Financial relief in the High Court or a county court: Northern Ireland) to the Act.
716.Paragraph 26 amends Article 19(4) of the 1979 Order to allow for the court hearing an application for reasonable financial provision from the deceased’s estate to vary or revoke any maintenance agreement made between civil partners prior to the death of one of them.
717.Paragraph 27 inserts a new Article 20A into the 1979 Order. Article 20A provides that where a civil partner has been ordered by the court to pay a secured periodical payment to their civil partner or has entered into a maintenance agreement with their civil partner, and then has died, the surviving civil partner’s subsequent application to have the payment order or the maintenance agreement varied or discharged, may be treated as though it was accompanied by an application by them for reasonable financial provision from the estate of the deceased civil partner. The court may then make any order that it could have made on an application under the 1979 Order.
718.Paragraph 28 amends Article 21 of the 1979 Order so that its scope covers civil partners, former civil partners and the formation of civil partnerships.