Administration of Estates Act 1925

The Administration of Estates Act 1925 (15 & 16 Geo. 5. c. 23) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that consolidated, reformed, and simplified the rules relating to the administration of estates in England and Wales.

Principal reforms

Section 2 of the act extended all authority that a personal representative had with respect to chattels real (such as fixtures) to cover any matter dealing with real estate .

Section 45 of the act abolished the following, respect to the property of any estate (excepting entailed interests):

all existing rules of descent (whether arising from the common law, custom, gavelkind, Borough English or otherwise)
tenancy by the curtesy and any other estate a husband may have where his wife dies intestate
dower, freebench and any other estate a wife may have where her husband dies intestate
escheat to the Crown, the Duchy of Lancaster, the Duchy of Cornwall, or to a mesne lord

Section 46 of the act replaced the rules governing the distribution of intestate estates with a single statutory framework.

Later significant amendments

The act has been subsequently amended in certain respects by the following:

Intestates' Estates Act 1952 (15 & 16 Geo. 6 & 1 Eliz. 2. c. 64)
Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (c. 63)
Estates of Deceased Persons (Forfeiture Rule and Law of Succession) Act 2011 (c. 7)
Inheritance and Trustees' Powers Act 2014 (c. 16)

In fiction

The act plays a major role (as the 'Property Act') in the 1927 mystery novel Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers, its commencement with respect to intestate estates providing the motive for a seemingly motiveless murder which Lord Peter Wimsey must solve.