The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has warned family heads against distribution of property of the deceased without recourse to the law.
“Without the acquisition of a Letters of Administration from a competent court of jurisdiction, any attempt by family heads or siblings of the deceased to share the property amounts to an illegality,” Mr John Ato Breboh, Senior Principal Investigator, Tema Regional Office of CHRAJ, said.
Mr Breboh issued the warning at the Ghana News Agency, Tema Industrial News Hub Boardroom Dialogue platform, on the “Interstate Succession Law.”
He reminded the public that the PNDC Law 111, which is presently being reviewed, established a method to distribute the estate of the deceased.
Mr Breboh said that the law gives a larger percentage of the holdings of the deceased to the spouse and children.
He said the remaining four portions, should be shared among parents of the deceased and extended family.
Mr Breboh added that if the deceased is only survived by a spouse without children, he or she was entitled to half of the property, with the remaining half divided equally among the family and parents.
“If a person dies without children and a spouse, the parents and family will take half of his or her property; if they die without a family, spouse, parents, or children, everything goes to the state,” he explained.
Mr Breboh urged persons whose spouses died without a will, to apply for the Interstate Succession Law and seek remedy through the legal system.
He noted that though the law has been in effect since 1985, some spouses, particularly women, were being evicted from their homes by family members.
According to Mr Breboh, the taking over of properties belonging to the deceased to the detriment of a spouse and children is illegal and punishable by law. —GNA
