Administration of Small Estates
The Director of Home Affairs, under authority delegated by the Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs, may issue on application a confirmation notice in respect of a small estate. The confirmation notice certifies that the handling of the estate of a deceased person specified in the schedule attached to the notice will be exempted from the relevant intermeddling provisions. Section 60K of the Probate and Administration Ordinance (Cap. 10) is relevant.
The confirmation notice will enable the executor or the person entitled in priority to administer the estate to administer a small estate of a person who died on or after 11 February 2006.
- To be eligible for the issue of a confirmation notice, all the properties beneficially owned by the deceased person in Hong Kong as at the date of death should be wholly made up of money not exceeding $50,000 in aggregate. The deceased person also did not hold any property as trustee or as the manager of a Tso or Tong.
- The applicant should be either the executor of the deceased person or the one entitled in priority to administer the estate
- If at the date of death, the deceased person beneficially owned other properties in Hong Kong not being money (such as securities, business, landed property, motor vehicles, safe deposit box, jewels, Mandatory Provident Funds, insurance policy), or debts (such as tax liabilities, bank loan, overdraft, credit card debt), this confirmation notice shall not be applicable.
If the properties of the deceased person do not meet the above criteria, you may need to apply for estate administration via the Official Administrator or the Probate Registry. Please visit this website for more information.
If the deceased person rented a safe deposit box, you would need to apply for a “Certificate for Necessity of Inspection of Bank Deposit Box”, and inspect the box in the presence of the Home Affairs Department’s officers. Please visit this website for more details on the application procedure.
If the applicant subsequently finds out that the information provided in the affidavit and/or the schedule is inaccurate (e.g. some properties have been left out from the schedule, the amount of cash declared was incorrect, the deceased person held property as trustee or as the manager of a Tso or Tong), the applicant should notify the Director of Home Affairs and, if a confirmation notice has been issued, return it for cancellation.
The Director of Home Affairs may also notify the applicant of the cancellation of the confirmation notice if any inaccuracy in the application papers has been detected. The applicant should return the confirmation notice as soon as possible; otherwise he/she commits an offence, and is liable on conviction to a fine at level 1.
The applicant may apply for a new confirmation notice if all the properties beneficially owned by the deceased person in Hong Kong as at date of death are indeed wholly made up of money not exceeding $50,000 in aggregate and the deceased person did not hold any property as trustee or as the manager of a Tso or Tong.
The confirmation notice is not a replacement for grant of representation. The bank may exercise its discretion in deciding whether to release the money in the bank account(s) stated in the schedule annexed to the confirmation notice to the executor or the person entitled in priority to administer the estate without a grant from the court.
The executor or the person entitled in priority to administer the estate, to whom money is paid, is legally obliged to administer the money properly.
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