Legal Process

BRITISH LEGAL SYSTEM

WHAT MIGHT EFFECT MY EXISTING UK WILL

A will is only valid in the country where the estate exists, therefore if you have property and or possessions in the UK they need to be protected with a UK Will, as UK Will Writers we can take instructions for your will here in Dubai and have it written and stored in the UK.

It is therefore imperative that if you own assets and property in Dubai that you have a valid Will that can be taken to the UAE courts by your heirs should you die whilst still a resident with assets in the UAE.

It should be noted that marriage nullifies all previous Wills, If you have re-married your UK will is now null and void and any UK estate will fall under the laws of Intestacy (dying without a Will).

POWER OF ATTORNEY

EPA's were replaced by Lasting Powers of Attorney on 1st October 2007.

A person can appoint someone to act as their Attorney and sign documents on their behalf - the common Power of Attorney's are: General Power of Attorney - person appointed can sign any document on the Appointor's behalf. Specific Power of Attorney - limits the person appointed to sign only in relation to the item specified, i.e. my property 25 Anywhere Street

The one thing these Powers have in common is if the person who gave them the Power becomes mentally incapable they are automatically revoked. It then means applying to the Court Of Protection to be appointed Receiver but the Court oversees everything, says where any money has to be invested, requires accounts for every penny spent (literally) being submitted yearly and on top of that charges a healthy fee (Solicitors usually become involved as well - need we say more).

The Alternative:

Power of Attorney

This Power of Attorney is different in that if the person giving the power becomes mentally incapable it is not revoked. All that is required in that case is to register it but the Attorney carries on as before without the involvement of the Court of Protection.

So our advice is anyone who has a elderly relative with assets they should get them to do a Power of Attorney (whilst they are able mentally) ~ hopefully it will never be required but believe us, if it is, you will save a lot of expense, time and hassle than having to go to the Court of Protection.

Parental Responsibility

the right to be responsible for your child
The law is changing to make it easier for unmarried fathers to get equal parental responsibility: from 1 December 2003, all you have to do is for both parents to register the birth of your baby together.
Parental responsibility for your child gives you important legal rights as well as responsibilities. Without it, you don't have any right to be involved in decisions such as where they live, their education, religion or medical treatment. With parental responsibility, you are treated in law as the child's parent, and you take equal responsibilty for bringing them up.
Unlike mothers and married fathers, if you are not married to your baby's mother you do not automatically have parental responsibilty for them.
Before this change, you could only gain parental responsibility by later marrying the child's mother, signing an official agreement with the mother or getting a court order. You can still get responsibilty in these ways - you might want to think about this if you have other children.

Guardian For Your Children

A guardian is responsible for the welfare and safe upbringing of a minor. (under 18 years of age) at the time of your death. Parents who are making Mirror Wills should name a guardian in their (both) Wills in the event that they should die together, but an appointment (or the responsibilities) of a guardian; (in most cases) will not take effect until the death of the surviving parent. Guardians must be 18 or over.

Civil Partnership

The Civil Partnership Act 2004 came into force on 5 December 2005. This enabled same-sex couples to obtain legal recognition of their relationship. Couples who form a civil partnership will have a new legal status, that of civil partner.
Civil partners will have equal treatment in a wide range of legal matters with married couples, including:
Tax, including inheritance tax
Employment Benefits
Most state and occupational pension benefits
Income related benefits, tax credits and child support
Duty to provide reasonable maintenance for your civil partners and any children of the family
Ability to apply for parental responsibility for your civil partners child
Inheritance of a tenancy agreement
Recognition under intestacy rules
Access to fatal accidents compensation
Protection from domestic violence
Recognition from immigration and nationality purposes
With the introduction of civil partnerships there has been important changes affecting same-sex couples who claim income related benefits, regardless of whether the couple decide to form a civil partnership.
In order to form a civil partnership you must first give notice. You can give notice of your intention to form a civil partnership from 5 December 2005 and the earliest a civil partnership can be formed is 21 December 2005. A civil partnership can be formed in England and Wales at a register office or an approved premise.
The General Register Office has information on the process and costs of forming a civil partnership.
The Department for Work and Pensions has published a leaflet containing information on how partnerships may affect your benefits.

TRUSTS AND HOW THEY OPERATE

Trusts are administered by between one and four trustees who are initially selected by the person creating the trust. Trustees can be other relatives, friends or professionals like a solicitor. Ideally trustees should be contemporaries of the son or daughter but finding suitable trustees is often a real difficulty. You are looking for a mix of personal interest in the welfare of your son or daughter and financial expertise. Professional trustees can be paid for their time but parents are often wary about how much these fees will deplete the trust fund. The trust can meet other trustees' expenses.

Payments are most commonly made by the trustees to provide things the state does not. It is usual for payments to be made as required and not regularly and as such are treated as capital rather than income for benefit purposes.

On the eventual death of the primary intended beneficiary of the trust any remaining assets can be distributed to other named beneficiaries or perhaps donated to a charitable organisation involved in supporting people with learning disabilities according to the terms of the will or trust deed.

WHAT IS PROBATE?

When a person dies somebody has to deal with their estate (money property and possessions left) by collecting in all the money, paying any debts and distributing what is left to those people entitled to it. Probate is the court's authority; given to a person or persons to administer a deceased person's estate and the document issued by the Probate Service is called a Grant of Representation. This document is usually required by the asset holders as proof to show the correct person or persons have the Probate Service's authority to administer a deceased person's estate.

ISLAMIC (SHARIA) LAW

The United Arab Emirates is essentially a civil law jurisdiction heavily influenced by French, Roman, Egyptian and Islamic (Sharia) law. Common law principles, such as adopting previous court judgments as legal precedents, are generally not recognized (although judgments delivered by higher courts are usually applied by lower courts).

Because of the general confusion surrounding inheritance issues for foreigners in Dubai, the courts will have the descretion as to whether the laws of the country to which the deceased belonged are adopted or if Islamic Sharia law is applied.

In either case it is absolutely essential that the a valid Will is available to the courts because should the courts decide not to use the law of the country to which the deceased belonged but instead apply UAE law then one third of the estate must be liquidated and distributed in accordance with the deceased Will. However the remaining two thirds is then distributed to the heirs as per the fixed shares prescribed by Islamic Sharia law.

The fixed shares in accordance with Sharia law are as follows.

The father's share is one sixth when the deceased leaves a son or a son's son. However, if the deceased is not survived by a son or grandson, his father will, in addition to this share (the one sixth), also gets a share of being "Asaba". (Asabaat includes relatives in whose line of relationship no female enters).
.The grandfather's share is like that of the father's share. In relation to this, according to Imam Bukhari amd Imam Muslim, the presence of the father deprives brothers of their share in the inheritance. But this is not the case for a grandfather. Abu Hanifa is also of the opinion that the presence of a grandfather deprives the brother of his share in the inheritance. Also, the grandmother of the deceased has no share in the presence of the father of the deased. However, she has a share in the presence of the grandfather.
The third set of heirs are uterine brothers and sisters. They are entitled to one-sixth if their number is one, and one-third if they are more than one
The husband's share is half the property of the deseased wife if she has no children. But if she has children, then it is one-quarter
As for the wife, if her spouse dies childless she is entitled to one-fourth. If, on the other hand, he has a child or children, her share is reduced to one-eighth.
If the deseased leaves behind a daughter, her share is half. However, if he has more than one daughter, then they are entitled to two-thirds.
If the deseased leaves behind male child(ren) as well as daughter(s), then the daughter(s) would be treated as "Asaba" and the male child(ren) would be entitled to double what the female child(ren) receives As for granddaughters, they stand on the same level as daughters. If, for instance, there is a situation where the deseased is survived by a daughter and also by one or more granddaughters, they would be entitled to a one-sith share. Moreover, if a son survives the deseased, the granddaughter is not entitled to any share. However, if he is survived by grandsons and granddaughters, they would be treated as "Asaba" and the male grandchild would be entitled to double that of the female grandchild
Furthermore, if the paternal grandmother or maternal grandmother survives the deseased, she is entitled to one-sixth. The maternal grandmother is deprived of her share if the mother of the deseased is alive, and if the father is alive, the paternal grandmother is deprived of this share.

Asaba

Asaba are relatives who only receive their shares one the heirs in the abovementioned Dhawu'l-Fara'id group have received their entitlement. Women do not enter into this calculation of the line of relationship and ther are no fixed shares in this category either, i.e. sone are the first to inherit the residue of the estate and daughters are entitled to half of the shares that are awarded to the sons

Dhaw-ul Arham

The members of this category include relatives who are related through the female heirs; they include, for example, a daughter's son or daughter, a son of the daughter of a son and maternal grandfather.