Hong Kong Regulations

NON-CONTENTIOUS PROBATE RULES - RULE 21

Order of priority for grant in case of intestacy

(1) Where a person dies wholly intestate, the persons having a beneficial
interest in the estate shall be entitled to a grant to administration in the
following order of priority, namely-

        (i)    the surviving spouse or the surviving partner or partners to a
               union of concubinage entered into before 7 October 1971;

        (ii)   the children of the deceased including any children born of a
               union of concubinage entered into before 7 October 1971, or the
               issue of any such child who has died during the lifetime of the
               deceased;

        (iii)  the father or mother of the deceased;

        (iv)   brothers and sisters of the deceased or the issue of any
               deceased brother or sister of the deceased who has died during
               the lifetime of the deceased.

(2) If no person in any of the classes mentioned in sub- paragraphs

        (ii)   and (iii) of the last foregoing paragraph has survived the
               deceased, then, the following persons hereinafter described
               shall, if they have a beneficial interest in the estate, be
               entitled to a grant in the following order of priority, namely-

        (i)    grandparents;

        (ii)   uncles and aunts of the deceased, or the issue of any deceased
               uncle or aunt of the deceased who has died during the lifetime
               of the deceased. All of the persons referred to in classes (i)
               and (ii) of this paragraph shall be entitled to a grant
               notwithstanding that the relationship referred to shall have
               been established by or resulted from a union of  concubinage.

(3) In default of any person having a beneficial interest in the estate, the
Official Administrator.

(4) If all persons entitled to a grant under the foregoing provisions of this
rule have been cleared off, a grant may be made to a creditor of the deceased
or to any person who, notwithstanding that he has no immediate beneficial
interest in the estate, may have a beneficial interest in the event of an
accretion thereto, or is, by virtue of section  3 of the Inheritance
(Provision for Family and Dependants) Ordinance ( Cap  481), entitled to apply
to the court for an order under section 4 of that Ordinance. (58 of 1995 s.
32)

(5) Subject to rule 25(3), the personal representative of a person in any of
the classes mentioned in paragraphs (1) and (2) of this rule or the personal
representative of a creditor shall have the same right to a grant as the
person whom he represents: Provided that the persons mentioned in paragraph
(1) and in paragraph (2) of this rule shall be preferred to the personal
representative of a spouse who had died without taking a beneficial interest
in the whole estate of the deceased as ascertained at the time of the
application for the grant.

(6) The provisions of the Adoption Ordinance ( Cap 290) shall apply in
determining the entitlement to a grant as they apply to the devolution of
property on intestacy.