By Harold Ayodo
There are occasions whereby investors in real estate die without surviving relatives to inherit their property. It is even more complicated when such investors either die intestate — without leaving wills or writing wills that may be difficult to interpret.
People have moved to court claiming to be relatives of the deceased in a bid to secure legal orders to inherit their estates.
The law seeks to hand over the property of the deceased to people who are likely to use it in the best interest of the heirs and dependants of the deceased.
Ironically, some investors in real estate especially in the West, with no blood relatives either bequeath their property to charitable organisations or their pets.
The late New York hotelier and real estate billionaire Leona Helmsley left her pet dog, Trouble, property worth Sh864 million last year, shocking the world.
Helmsley left the fortune for the upkeep of the dog in the hands of her brother Alvin Rosenthal who inherited Sh720 million.
Helmsley also said in her will that Trouble be buried next to her and her late husband in their mausoleum.
The couple built a company, which managed prestigious properties in New York, including the Empire State Building and hotels across the country. Helmsley left out of her will two of her four grandchildren but allocated Sh216 million for the maintenance of the mausoleum.
The laws in Kenya, however, do not provide for pets to inherit property, no matter the attachment to their owners.
The Law of Succession Act provides that property of persons who die intestate and have no relatives devolves upon the State bona vocantia (for lack of an heir).
Order of blood relatives
The property, which has no heir, is usually liquidated and the proceeds paid to the Consolidated Fund (CF).
Revenues received for purposes of the Government is paid into the CF and only withdrawn on authorisation by the Constitution or an Act of Parliament.
The government has overriding interest over matters of access, control and management of land irrespective of the tenure held or owned.
Powers of the State over land are constitutionally referred to as either radical title or eminent domain. Most cases in courts are, however, of investors who die without surviving spouses or children but their mothers.
The mother of the late Henry Wangendo, for instance, inherited his property after he died without a wife and children.
High Court Judge Lady Justice Mary Ang’awa ruled that parents were the next of kin in inheritance of property where the deceased has no wife and children.
The Law dictates that blood relatives in the order of father, mother, brothers and sisters should inherit property of a deceased person in equal shares.
Other relatives who can inherit if the others are dead are cousins, children of cousins and other blood relatives up to the sixth degree before it devolves to the State.
The spouse and children of the deceased are, however, given the first priority of inheritance if the husband/father dies intestate.
The widow usually holds the property as a trustee for the children when they are below 18 years.
— The writer is a lawyer
