Great care must be taken when drafting a will to cover the situation where you have assets in different countries.
Generally speaking, if you make a will in Australia (or in any other country) it will deal with all of your estate wherever situated including land held in any country (such as, for example, in the UK or India). This would require, upon your death, for a grant of probate to be obtained in Australia to deal with the Australian assets and then for that grant to be ‘resealed’ in the other country to deal with the assets in that country. This is a straight forward process in countries that are "One of Her Majesty's Dominions"
but may be more difficult in other countries that have different systems of law.
There may be situations where it is preferable to have two wills, one for each country where the assets are held. For example, it may be appropriate to appoint an Australian executor to deal with the assets in Australia and a will appointing a UK executor to deal with the assets in the United Kingdom.
Particular care should be taken when preparing such wills. We would recommend that only an experienced solicitor be engaged (in each country) and the solicitor preparing the second will should be given a copy of the will made in the other country.
An example of what can go wrong can be seen in Sangha v Estate of Diljit Kaur Sangha 2022 EWHC 2157 Ch. There, the deceased had assets (about £35m worth) in both the UK and India and made a will in India in 2016 that had a (standard) revocation clause (to the effect “I hereby revoke all prior wills”). The question arose was did this revoke an earlier will made in the UK in 2007 that left all of the Deceased’s UK property to his second wife.
In the event it was held (on appeal) that the Indian will made in 2016 did not revoke the earlier 2007 UK will. Such a situation could have been avoided altogether if the Indian will had expressly stated “I revoke all my previous wills including any will made by me dealing with my estate located outside of India” or (if that was not the intention) “I revoke all my previous wills except any will dealing solely with my estate in the United Kingdom’.
If you need help preparing a will, please contact us on 08 9398 5533.
Lvl 3, Suite 6/9 Bowman St,
South Perth WA 6151
13 W, 817 Beeliar Dr,
Cockburn Central WA 6164
13 Page Rd Kelmscott
(Located in the Offices of Creagh Barker Accountants)
Lvl 3, Suite 6/9 Bowman St,
South Perth WA 6151