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Family Provision Act 1970
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NORTHERN TERRITORY OF AUSTRALIA
FAMILY PROVISION ACT 1970
As in force at 17 March 2004
Table of provisions
1 Short title ......................................................................................... 1
2 Commencement .............................................................................. 1
3 Repeal ............................................................................................. 1
4 Definitions ........................................................................................ 1
5 Application of Act ............................................................................. 2
6 Transitional provisions ..................................................................... 2
7 Persons entitled to apply, &c. .......................................................... 3
8 Persons entitled may obtain order for proper maintenance,
&c., out of the estate of the deceased person ................................. 4
9 Time within which application is to be made .................................... 5
10 Service of application ...................................................................... 5
11 Form of order ................................................................................... 6
12 Class fund........................................................................................ 6
13 Property subject to power of appointment ....................................... 7
14 Presumption of death ...................................................................... 8
15 Exoneration of Act under this part of estate from provision ............. 9
16 Operation of order for provision out of estate of deceased
person ............................................................................................. 9
17 Discharge, variation, &c., of order ................................................... 9
18 Certified copy of order ................................................................... 10
19 Permission of Court necessary to validity of mortgage, charge
or assignment of an interest .......................................................... 10
20 Court may order provision to be made out of property
distributed ...................................................................................... 10
21 Protection of administrator ............................................................. 11
22 The Court may have regard to the testator's reasons .................... 11
ENDNOTES
NORTHERN TERRITORY OF AUSTRALIA
____________________
As in force at 17 March 2004
____________________
FAMILY PROVISION ACT 1970
An act to ensure that the family of a deceased person receives adequate
provision out of his estate
1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the Family Provision Act 1970.
2 Commencement
This Act shall come into operation on a date to be fixed by the
Administrator by notice in the Gazette.
3 Repeal
The Testator's Family Maintenance Ordinance 1929 and the
Testator's Family Maintenance Ordinance 1931 are repealed.
4 Definitions
(1) In this Act unless the contrary intention appears:
Aboriginal means a person who is a member of the aboriginal race
of Australia.
administration means probate, granted in the Territory, of the will
of a deceased person or letters of administration, granted in the
Territory, of the estate of a deceased person, whether with or
without a will annexed, and whether granted for general, special or
limited purposes and includes an order to collect and administer the
estate of a deceased person granted to the Curator of Deceased
Estates or the Public Trustee.
administrator, in relation to the estate of a deceased person,
means a person to whom administration has been granted in
respect of the deceased person.
deceased person includes a person in respect of whose estate
there has been made a grant of administration expressed to be
made on presumption of the death of the person.
Family Provision Act 1970 2
intestate has the same meaning as in section 61(1) of the
Administration and Probate Act 1969.
the Court means the Supreme Court.
will includes a codicil.
(2) Where probate of a will or letters of administration of an estate
granted outside the Territory is sealed with the seal of the Court in
pursuance of section 111 of the Administration and Probate
Act 1969, the probate as so sealed or the administration as so
sealed, as the case requires, shall be of the will, or letters of
administration of the estate granted in the Territory on the date on
which it was so sealed.
5 Application of Act
(1) Subject to this section, this Act applies in relation to the estates of
all deceased persons, including a person who dies before the
commencement of this Act.
(2) Where the whole or any part of the estate of a deceased person
has been lawfully distributed before the commencement of this Act,
a person is not entitled to make application under this Act for
provision out of that estate or the part of the estate that has been so
distributed, as the case may be, unless he would have been entitled
to make an application for provision out of the estate or that part of
the estate under the Testator's Family Maintenance
Ordinance 1929 if that Ordinance had continued in force.
6 Transitional provisions
(1) An order made by the Court under the Testator's Family
Maintenance Ordinance 1929 that was in force immediately before
the commencement of this Act continues in force and has effect as
if it were an order made under this Act.
(2) Proceedings instituted under the Testator's Family Maintenance
Ordinance 1929 that were pending immediately before the
commencement of this Act shall be deemed, on and after the date
of commencement of this Act, to have been instituted under this Act
and this Act applies to and in relation to those proceedings.
(3) Where an appeal has been or is instituted from a judgment of the
Court in proceedings instituted under the Testator's Family
Maintenance Ordinance 1929 and the appeal has not been finally
disposed of before the commencement of this Act, the Testator's
Family Maintenance Ordinance 1929 continues to apply to and in
relation to that appeal.
Family Provision Act 1970 3
7 Persons entitled to apply, &c.
(1) Subject to this section, each of the following persons is entitled to
make application to the Court for provision out of the estate of a
deceased person:
(a) a spouse or de facto partner of the deceased person;
(b) a former spouse or de facto partner of the deceased person;
(c) a child of the deceased person;
(d) a stepchild of the deceased person;
(e) a grandchild of the deceased person;
(f) a parent of the deceased person.
(2) A person, being:
(a) a former spouse or de facto partner of a deceased person; or
(b) a stepchild of a deceased person,
is not entitled to make an application to the Court for provision out
of the estate of the deceased person unless the person was
maintained by the deceased person immediately before his or her
death.
(3) A grandchild of a deceased person is not entitled to make an
application to the Court for provision out of the estate of the
deceased person unless:
(a) the parent of the grandchild who was a child of the deceased
person died before the deceased person died; or
(b) one or both of the parents of the grandchild was or were alive
at the date of the death of the deceased person and the
grandchild was not maintained by that parent or by either of
those parents immediately before the death of the deceased
person.
(4) A parent of a deceased person is not entitled to make an
application to the Court for provision out of the estate of the
deceased person unless:
(a) the parent was maintained by the deceased person
immediately before his death; or
(b) the deceased person was not survived by a spouse or
de facto partner or any of the children of the deceased person.
Family Provision Act 1970 4
(7) For the purposes of this section, a person shall not be regarded as
having been maintained by the deceased person immediately
before his death unless:
(a) there was in force at that time an order of a court requiring the
deceased person to pay maintenance to or for the benefit of
the other person;
(b) the deceased person was, at that time, whether under an
agreement in writing or otherwise, maintaining that other
person or making a contribution to the maintenance of that
other person, being a contribution that, in all of the
circumstances, can be regarded as other than a nominal
contribution; or
(c) a court would, if the deceased person were still living, have
power to make an order requiring the deceased person to pay
maintenance to or for the benefit of the other person.
(8) For the purposes of this section, a child of the deceased person
born alive after the death of that person shall be regarded as having
been born before the death of the deceased person.
8 Persons entitled may obtain order for proper maintenance, &c.,
out of the estate of the deceased person
(1) Subject to this Act, upon application made by or on behalf of a
person entitled to apply to the Court under section 7, if the Court is
satisfied that adequate provision is not available, under the terms of
the will of a deceased person or under the law applicable on the
death of the person as an intestate or under the will and that law,
from the estate of the deceased person for the proper maintenance,
education and advancement in life of the person by whom, or on
whose behalf the application is made, the Court may, in its
discretion and having regard to all the circumstances of the case,
order that such provision as the Court thinks fit be made out of the
estate of the deceased person.
(2) In considering the adequacy of the provision available from the
estate of the deceased person for a person who has made
application for provision out of the estate of the deceased person,
the Court shall regard any benefits conferred upon that person or
another person by the exercise, whether expressly or otherwise, by
the deceased person by his will of a general or special power of
appointment as forming part of the provision available from the
estate of the deceased person for the person upon whom those
benefits are conferred.
Family Provision Act 1970 5
(3) The Court may refuse to make an order in favour of a person
whose character is such, or whose conduct is or has been such, as,
in the opinion of the Court, disentitles him to the benefit of an order.
(4) The Court may regard an application for provision out of the estate
of a deceased person by one person as an application made on
behalf of all the persons entitled to make applications for provision
out of the estate of the deceased person.
9 Time within which application is to be made
(1) Subject to subsection (2), an application for an order under
section 8 shall be made within a period of 12 months after the date
on which administration in respect of the estate of the deceased
person has been granted.
(2) The Court may, after hearing such of the persons affected as the
Court thinks necessary, extend the time within which an application
may be made under section 8.
(3) An extension of time in pursuance of this section may be granted:
(a) upon such conditions as the Court thinks fit; and
(b) whether or not the time for making an application has expired.
(4) An application for the extension, under this section, of the time
within which an application for provision out of the estate of the
deceased person may be made under section 8 may not be made
after the estate of a deceased person has been lawfully and fully
distributed.
(5) An application for provision out of the estate of a deceased person
shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed to have been
made on the day upon which the notice of motion or other
document instituting the application is filed.
10 Service of application
(1) Where an application has been made to the Court for provision out
of the estate of a deceased person, the applicant shall cause notice
of the application to be served on each person who is an
administrator of the estate of the deceased person.
(2) The Court may:
(a) of its own motion and either before or during the hearing of an
application for an order for provision out of the estate of a
deceased person; or
Family Provision Act 1970 6
(b) on an application made by the applicant for such an order or
by the administrator of the estate of the deceased person,
order that notice of the application be served on such persons as
the Court thinks fit.
11 Form of order
(1) An order under section 8 shall specify the amount and nature of the
provision to be made for the person in whose favour the order is
made and may specify such conditions, restrictions and limitations
subject to which the provision is to be made as the Court thinks fit
to impose.
(2) Unless the Court otherwise orders, the burden of the provision
ordered by the Court to be made for the benefit of a person shall,
subject to subsection (1), be borne between the persons
beneficially entitled to the estate of the deceased person (other
than the person or persons in whose favour an order or orders
under this Act is or are made), in proportion to the values of their
respective interests in the estate.
(3) Where persons are successively entitled to estates or interests in
any property that is settled by the will of the deceased person,
those estates and interests shall not, unless the Court otherwise
orders, be valued separately but the proportion of the provision
required by subsection (2) to be borne by those persons out of
those estates and interests shall be raised or charged against the
corpus of that property.
12 Class fund
(1) Without limiting the powers of the Court under this Act, the Court
may order that an amount specified in the order be set aside out of
the estate of the deceased person and held on trust as a class fund
for the benefit of 2 or more persons specified in the order in whose
favour orders for provision out of the estate of the deceased person
have been made.
(2) Where an amount is ordered to be held in trust as a class fund, the
trustee of the fund shall invest so much of the amount as he does
not apply in accordance with this subsection and may, subject to
such directions or conditions as the Court gives or imposes, but
otherwise as he thinks fit, apply the whole or any part of the income
and capital of the fund for or towards the maintenance, education or
advancement in life for the benefit of the persons for whose benefit
the class fund is held, or any one or more of them to the exclusion
of the other or others of them in such shares and in such manner as
the trustee, from time to time determines.
Family Provision Act 1970 7
(3) Where one or more of the persons for whose benefit moneys are
held in trust as a class fund dies, a reference in subsection (3) to
the persons for whose benefit moneys are held in trust as a class
fund shall, after the death of that person, be read as a reference to
the survivor or survivors of those persons.
(4) Where an amount is set aside as a class fund, the administrator of
the estate of the deceased person shall, unless the Court otherwise
orders, be the trustee of the class fund.
13 Property subject to power of appointment
(1) Where:
(a) application is made under section 8 for an order that provision
be made out of the estate of a deceased person;
(b) the deceased person has, by his will, exercised a general or a
special power of appointment in respect of property, being a
power under which the deceased person was, immediately
before his death, entitled to appoint the property to himself;
and
(c) the Court is satisfied that:
(i) adequate provision for the person who has made the
application cannot justly be made out of other property
forming part of the estate of the deceased person; or
(ii) by reason of the existence of special circumstances, an
order should be made that provision be made out of, or
charged on, the property in respect of which the
deceased person has exercised the general or special
power of appointment,
the Court may order that provision be made out of, or charged on,
the property in respect of which the deceased person has exercised
the general or special power of appointment.
(2) Where:
(a) a testator has power to appoint, by will, any real property in
such manner as he thinks fit;
(b) by his will he has made a general devise of his real property or
of his real property at a particular place, in the occupation of a
particular person or otherwise described in a general manner
without expressly exercising the power of appointment; and
Family Provision Act 1970 8
(c) by virtue of section 35 of the Wills Act 2000 that general
devise is to be construed as including the real property over
which the deceased person had that power of appointment,
the other property forming part of the estate of the deceased person
referred to in subsection (1)(c)(i) shall be deemed to include the
real property over which the deceased person had that power of
appointment.
(3) Where:
(a) a testator has power to appoint, by will, any personal property
in such manner as he thinks fit;
(b) by his will, he has made a general bequest of his personal
property or of any class of personal property described in a
general manner without expressly exercising the power of
appointment; and
(c) by virtue of section 35 of the Wills Act 2000, that general
bequest is to be construed as including the personal property
over which the deceased person had that power of
appointment,
the other property forming part of the estate of the deceased person
referred to in subsection (1)(c)(i) shall be deemed to include the
personal property over which the deceased person had that power
of appointment.
14 Presumption of death
Where the Court makes an order under section 8 for provision to be
made out of the estate of a person of which the Court has granted
administration upon being satisfied by evidence supporting the
presumption that the person may be presumed to be dead, the
Court may direct that the provision shall not be made unless the
person in whose favour the order is made gives an undertaking or
security that he will, if the grant of administration is revoked on the
ground that the person was living at the time of the grant:
(a) where he has received property other than money under the
order, restore the property or, at his option, pay an amount
equal to the value of the property at the time he received the
property to the person whose death was presumed or, if that
person has subsequently died, to the administrator of the
estate of that person; or
Family Provision Act 1970 9
(b) Where he has received money under the order, pay an
amount equal to the amount of the money received by him
under the order to the person whose death was presumed or,
if that person has subsequently died, to the administrator of
the estate of that person.
15 Exoneration of Act under this part of estate from provision
(1) The Court may, when making an order under section 8 or at any
time after having made an order under that section, order a person
who is entitled to a share in the estate of the deceased person as a
legatee, devisee or beneficiary to pay a lump sum or periodical
payments, or a lump sum and periodical payments, to represent, or
in commutation of, such proportion of the provision ordered to be
made for the person in whose favour the order is made as falls
upon the legatee, devisee or beneficiary, and may exonerate the
property or a specified part of the property to which the legatee,
devisee or beneficiary is entitled from further liability in respect of
that provision.
(2) Where the Court makes an order under subsection (1), the Court
may direct:
(a) the manner in which a lump sum or periodical payment is to
be secured;
(b) the person to whom such a lump sum or periodical payment is
to be made; and
(c) in what manner, if any, the lump sum or periodical payment is
to be invested for the benefit of the person in whose favour the
order under section 8 has been made.
16 Operation of order for provision out of estate of deceased
person
(1) Subject to subsection (2), an order under section 8 operates as if it
were a codicil to the will of the deceased person executed by the
deceased person immediately before his death.
(2) An order under section 8 in relation to property of a deceased
person who died intestate operates as a modification of the
provisions of Division 4 of Part III of the Administration and Probate
Act 1969 in their application to that property.
17 Discharge, variation, &c., of order
(1) Subject to this section, the Court may, at any time and from time to
time, upon application made by the administrator of the estate of
the deceased person, or by any person beneficially entitled to, or
Family Provision Act 1970 10
interested in, a part of the estate of the deceased person,
discharge, vary or suspend an order made by it under section 8 or
any other order made by it under this Act.
(2) Where the Court has ordered periodical payments, or has ordered
that a lump sum be invested for the benefit of a person, the Court
may, if it is satisfied, on an application made by the administrator of
the estate of the deceased person or by any person beneficially
entitled to, or interested in, a part of the estate of the deceased
person, that the person for whose benefit the order was made has
otherwise become possessed of or entitled to means for his proper
maintenance, education or advancement in life, discharge, vary or
suspend its order or make such other order as is just in the
circumstances.
(3) An order shall not be made under subsection (1) increasing a
provision made by an order under this Act.
(4) Notice of an application to the Court under this section shall be
served on each person who takes a benefit under the order sought
to be discharged, varied or suspended.
18 Certified copy of order
The Court shall, where it makes an order for provision out of the
estate of a deceased person, an order under section 15 or 17,
direct that a certified copy of the order be endorsed on, or annexed
to, the probate of the will or letters of administration with the will
annexed or letters of administration of the estate of the deceased
person, as the case may be, and, for that purpose, may require the
production of the probate or letters of administration.
19 Permission of Court necessary to validity of mortgage, charge
or assignment of an interest
A mortgage, charge or assignment of any kind whatsoever, of or
over the provision made, or to be made, by an order under this Act,
is of no force or effect unless that mortgage, charge or assignment
is made with the permission of the Court.
20 Court may order provision to be made out of property
distributed
(1) Notwithstanding any distribution of the property of the deceased
person made by the administrator of the estate of the deceased
person before the administrator had notice of an application for an
order under section 8 made within 12 months after the date on
which administration was granted, the Court may, subject to
subsection (2), order that provision be made under this Act out of
any property of the deceased person that has been so distributed.
Family Provision Act 1970 11
(2) The Court shall not make an order under subsection (1) if the
making of that order would affect or disturb a distribution that was a
proper distribution made for the purpose of providing for the
maintenance, education or advancement in life of a person who
was totally or partially dependent on the deceased person
immediately before his death.
21 Protection of administrator
An action does not lie against the administrator of the estate of a
deceased person by reason of his having distributed the whole or
any part of the estate of the deceased person if the distribution was
a distribution referred to in section 20(2) or if:
(a) the distribution was made before the administrator had notice
of an application for an order under this Act or notice of an
application to extend the time within which such an application
may be made under this Act; and
(b) before making the distribution, the administrator had given
notices in accordance with section 96 of the Administration
and Probate Act 1969 and the time specified in the notices or
in the last of the notices for sending in claims had expired.
22 The Court may have regard to the testator's reasons
(1) The Court shall, in determining an application for an order under
section 8, have regard to the testator's reasons, so far as they are
ascertainable, for making the dispositions made by his will, or for
not making provision or further provision, as the case may be, for a
person who is entitled to make an application under this Act.
(2) The Court may receive in evidence a statement signed by the
testator and purporting to bear the date on which it was signed and
to set out reasons for making or not making provision or further
provision by the will of the testator for a person as evidence of
those reasons.
(3) Where a statement of a kind referred to in subsection (2) is
received in evidence, the Court shall, in determining what weight, if
any, ought to be attached to the statement, have regard to all the
circumstances from which any inference may reasonably be drawn
concerning the accuracy of the matters referred to in the statement.
ENDNOTES
Family Provision Act 1970 12
ENDNOTES
1 KEY
Key to abbreviations
amd = amended od = order
app = appendix om = omitted
bl = by-law pt = Part
ch = Chapter r = regulation/rule
cl = clause rem = remainder
div = Division renum = renumbered
exp = expires/expired rep = repealed
f = forms s = section
Gaz = Gazette sch = Schedule
hdg = heading sdiv = Subdivision
ins = inserted SL = Subordinate Legislation
lt = long title sub = substituted
nc = not commenced
2 LIST OF LEGISLATION
Family Provision Ordinance 1970 (Act No. 10, 1970)
Assent date 8 April 1970
Commenced 17 March 1971 (Gaz No. 9, 3 March 1971, p 79)
Ordinances Revision Ordinance 1973 (Act No. 87, 1973)
Assent date 11 December 1973
Commenced 11 December 1973 (s 12(2))
Amending Legislation
Ordinances Revision Ordinance 1974 (Act No. 34, 1974)
Assent date 26 August 1974
Commenced 11 December 1973 (s 3(2))
Ordinances Revision Ordinance (No. 2) 1974 (Act No. 69, 1974)
Assent date 24 October 1974
Commenced 11 December 1973 (s 3)
Ordinances Revision Ordinance 1976 (Act No. 27, 1976)
Assent date 28 June 1976
Commenced ss 1, 2 and 6: 28 June 1976 (s 6(2));
ss 3 and 4: 11 December 1973; s 5: 24 October 1974
Status of Children Act 1978 (Act No. 16, 1979)
Assent date 26 January 1979
Commenced 21 September 1979 (Gaz G38, 21 September 1979, p 1)
ENDNOTES
Family Provision Act 1970 13
Family Provision Act 1979 (Act No. 36, 1979)
Assent date 27 April 1979
Commenced 3 December 1979 (s 2, s 2 Administration and Probate Act
1979 (Act No. 38, 1979) and Gaz S25, 28 November 1979)
Amending Legislation
Statute Law Revision Act (No. 3) 1979 (Act No. 37, 1980)
Assent date 24 April 1980
Commenced 24 April 1980
Family Provision Amendment Act 1980 (Act No. 10, 1981)
Assent date 9 January 1981
Commenced 20 February 1981 (Gaz G7, 20 February 1981, p 7)
Statute Law Revision Act (No. 2) 1981 (Act No. 63, 1981)
Assent date 20 July 1981
Commenced 20 July 1981
Statute Law Revision Act (No. 4) 1981 (Act No. 4, 1982)
Assent date 12 February 1982
Commenced 12 February 1982
De Facto Relationships (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act 1991 (Act No. 82, 1991)
Assent date 24 December 1991
Commenced 1 January 1992 (s 2)
Family Provision Amendment Act 2000 (Act No. 60, 2000)
Assent date 14 November 2000
Commenced 1 March 2001 (s 2, s 2 Wills Act 2000 (Act No. 59, 2000) and
Gaz G48, 6 December 2000, p 3)
Law Reform (Gender, Sexuality and De Facto Relationships) Act 2003 (Act No. 1, 2004)
Assent date 7 January 2004
Commenced 17 March 2004 (Gaz G11, 17 March 2004, p 8)
3 SAVINGS AND TRANSITIONAL
s 69 Law Reform (Gender, Sexuality and De Facto Relationships) Act 2003
(Act No. 1, 2004)
4 GENERAL AMENDMENTS
General amendments of a formal nature (which are not referred to in the table
of amendments to this reprint) are made by the Ordinances Revision
Ordinance 1973 (Act No. 87, 1973) (as amended) to the following provisions:
ss 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, and 22.
5 GENERAL AMENDMENTS
General amendments of a formal nature (which are not referred to in the table
of amendments to this reprint) are made by the Interpretation Legislation
Amendment Act 2018 (Act No. 22, 2018) to: ss 1, 4, 5, 6, 13, 16, and 21.
ENDNOTES
Family Provision Act 1970 14
6 LIST OF AMENDMENTS
lt amd No. 10, 1981, s 6
ss 1 – 2 amd No. 10, 1981, s 6
s 4 amd No. 36, 1979, s 3; No. 10, 1981, ss 4 and 6; No. 4, 1982, s 3; No. 82,
1991, s 11; No. 1, 2004, s 62
ss 5 – 6 amd No. 10, 1981, s 6
s 7 amd No. 16, 1979, s 19; No. 36, 1979, s 4; No. 10, 1981, ss 5 and 6; No. 1,
2004, s 62
s 8 amd No. 10, 1981, s 6
ss 11 – 12 amd No. 10, 1981, s 6
s 13 amd No. 10, 1981, s 6; No. 60, 2000, s 3
ss 16 – 17 amd No. 10, 1981, s 6
s 18 amd No. 4, 1982, s 3
s 19 amd No. 63, 1981, s 2
ss 20 – 22 amd No. 10, 1981, s 6