Online Reporter
Miriam Tose Majome
Herald Correspondent
IN Zimbabwe, countless families live on land, houses, and run businesses that —on paper — still belong to long-deceased relatives, parents, grandparents and even great grandparents.
This is not just bureaucratic neglect. It is a ticking time bomb of poverty, family strife and squandered opportunities.
When I mention these issues at estate administration and inheritance law talks, the usual response is dismissive shrugging.
“Why fix what isn’t broken?” people respond or think silently, oblivious to how seriously broken it is, and how much it is worsening with each new generation born into the unresolved estate.
Yet still, they have got so comfortable and at ease with the status quo of virtual illegal occupation and possession, because they rationalised themselves out of the responsibility and legal requirement of resolving unfinished estates.
Deconstructing the myth of ‘free’ inheritance
One of the biggest myths ever sold is that children are entitled to their parents and other family assets when parents and relatives die.
It is commonly believed that inheriting assets from parents is a right. Beneficiaries baulk at the Master of the High Court’s fee, which is four percent of an estate’s gross value, viewed as a predatory and punitive charge.
There are also conveyancing fees, lawyers and executors’ fees. And, so many people just elect to let things slide. However, consider this: for a standard urban property worth US$50 000, the four percent fee is US$2 000.
The US$2 000 will provide security and certainty of legal ownership. Then, compare that US$2 000 with the real costs of doing nothing.
While there are legitimate costs involved, a closer look reveals that these are often exaggerated or, more accurately, disproportionate to the immense value derived. Doing nothing begets family wars, frozen assets, or ultimate loss of the property altogether, to opportunistic relatives or municipal auctions over unpaid rates arrears in the long run.
No one is going to pay rates and other asset maintenance costs indefinitely when they do not own the property. It is usually left to one family member to foot bills, while other members benefit from free occupation and rentals. Before too long, the cracks appear when the paying family members pull the plug from the free loaders.
The irony of the resistance can be baffling. People will easily spend more than the US$2 000 on lavish funeral feasts, memorials and tombstone unveilings, but begrudge the same amount, or even less to wind up estates, which will ensure they actually own the property they are living in or using.
Inheritance is not a gift until it is legally transferred.
When an asset, like a house, is simply “left” to you without apparent effort on your part, the associated administrative costs feel like an unnecessary imposition. Yet, this “free” inheritance only becomes truly yours, secure and leverageable, after proper administration.
It is the least a beneficiary can do to honour the legacy of the deceased and secure their own future — to pay the administration fees.
You cannot simply inherit a house and property for free and expect to enjoy the full benefits of ownership merely for being a child of the deceased.
The effect of neglect
Unadministered estates are like any unclaimed unsecured property. They are vulnerable to scavengers. It leads to many undesirable situations which are not unfamiliar. The chief of which are family feuds.
Without letters of administration, siblings, who once lovingly shared everything, turn against each other, sister against sister, brother against brother, sister against brother, parent against child.
In my long years as a lawyer and estate administrator, I have seen widows evicted from houses with title deeds by in-laws wielding customary law like a weapon. Hitherto unknown uncles and nephews suddenly materialise to claim a late uncle’s farm, all because there was never any certainty over the administration of the estate and legal distribution of the deceased’s assets.
Another serious silent but insidious problem is the issue of dead capital. That house bought by long-gone Sekuru in Dzivarasekwa, where just about everyone and cats live, cannot be sold or used as collateral because nobody living has the legal right to.
It cannot even be renovated legally to increase its value. It is not an asset. It is a family relic, and there are so many of them, just decaying and going to total waste.
Yet, if the administration had been done, the house would have title deeds, and could be sold or pledged as security for business start-ups, which could generate real value for the families.
This is not just about legal compliance; it is about breaking the cycle of poverty in families, and stimulating the economy in the broader sense. That house in Magwegwe could fund a child’s education or a vital life-saving surgery, if it was legally owned by beneficiaries.
The four percent Master’s fee is the cheapest insurance policy that money can buy, because it leads to the peace of mind that comes with security of title. Given the sheer numbers of dead assets the country is sitting on that are going to waste, if the values were unlocked, they would stimulate the economy in a big way.
Unpaid rates pile up quietly over many years, until councils auction the properties, and that means loss of generational wealth. The problem compounds into generations, for delay by one generation adds one more layer of complications and costs for the next generation.
People can run but their descendants cannot hide. It always catches up.
The law is not optional, even if it is ignored. The Administration of Estates Act is not a suggestion, but an obligation, particularly in the absence of a will. Reporting a death to the Master’s Office is mandatory, yet families are shocked and enraged when banks freeze the deceased’s accounts or courts bar property sales.
Appointing an executor as prescribed by the law is not a luxury, but it is the only legal way to settle debts and distribute assets in an estate.
Breaking the cycle
The Master’s Office tries to do public awareness campaigns but they are not enough. They need to do more systematic and sustained campaigns.
The office can afford to dedicate some of its revenue to ongoing mass campaigns as there is a need for massive public awareness. They need to demystify the administration and winding up processes through year-round campaigns via radio and social media platforms.
The citizens need to be educated about the advantages of registering and winding up estates as opposed to mere pronouncements about the legal obligation. If people know why they have to do something, and how it benefits them, they will comply without compulsion.
People should also adopt the culture of writing wills to minimise future family conflicts.
As a people, we need to stop the culture of investing more in expensive funerals and funeral policies than in ensuring our assets are protected and inherited properly when we are no longer there to manage our own affairs.
Miriam Tose Majome is a lawyer and a commissioner with the Zimbabwe Media Commission. She writes in her personal capacity and can be contacted on [email protected]
