A personal representative is someone appointed either by a will or the court to deal with the property of a deceased individual.

When a single registered owner, or an owner holding title as a tenant in common dies, land cannot pass directly from the deceased to the beneficiaries. Instead the land must first be transmitted into the name of the personal representative. The personal representative will hold the land in trust for the purpose of administering the estate and can transfer the land to the beneficiaries.

See sections 35, 152, and 153 of The Land Titles Act, 2000.
See section 71 of The Land Titles Regulations, 2001.

What Do You Need to Include in the Packet?

An application to transmit land to a personal representative must include evidence to prove:

1. the registered owner has died;
2. the applicant is the personal representative of the registered owner; and
3. the personal representative has obtained either a Local Registrar’s Certificate, an Official Guardian’s Certificate or Certificate of the Public Guardian and Trustee that no infants are interested in the deceased’s estate.

When you submit a packet transmitting a title to a personal representative, you must include:

• packet cover page;
• application for transmission;
• authorization which will be either letters probate/letters of administration
• affidavit of value; and
• Local Registrar’s Certificate, an Official Guardian’s Certificate or Public Guardian and Trustee Certificate.

NOTE ISC will still process your packet without a Local Registrar’s Certificate, an Official Guardian’s Certificate or Public Guardian and Trustee’s Certificate; however, if one of the two is not included, we will lock the resulting title in the name of the personal representative and one of the certificates must form part of any packet to transfer the land out of the personal representative’s name.

NOTE The letters probate/letters of administration must be signed by the local registrar. We cannot accept a stamped copy. (See QB Rule 10-9)

What can you do if the Letters Probate or Letters of Administration doesn’t contain the date of death?

If either of the Letters Probate or Administration do not include the date of death, ISC will not accept a funeral director’s certificate as proof of death. ISC will accept a death certificate from Saskatchewan Vital Statistics or certificate from the out of province equivalent of Vital Statistics.

What if the name on title is different from the name on the Letters Probate, Letters of Administration or Death Certificate?

If the deceased’s name is different on title than it is on the death certificate, Letters Probate or Letters of Administration, then the personal representative or a person on behalf of the personal representative must swear an Affidavit of Identity – Name Discrepancy stating that the person named on title and in the Letters Probate or Letters of Administration and the Local Registrar’s Certificate, the Official Guardian’s Certificate or the Certificate of Public Trustee is the same.
See Section 30(1) of The Land Titles Regulations, 2001 and ISC’s Guide to Affidavits of Identity

Personal Representative Appointed Outside of Saskatchewan

If a court outside of Saskatchewan appointed an executor or administrator who wants to deal with land in Saskatchewan, he or she must obtain Letters Probate or Letters of Administration in Saskatchewan or else apply to the court in Saskatchewan to have the Letters Probate or Letters of Administration from the other jurisdiction resealed in Saskatchewan

Deceased Personal Representatives

A personal representative is someone appointed either by a will or the court to deal with the property of a deceased individual.

The rules for a deceased personal representative differ depending on the number of personal representatives appointed.

Death of a Personal Representative Where Only One Personal Representative Appointed

Once you have determined that there has only been one personal representative appointed, the next step is to determine if the personal representative was appointed by letters probate (i.e. is an executor) or letters of administration (i.e. is an administrator). There are different requirements for each.

Executor Appointed by Letters Probate
Executor dies with a will appointing another executor
If the deceased personal representative was appointed as an executor by Letters Probate and died leaving a personal representative appointed by Letters Probate, then you can transmit the title into the name of the deceased’s personal representative’s executor.

For example, John Smith is the personal representative of Jack Jones. John Smith dies but has appointed Jane Doe as his executrix in his will. Once title has transmitted from John Smith to Jane Doe, the title will read “Jane Doe, personal representative of the estate of John Smith who was the personal representative of Jack Jones, deceased”.

The process will be a transmission of a transmission and can happen two ways:

1. the executor dies after the title is already transmitted into his or her name
2. the executor dies before transmission into his or her name

 
the executor dies after the title is already transmitted into his or her name

If the executor dies after the title is transmitted into his or her name, you follow the same process as if it were a transmission from a deceased title holder to his executor which is described above.

the executor dies before transmission into his or her name

If the executor dies before the title is transmitted into his or her name, you must transmit the title first to the dead personal representative and then transmit it again to the living personal representative. You use the same process as a regular transmission. In the second transmission, enter the application sequence number of the previous transmission in a forms packet or select the appropriate previous application of the previous transmission in an OLS packet.

NOTE Fee refund is provided on all transfers back to the deceased.

Executor who dies without a will
If the executor dies without a will, then the court must appoint an administrator to deal with the deceased executor’s estate. The administrator appointed by the court is not a representative of the original deceased. The title cannot, therefore, be transmitted from the deceased executor to his or her administrator, but rather must be transferred back to the deceased and then transmitted to a newly appointed administrator using the process described under heading 2 below.

Administrator Appointed By Letters of Administration
If the personal representative was an Administrator, then an application must be made to the court for a direction on who will become the new Administrator. Once the court appoints a new administrator, the title must be transferred back to the deceased.

The packet must contain the following:

1. Packet cover page
2. Application for transfer back to the deceased. The Court Order (new Letters of Administration) appointing the new administrator must be submitted as the authorization;
3. The Section B portion of the single title transfer will include the name of the deceased and show his/her address as Regina, Sask. so that no notifications will be sent out. Note: OLS requires a complete address be entered or your packet will fail validation. If you are a law firm submitting this packet and you are concerned that a notice to the deceased will upset your client, you may use the deceased’s name but the law firm’s address so that the notice will generate to your law firm.
4. Application for Transmission from the deceased to the new Administrator. Use application sequence numbers in a forms packet or refer to the previous application in an OLS packet on the portion of the application for transmission that would normally show the title number. On this transmission, only use the deceased’s name. In a forms packet in the client number area, show the application sequence number. In an OLS packet, you select from the previous application and OLS will bring back the information for the deceased.

After these steps are done, this application follows the regular transmission process.

Fee Refund

Fee refund is allowed on the transfer back to the deceased person. Fee refund should be allowed automatically without you having to call in to request it. If it does not, please call contact our customer support team.

Customer Support
Call: 1-866-275-4721
Email: [email protected]
ISC Locations

Death of Personal Representative When Two or More Personal Representative Appointed

Two or more personal representatives may hold title as joint tenants.

Under s. 18 of The Administration of Estates Act, if more than one personal representative is appointed, and one dies, the survivors are entitled to apply for title in the same way that a surviving joint tenant would apply.

The requirements differ depending on whether or not all the personal representatives have died.

At Least One But Not All Personal Representatives Has Died

The requirements differ slightly depending on whether or not the personal representative died before or after the title was transmitted into his or her name.

If the personal representative died after transmission

If there are two or more personal representatives and one of them has died, ISC only requires proof of death of the deceased personal representative. You would accomplish this in the same way that you would submit a transfer to surviving joint tenant, and submit a packet that includes:

• packet cover page;
• application for transfer to surviving personal representative;
• affidavit of surviving personal representative that states the other has died and that the applicant is the survivor.
• proof of death which will be either
  • a death certificate issued by Vital Statistics or
  • Letters Probate/Letters of Administration
• affidavit of value.

If the personal representative died before transmission

If one of the personal representatives dies before transmission, the title will be transmitted from the deceased to the surviving personal representative.

The packet would contain

• packet cover page;
• application for transfer to surviving personal representative;
• letters probate for deceased title owner
• affidavit of surviving personal representative that states the other has died and that the applicant is the survivor.
• proof of death which will be either
  • a death certificate issued by Vital Statistics or
  • Letters Probate/Letters of Administration
• affidavit of value.

All the Personal Representatives Have Died

ISC requires a surviving joint tenant application if all the personal representatives have died.

Where two or more personal representatives have been appointed and all are deceased the following process applies:

1. the other personal representative has died; and
2. the applicant is the personal representative of the surviving personal representative.

A packet containing an application by surviving personal representative must therefore include the following:

• packet cover page;
• application for transfer to Surviving Joint Tenant by the surviving personal representative;
• affidavit of the last personal representative to die that states a personal representative has died and that the applicant is the personal representative of the surviving personal representative;
• Letters Probate or Letters of Administration appointing the personal representative of the last personal representative to die;
• Official Death Certificates issued by Vital Statistics (or the out-of-province equivalent) for the personal representatives who have died; and
• affidavit of value.

If the personal representatives were appointed by Letters of Administration, new Letters of Administration will need to be obtained for the original deceased owner. If the land has already been transmitted into the names of the deceased personal representatives, the land will need to be transferred back to the deceased and re-transmitted following the above process.

If the personal representatives have passed before the land was transmitted, once new Letters of Administration are obtained the land will be transmitted accordingly.

Click here for further information regarding our policy on estates and transforms.