VPRS 28 Probate and Administration Files

Full description

The records in this series consist of Probate and Administration Files that document applications lodged to the Supreme Court for the granting of Probate and Letters of Administration.

When a person dies leaving assets in Victoria, it is the responsibility of the executor named in a Will, or the next of kin where there is no will, to administer the estate of the deceased according to law. In some instances, a grant of representation will be required to deal with the assets that have been left behind by the deceased.

A Probate is a document issued by the court certifying the will's validity and confirming the appointment of an Executor to administer the deceased estate.

Letters of Administration is the Court's approval to administer the estate of a person who dies without a will. In most instances Letters of Administration will be granted to the next of kin of the deceased e.g. a spouse, domestic partner or a child of the deceased.

Alternatively, if the deceased has left a valid will but the named Executor is no longer alive, competent, or willing to undertake the responsibilities involved with administering the estate, the court may appoint someone else e.g. a beneficiary, to administer the deceased's estate according to the will. This is called 'Letters of Administration with the Will annexed'. These applications contain the original will or a copy of the will.

Applications for Probate or Letters of Administration include the following documents:

• an Inventory of Assets and Liabilities
• an Affidavit of Executor / Administrator
• an Affidavit of Publication of Notice and Searches

Depending on the application type, application files may also contain:

• a Will (original or copy) of the deceased
• Affidavits of attesting witnesses
• Documents providing proof of death and accounts relating to the estate.

Prior to 1992, wills were generally filed separately from the Probate and Administration Files. Wills from 1853 to 1992 can be found in VPRS 7591 Wills. The last will located in Consignment P0018 of VPRS 7591 is 1051/145.

For Probate and Administration Files from 2009 onwards, refer to VPRS 17379 Probate and Administration Files (CourtView).

Non-Issues
In some cases the process of applying for the Grant was aborted and Probate was not granted. This could be because a named executor had died in the midst of the process of applying for the Grant, or another Will had been found, or the documentation was incomplete or incorrect, or a caveat had not been acted on or reissued (a caveat lasts six months unless renewed). In these cases the documentation that had been completed as part of the process was described as 'Non-Issue'. These papers can be found in VPRS 7933 Non Issued Probate Applications.

P0000, P0001 & P0002 Consignments
The P0000 consignment of this series includes files dating from 1841 to 1922. Various documents from each file were retained by the Probate Office at the time of the initial transfer. Those documents retained included:

• the will
• the executors affidavit
• the grant of Probate or Letter of Administration
• the inventory of the Estate.

The remaining portions of each file in the P0000 consignment were subsequently transferred to PROV and are found in the P0001 or P0002 consignments. Further remaining documents dating from 1841 to 1853 were transferred in 1989 as VPRS 7592. 

P0032 Consignment
A spot check of this consignment conducted by PROV revealed some processing anomalies, which include:

• Files which were listed for transfer but were missing from the consignment have been replaced with a Probate Issue "file marker" indicating the file was currently in use by the agency.
• Files with multiple parts have not had their additional parts recorded and are not bundled with the original file.
• Files which were removed and were not listed in the consignment details. These have been inserted into the numeric file number sequence.