Scope of work
Estates in the UAE are distributed according to the rules of succession applicable to Muslims, with the law allowing non-Muslims to have the law of their nationality or a registered will applied instead. Division is preceded by steps that cannot properly be skipped: obtaining the succession certificate that identifies the heirs and their shares, then establishing the estate's assets and debts, then discharging what is owed before anything is distributed.
We take care that the account is genuinely complete rather than formally complete: property inside the country and abroad, accounts, deposits and investment portfolios, shareholdings in companies and the rights attaching to them, and movables of value. Many disputes among heirs arise from an asset that was never brought into the account, or from a debt owed to the estate that went unclaimed until it was time-barred.
Where heirs fall into disagreement, we represent the client we act for in actions for division and allocation of shares, and in challenges to dispositions made by the deceased in final illness or by an heir without authority. We also administer estates where required, and arrange for the continuity of commercial businesses owned by the deceased so that their operations are not suspended by the death.
What we do in this area
- Obtaining the succession certificate and determining the heirs and their lawful shares.
- Establishing the estate's assets and liabilities inside the country and abroad, and preparing a complete schedule of them.
- Actions for the division of an estate, allocation of shares, and partition of jointly owned inherited property.
- Settling the estate's debts and pursuing sums owed to it before they become time-barred.
- Wills: drafting and registration, execution, and challenges to validity or to dispositions exceeding the permitted third.
- Challenges to dispositions made by the deceased in final illness, and to dealings by an heir without authority.
- Administering the estate and overseeing the continuity of businesses and shareholdings owned by the deceased.
- Estates of non-Muslims, applying the law of nationality or a registered will as the case requires.
How we work
We start from the documents, not from the account given. Before any discussion of shares we verify the succession certificate and the title to every asset said to belong to the estate, because a division built on an incomplete account reopens the dispute years later.
We press for settlement among the heirs wherever a route to it exists, since a documented consensual division is faster, cheaper and kinder to family ties than a judgment that follows a long contest. Where that proves impossible we proceed to court with a complete file.