Advertising a Deceased Estate: The Section 29 and Section 35 Notices

Two notices, not one

Every estate above the small-estate threshold is advertised twice, and both times in two places. Confusing the two is the most common reason an estate has to re-advertise and lose another month.

• The section 29 notice calls on creditors and debtors of the estate to lodge their claims. It goes out early, once the executor is appointed.
• The section 35 notice tells the world that the liquidation and distribution account is lying open for inspection so anyone can object. It goes out near the end, once the Master has passed the account.
• Both must be placed in the Government Gazette AND in a newspaper circulating in the district where the deceased was ordinarily resident at the time of death. Not one or the other.

The section 29 notice to creditors

The executor fixes the period in the notice, and it may not be less than 30 days. In practice periods beyond three months are unusual. The point is to flush out debts nobody in the family knew about before any money is handed to heirs.

• It must run in the Government Gazette and in a local newspaper for the district where the deceased lived.
• Choose the newspaper by circulation in that district, not by price alone. A notice in a paper that does not circulate where the deceased lived can be challenged.
• Keep the printed pages and the Gazette proof. The Master wants to see them with the account.
• Do not distribute anything to heirs until this period has closed. Distributing early is one of the clearest ways an executor becomes personally liable to a creditor who lodged in time.

The section 35 notice that the account lies open

Once the Master has examined the account and has no further queries, the executor advertises that the account will lie open for inspection for a period of not less than 21 days.

It lies at the Master's office, and if the deceased was resident at death in a district other than the one where that Master's office is, it must also lie at the magistrate's office for that district. That is the provision that lets a beneficiary in a distant town inspect the account without travelling to the provincial Master.

During that window, any interested person can inspect it and lodge an objection with the Master. If nobody objects, the executor may proceed to distribute.

What it costs

The Government Gazette placement is modest. The newspaper placement is where the money goes, and the range is wide because it depends entirely on the title's rate card. A community paper in a small district is inexpensive. A major metro daily is not.

Two Gazette placements and two newspaper placements are the normal total for an estate. Budget for both sets, not one. Our cost calculator includes them: /tools/deceased-estates/estate-costs-calculator

Practical points that save a re-run

• Get the estate number, the full names of the deceased, the identity number and the date of death exactly right. An error in any of these can invalidate the notice.
• Check the newspaper's deadline for legal notices and the Gazette's own closing dates before you commit to a period, so the two placements actually overlap.
• Run both placements for the same period. A Gazette notice running a month before the newspaper notice does not satisfy the section cleanly.
• Keep everything. Tearsheets, invoices, the Gazette page. The Master asks for proof and reconstructing it later is painful.

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