Deceased Estates in Gqeberha

Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth)

Address

523 Govan Mbeki Avenue, North End, Port Elizabeth

Phone

041 403 5100

Province

Eastern Cape

Verified 15 August 2026 against the Department of Justice. Phone before you travel - these details do change.

What tends to hold estates up in Gqeberha

• The Eastern Cape is served by Gqeberha, Makhanda, Mthatha and Bhisho. Which office applies depends entirely on where the deceased was living, and getting it wrong is one of the more common delays in this province.
• Many Eastern Cape estates fall under the R250,000 small-estate threshold, which means a Master's Representative under section 18(3), no advertising, no formal account and no Master's fee. Establish the gross value before paying anyone a percentage.
• Where the deceased lived in a rural district, the account must also lie open for inspection at that district's magistrate's office, and the section 29 and section 35 notices must run in a newspaper that actually circulates there rather than in a metro daily.
• Property held under older or communal tenure arrangements needs specific advice. Do not assume standard conveyancing applies.

Finding an estate attorney in Gqeberha

We do not publish a list of firms. We cannot verify a firm's current standing, its fees, or whether it still does estate work, and a stale directory is worse than none for somebody who has just lost a family member. What we can do is point you at the regulator's own register, which is authoritative and current.

• The Legal Practice Council runs a public practitioner search at lpc.org.za/members-of-the-public/search-practitioners. Use it to confirm that anyone you are considering is actually on the practising roll.
• The Law Society of South Africa has a Find a Legal Practitioner directory at lssa.org.za/find-a-legal-practitioner.
• Ask for the firm's current Fidelity Fund certificate. Any attorney practising for their own account and handling trust money must hold one. If there is no valid certificate, the Legal Practitioners Fidelity Fund cannot consider a claim, which is exactly the protection you are relying on.
• The Master's office itself will assist members of the public with the reporting process, at no charge. For a straightforward estate, particularly a small one, that may be all the help you need.

What to ask before you appoint anyone

1. What executor's fee will you charge, as a percentage? The statutory maximum is 3.5% of gross assets plus 6% of post-death income. It is a ceiling, not a price, and it is negotiable.
2. Is VAT charged on top of that?
3. What else will be charged separately - conveyancing, tax returns, an administration fee?
4. Who will actually handle the file, and what happens if that person leaves?
5. How often will beneficiaries be updated, and by whom?
6. Get all of it in writing before you commit.

Work out what the tariff comes to on this estate before you have that conversation: executor's fees calculator. And if the estate is under R250 000 gross, read small estates first - you very likely do not need to pay anyone a percentage at all.

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