Law has a vocabulary, and much of the difficulty people have with it is not that the ideas are hard but that the words are unfamiliar. What follows is the plain meaning of terms that come up constantly in property and succession, with a line on why each one matters.
These are working definitions, written to be understood rather than to be precise enough for a court. Where a term carries a technical meaning in a particular Act, that Act governs.
Dying without a valid will
If you die intestate, your estate is distributed according to the Intestate Succession Act rather than according to anything you intended. The law's rules are general by design: they cannot know which child was still being educated or which relative helped build the house.
Court authority to deal with the estate of someone who died without a will
Until a grant is issued, nobody has legal authority to collect, manage or distribute the estate. This is why accounts freeze and property cannot be dealt with in the months after a death — not obstruction, but the absence of anyone empowered to act.
Court confirmation that a will is valid, and authority for the executor to act
The equivalent of letters of administration where there is a will. The executor named in the will has no effective authority until probate is granted.
The person appointed to wind up an estate where there is no will
Appointed by the court. Their job is to gather what the deceased owned, settle debts, and distribute what remains according to the Act.
The person named in a will to carry it out
Chosen by the person making the will rather than by the court. Worth choosing carefully: it is a demanding job, often done at the worst time in the appointee's life.
A person entitled to receive something from an estate
Being named in a will does not by itself give you anything you can use until the estate is administered and the gift is transferred to you.
Everything a person owned at death, less what they owed
Includes land, buildings, vehicles, bank accounts, shares, business interests and personal belongings. Debts are paid out of the estate before anything is distributed.
A person who relied on the deceased for support
The Intestate Succession Act makes provision for dependants, which can include people who are not immediate family. Who qualifies is a question of fact.
The document recording a registered interest in land
It records who holds the legal interest, over what land, and on what terms. It does not record who lives there, who paid for it, or who was promised it.
A right to hold land for a fixed period
In Zambia, land vests in the President, and what an individual holds is a leasehold interest, typically for up to ninety-nine years. This affects what you are able to pass on and for how long.
Land held under customary arrangements rather than by registered title
Recognised by the Lands Act, and convertible to leasehold. The difficulty usually arises at conversion, or when land held customarily for generations must be dealt with by people who have only documents to work from.
A claim or restriction attaching to land
A mortgage, a caveat, a right of way. It travels with the land, not with the person, so a buyer who does not check inherits it.
A notice lodged on the register warning that someone claims an interest
Its effect is to stop the land being dealt with until the claim is resolved. A caveat found late in a transaction can stop everything.
The legal process of transferring an interest in land
Everything between agreeing a price and the buyer's name appearing on the register.
An entitlement to the benefit of property, even where the register names someone else
The concept that matters most to a person who contributed to a property registered in another name. Establishing it is harder than never needing to.
A person who makes a will
A document amending an existing will
Must be executed with the same formality as the will itself.
A person who holds property for the benefit of someone else
Used where a beneficiary is a minor, or where property is to be held for a purpose rather than given outright.
Authority given to someone to act on your behalf while you are living
It ends on death. A common and costly misunderstanding is that a power of attorney allows someone to deal with an estate — it does not.
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