Act of concern to ex-pats around the world is the will and inheritance laws. The legislation changes a lot between countries. Therefore, it is recommended that you know some of the laws of the United Arab Emirates to be able to make decisions, while you are on time. As always, when in doubt, we always advise consulting an attorney. For making will in uae this is important.
When we have been in a third country for several years, as in this case, it may be the UAE, we wonder what happens to our hereditary right: what will happen to our properties, current accounts and any of the assets we have on our property when we die or when we die a third person of which we are the heirs. Next, we will explain the two assumptions, depending on the situation in which the causer is found.
If we had not made a will
It is possible that we are faced with the situation that the deceased resident in the UAE has not made a will. In this case, Islamic law will be applied, which may have unintended consequences, since the distribution of assets will vary depending on whether there are descendants and, therefore, whether they are male or female.
If there was no will, the bank accounts of the deceased would be blocked for a certain period of time due to possible financial responsibilities that the deceased may have. As for the distribution of assets, everything depends on the family situation.
Let us take the example of a family with two children male and female. In this case, Sharia Law would grant 1/8 part of all the property of the deceased to his wife and the rest would be distributed in 2/3 to the man and 1/3 to the daughter. In the event that the deceased has visas from relatives dependent on him, these would be canceled in a short period of time. It should be noted at this point, another problem that may also originate the fact of death without a will: custody of minor children could be handed over to a government entity or to a family member different from the one we expected.
If yes we had made a will
The other possible assumption is that the deceased DOES have made a will. In this case, what the deceased has written is applied, provided that minimum requirements have been met. It is worth noting resolution 90/2006 of the Court of Cassation that refers to the applicable law on the will.
The written will can be produced mainly in three different ways:
- At the Register for Expats in Abu Dhabi non-Muslims, at a cost of AED 950.00- /. This office is located in the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department. The will that is delivered once ratified and presented to the public, will be effective for all the Emirates.
- In Dubai International Financial Center, “DIFC” for a cost of AED 10,000.
- We also have the possibility of going to the Dubai Courts, where we will have to pay the amount of AED 2,165 for the registration of the will.
Process
However, at this point, you will be wondering what the procedure to make the will in the UAE is. The UAE procedure uses the criterion of residence and not that of nationality to determine the applicable law of succession.