This is an example of the type of seal that might be resealed
The title of this article is a very valid question and one we are asked time and time again. Once you have gone through the complex and sometimes tiresome process of obtaining probate or letters of administration in the country where someone has died, it can often be an unpleasant shock to find that the assets which are located in another country require another court application in that country to prove all the same things.
Sometimes these documents might be called a “reseal of probate” or a “reseal of letters of administration”, but they represent a very similar concept, so for ease of reference in this article we will call it a “reseal” for short.
Reseals are not a tremendously common application for most lawyers to make and so they can often seem more mysterious than they really are. In this article, we will set out all the practical detail you need to get to grips with reseals in New Zealand.
What is a reseal?
First of all, what is a reseal? Essentially, when the court makes a grant of probate or letters of administration, it puts a court seal (which is usually a stamp or an embossed sticker) on the document to show that it was granted by the court. The photograph accompanying this article is a good example of the type of seal the courts use.
A reseal is simply another court, the court in New Zealand in this case, putting a second seal on that same document to show that this second court considers it valid in their jurisdiction. If you would like more detail on what a reseal is, we also have an article on the subject which you can read here.
What organisations ask for a reseal?
The types of organisations that require a reseal in New Zealand are organisations which are holding assets on behalf of the estate. These include banks, superannuation schemes, insurance policies and Land Information New Zealand (which is the organisation in charge of managing the register of ownership of land in New Zealand).
The major New Zealand banks include TSB, ASB, ANZ, BNZ, Westpac, Cooperative Bank and Kiwibank and if your asset holder is a superannuation scheme it may well be Kiwisaver.
Why do these organisations require a reseal?
If you have travelled overseas, you will have had the experience of much of your documentation (other than your passport, of course) not being accepted even though it is perfectly valid at home.
The same applies for grants of probate or letters of administration. They are valid everywhere in the country where they were issued, but they are country specific and have limited use as soon as a border is crossed.
Asset holders have to be especially careful, as you can imagine, deciding to whom they will release the assets they are holding once the owner has died. A grant of probate or letters of administration is essentially a document which allows assets of someone who has died to be handed over to another person who promises to fulfil the wishes of the deceased owner, so they are a very important safety measure to make sure the assets of people who have died go to the right places. For more detail about what grants of probate and letters of administration do, have a look at our article here.
A bank, for example, in New Zealand cannot be sure that any documentation from another country is valid and the correct document. Only when you present them with a document with a seal from the court in their country (a reseal, in this case) can they be sure that you are entitled to receive the assets.
Reseal countries
Reseals in New Zealand are only available, however, when the original probate or letters of administration comes from a Commonwealth country or Hong Kong (which is included by special exception).
Accordingly, if your original probate or letters of administration is from Australia, anywhere in the United Kingdom (i.e. England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland), Canada, Singapore, India, Fiji, Samoa, Malaysia or any other Commonwealth country, we can reseal it here in New Zealand.
If, however, your original probate or letters of administration is from, for example, Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, the United States of America, Japan, China, or any other non Commonwealth country, we can still get a grant for you here in New Zealand, but it won't be a reseal. In these cases, we will get you a grant of probate or letters of administration in New Zealand. If you would like to know more about the difference between probate and letters of administration in New Zealand, you can read about it in our article here.
If you require a reseal
If you are in the position of requiring a reseal, take heart; first of all, it could be worse in that the applications for countries which cannot reseal are much more complex and, second of all, we can make the process as simple and painless for you as it is possible to be. Simply send us an email at jenny.lowe@nzprobatesandreseals.com and we will set you on the track of moving past this roadblock and receiving those assets.