Section 55 — Protection of Personal and Property Rights Act 1988: Court may authorise manager to make testamentary disposition for person subject to property order

55 Court may authorise manager to make testamentary disposition for person subject to property order (1) Where the Court has given a direction under section 54(2) of this Act that a person subject to a property order may make a testamentary disposition only by leave of the Court, or the Court is satisfied that such a person lacks testamentary capacity, the Court may authorise the manager acting for that person to execute a will for and on behalf of that person in such terms as the Court directs. (2) Before a Court authorises a manager to execute a testamentary disposition under subsection (1) of this section, it shall settle the proposed terms of the testamentary disposition provisionally, and hear such persons who wish to be heard and whom the Court is satisfied have a proper interest in the matter. (3) A testamentary disposition executed by a manager under this section may, while the person continues to lack testamentary capacity, be varied, or revoked and substituted, by another testamentary disposition authorised by the Court and executed by the manager in the same manner as the original testamentary disposition. (4) Any testamentary disposition executed by a manager under this section shall be— (a) Signed in the manager's name for and on behalf of the person for whom it is made, in the presence of 2 or more witnesses present at the same time; and (b) Attested and subscribed by those witnesses in the presence of the manager; and (c) Sealed with the seal of the Court. (5) The following provisions apply to a testamentary disposition authorised and executed under this section: (a) it is valid despite— (i) section 11 of the Wills Act 2007; and (ii) sections 9 and 10 of the Wills Act 1837 of the United Kingdom Parliament; and (b) it has the same effect for all purposes as it would have had if the person subject to the property order— (i) had had testamentary capacity; and (ii) had executed the testamentary disposition in the manner required by the applicable section. (6) The Law Reform (Testamentary Promises) Act 1949 , the Family Protection Act 1955 , and all other enactments and rules of law relating to the estates of deceased persons shall apply in respect of any testamentary disposition executed under this section as if the person to whom it relates had had testamentary capacity and had executed the testamentary disposition in accordance with law. (7) Notwithstanding paragraph (c) of subsection (4) of this section, a testamentary disposition that is signed in accordance with paragraph (a) of that subsection, and attested and subscribed in accordance with paragraph (b) of that subsection, shall be valid notwithstanding that the person to whom the testamentary disposition relates dies before it is sealed with the seal of the Court so long as the terms of the testamentary disposition accord with the directions of the Court. (8) A testamentary disposition authorised and executed in accordance with this section shall continue to have effect, until it is revoked, notwithstanding that the person to whom it relates has ceased to be subject to a property order. Section 55(5): substituted, on 1 November 2007, by section 41 of the Wills Act 2007 (2007 No 36).