Owners

Panui

Reports

Succession, Life Interest & Whāngai

source: maorilandonline.govt.nz

Succession is the transfer of shares from a deceased owner to their descendants and beneficiaries. The type of succession you lodge depends on specific factors.

NEW: Simple and uncontested succession applications

If your application for succession to interests in Maori Freehold Land or General land Owned by Māori is assessed by the Court as simple, it may be decided by a Māori Land Court Registrar. This means you will not need to attend a Court sitting and the Registrar will use the information you provide on the application form, along with the Court record, to make a decision.

Find out more

Succession without a Will or Administration (Intestate)

Our most common type of succession is where the deceased left no Will and no formal administration has been granted.

In these circumstances, we will ask you:

1. to fill in the application for succession (no grant of administration)
   Form 22 - Application for succession when no grant of administration is held [PDF, 432 KB]
2. also include a certified copy of the death certificate
3. to file your completed application with the court and pay the filing fee of $60

Sometimes a person may leave a Will, but you choose not to seek a grant of probate. In these circumstances we would also ask for a certified copy of that Will so any of their wishes about their land can be taken into account.

Find out more about certified copies(external link)

As part of the application, we will ask you questions about the whakapapa of the deceased. In particular we ask:

• who were/are their parents
• who were/are their brothers and sisters
• who were/are their children
• who were/are their partner(s).

We use this information to search and confirm any Māori land in the name of the deceased, and to allow us to make a legal determination about who is entitled to those interests.

A succession requires a hearing before a Judge so you, your whānau or your legal representative can confirm the facts of the succession.

You can choose to have the hearing at the Māori Land Court venue closest to where you live.

Find out where Māori Land Court venues are located

Contact us for more assistance

Succession with a Will & Administration (Testate)

Where an estate has had formal administration granted by the High Court of New Zealand (including probate), we will ask you:

1. to fill in an application for succession (with grant of administration) – form 21
   Form 21 - Succession when grant of administration held [PDF, 387 KB]
2. also include certified copies of the following documents:
   1. death certificate
   2. will (if any)
   3. letters of administration or probate from the High Court of New Zealand
3. to file your completed application with the court and pay the filing fee of $60

Find out more about certified copies (external link)

If a Will makes provision for Māori land, and leaves that land to specific people, the administrators of the estate can certify this on Form 20.

Form 20 - Certificate by administrator [PDF 96Kb]

As part of the application, we will ask you questions about the whakapapa of the deceased. In particular we ask:

• who were/are their parents
• who were/are their brothers and sisters
• who were/are their children
• who were/are their partner(s).

We use this information to search and confirm any Māori land in the name of the deceased, and to allow us to make a legal determination about who is entitled to those interests.

A succession requires a hearing before a Judge so you, your whānau or your legal representative can confirm the facts of the succession.

You can choose to have the hearing at the Māori Land Court venue closest to where you live.

Find out where Māori Land Court venues are located

Contact us for more assistance

Succession & creation of a whānau trust

We encourage you to consider the creation of a whānau trust at the same time as succession – there are no additional fees if this is lodged with us at the same time as your succession.

Fill in form 23 to create a whānau trust along with the succession.
Form 23 - Application for Whānau trust [PDF, 67 KB]

Find out more about whānau trusts 

Succession to further interests

After searching our records you may find that a deceased owner still has interests in Māori land, even though a succession may have occurred sometime in the past.

Before 1999, our record was entirely paper based which focused on land blocks. Shareholding was recorded in a series of ownership schedules attached to each land block which was located in one of our seven registry offices.

Successions processed in one office may have missed shares that were listed in paper records held in another office.

We have progressively digitised our paper records and entered ownership information in our database for owners nationally. You may find that shares which we missed earlier are now listed in our system.

In these circumstances, you can file a succession to further interests. We will ask you:

1. to fill in a general application – form 1
   Form 1 - General form of application [PDF, 122 KB]
2. also include:
   1. any whakapapa evidence
   2. details of any earlier succession that may have occurred for the deceased
3. to file your completed application with the court and pay the filing fee of $20

Whakapapa evidence becomes important for these cases so that we can determine whether or not these interests do indeed belong to the deceased.

A succession to further interests may not require a formal hearing as we will rely on evidence given in any previous succession.

Contact us for more assistance

Whāngai

Whāngai is the unique and special cultural practice of raising children that are not your biological children. A whāngai is a child who is raised as the whāngai parent’s own child.  Traditionally, the practice of whāngai was about strengthening whānau, hapū and iwi ties and relationships.

Where an application for succession includes a whāngai child, the first decision to be made is whether whāngai and the deceased have a relationship of descent. This will be done taking into account the tikanga of the relevant hapū or iwi of the land to be succeeded to. 

If it is decided that the whāngai child is not entitled to succeed according to the tikanga of the relevant hapū or iwi, the Court can still provide for them. The Court may make an order giving the whāngai child the right to occupy a family home on the land, or to receive all or part of any income from the land interest, or both.

Factsheet: Succession for whāngai [PDF, 64 KB]

Succession involving a legally adopted child is not the same as succession involving a whāngai child. Legally adopted child(ren) are regarded as the natural child(ren) of the person who has passed away and therefore the provisions made for whāngai do not apply for legally adopted child(ren).

Spouses and partners - life interest

When a landowner dies, leaving behind a spouse or partner who does not whakapapa to the land, the children or descendants of the landowner can immediately apply to succeed to their Māori land interests rather than waiting until the surviving spouse or partner to pass away.  This gives the children or descendants the opportunity to be involved as owners of the land straight away and to participate in, and vote on, decisions to do with the land sooner.

While a surviving spouse or partner (by marriage, civil union or de facto relationship) cannot succeed to the land interest, they are entitled to receive income from that land interest, including income from incorporation shares or rights to any grants for their lifetime.

They can also continue to occupy the whānau home on the Māori land. These rights apply for the rest of the surviving spouse’s lifetime, or until they enter into a new marriage, civil union or de facto relationship, or until they give the rights up. At this point, the children or descendants are entitled to the income and occupation rights.

Factsheet: Succession with a surviving spouse or partner [PDF, 56 KB]

Contact us for more assistance

No living descendants

If a person dies with no descendants, then the following people are entitled to their Māori land:

• any brothers or sisters of the deceased
• the parent of the deceased (from whom they received their Māori land) if they have no brothers or sisters, or those brothers and sisters have no descendants
• the brothers and sisters of the parent (from whom they received their Māori land) if their parent is deceased
• the grandparent of the deceased (from whom they received their Māori land) if their parent and uncle(s) and aunt(ies) are deceased
• the closest living descendant who is related by blood to their grandparent (from whom they received their Māori land).

Unlike general land, Māori land does not revert to the Crown where there are no clear beneficiaries nor is it transferred to the other owners.

In these circumstances, we will search our records to determine who has the closest whakapapa connection to the deceased and transfer the interest. We will also seek input from other whānau of the deceased to ensure that the land goes to blood relative.

Any final determination about entitlement will be made by a judge.

Contact Maori Land Office for more assistance