In our South African Law a testator, being a person who has the legal ability to make a valid will, has freedom of testation. This gives testators the freedom to choose beneficiaries and outline their desires in their wills, so directing the distribution of their inheritance following death. A person who has been nominated to inherit under a will has the choice to either adiate (accept the inheritance) or repudiate (refuse to accept the inheritance). An exception applies to this rule.

Section 2C of the Wills Act 7 of 1953 states that persons under the age of 18 as well as mentally unstable people will not have the option of refusing to accept their inheritance. The section goes further to state that should persons, other than the ones mentioned above, repudiate their portions, that which they would have inherited will go to whomever the deceased testator was married to at the time of his death. This means that if the deceased had children outside of his or her marriage and the said child is over the age of 18 and mentally capable, that child will be able to repudiate his portion. However, that which the child refuses to accept will not go to his surviving parent but to who his deceased parent was married to at the time of his death.

So, think twice before turning down a deceased person’s generosity.