Revoking a grant of representation 

A grant of representation is the legal document which gives authority to a named person or people to administer the estate of someone who has died. Once this has been issued, those appointed are able to sell the deceased’s properties, close their accounts and distribute their assets. 

However, it is possible for a grant to be revoked by a court once it has been issued in circumstances where the court is satisfied that it ought not to have been made or contains an error. This is illustrated in the recent case of Ashimola and Anor v Samuel and Anor [2025] EWHC 502 (Ch) in which Deputy Master Linwood began his judgment by saying that: ‘This is an unusual claim in that the deceased says she is very much alive.’ 

 A grant of letters of administration to the estate of June Ashimola had been issued in Nigeria to the attorney of a person claiming to be her husband on the basis that June Ashimola had died in Nigeria on 6 February 2019 without leaving a will. As the assets in the estate inlcuded a property in London, a grant of representation needed to be issued in England as well so that the property could be sold or transferred. 

The personal representative managed to obtain a grant of probate in England in 2022 and thereafter applied to the Land Registry to transfer the property into the name of a person claiming to be the beneficial owner of the property. This led to a notification being sent to a friend of June Ashimola to whom she had given power of attorney in 2018. 

A person purporting to be June Ashimola herself then issued proceedings to have the grant of letters of administration revoked. She gave evidence via video link and her physical appearance was like her photographs in her various passports. Although she had been unable to get a visa to travel, she had provided an original expired passport and a notarised copy of her existing passport. Deputy Master Linwood concluded that she was indeed June Ashimola and that the copy death certificate and marriage certificate that had been produced were forged and/or fraudulently obtained. 

The court revoked the grant of letters of administration on the basis that June Ashimola was alive or that in the event that this was incorrect then due to the actions of those who had used this to transfer the property to someone not entitled to it. 

Although this may be the only occasion in which a grant has been revoked on the grounds that the person named as the deceased is actually alive, this decision demonstrates that the issue of a grant is not always the end of the matter. If a grant has been made to someone who is not entitled to it, the court has the power to revoke it. 

Should you have any concerns about the validity of a grant of representation, our Private Client department would be happy to advise and can be contacted at privateclient@rfblegal.co.uk.