Rules of Construction and Effect of DIFC Wills

What are the rules of construction applicable to DIFC Wills?

The Wills signed and registered with the DIFC Courts Wills Service (Wills Service) are construed in accordance with the provisions of the DIFC Wills and Probate Registry Rules (DIFC WPR Rules). These rules of construction are aimed to clarify as to how the DIFC Wills should be read and understood in certain situations.

Some of the important rules of construction applicable to the DIFC Wills are as follows:

1. A DIFC Will is construed and takes effect as if executed immediately before the death of the person signing it (Testator).

2. If any gift of immovable property does not take effect (i.e. gift fails due to the death of the beneficiary), such property is then included in the gift of residue property (if any) contained in the DIFC Will.

3. A gift of land in a DIFC Will includes any leasehold as well as freehold property.

4. A gift of immovable property (land) without any words of limitation means that the whole estate or interest in such immoveable property which the Testator has power to dispose of through a DIFC Will.

5. If a DIFC Will intends both to give property absolutely to the Testator’s spouse and also to give an interest in that property to the Testator’s child, the gift to the spouse is considered to be absolute (and the gift to the child is not valid).

6. In the event:

(a) a DIFC Will contains a gift to one of the Testator’s child;

(b) Testator’s child dies before the Testator, leaving his/her child(ren); and

(c) the child(ren) of the Testator’s child are living at the Testator’s deaths,

then the gift takes effect as a gift to such child(ren) living at the Testator’s death.

7. Where:

(a) a DIFC Will contains a gift to more than one of the Testator’s children (class);

(b) a member of such class dies before the Testator, leaving his/her own child(ren); and

(c) child(ren) of that member are living at the Testator’s death,

then the gift takes effect as if the class included the child(ren) of the deceased member living at the Testator’s death.

8. Children take through all degrees, according to their stock, in equal shares if there is more than one child, any gift or share which their parent would have taken. No child takes whose parent is living at the Testator’s death and so capable of taking.

9. For the purposes of the DIFC WPR Rules:

(a) the illegitimacy of any person is disregarded altogether; and

(b) a person conceived before the Testator’s death and born thereafter is taken to have been living at the Testator’s death.

10. Any person has the right to disclaim a gift in whole or part.

11. Where a DIFC Will contains a gift to a person who:

(a) disclaims it (i.e. does not want it); or

(b) has been precluded by any applicable law from acquiring it (i.e. who is disqualified),

the person is then treated as having died immediately before the Testator.

12. A DIFC Will is valid even if some of the gifts or provisions in it are invalid.

The above rules of construction apply unless other intent is expressed in the DIFC and they should be read together with the other provisions of the DIFC WPR Rules for complete understanding.