Family Provision Act 1966

5 Time limit for applications under Inheritance (Family Provision) Act 1938 or under s. 25 or s. 26 of Matrimonial Causes Act 1965

(1) With a view to extending and making uniform the period for making certain applications to the court, the amendments provided for by this section shall be made in the following enactments, that is to say—

(a) section 2 of the [1938 c. 45.] Inheritance (Family Provision) Act 1938 (applications for maintenance out of deceased's estate by spouse or child); and

(b) section 25 of the [1965 c. 72.] Matrimonial Causes Act 1965 (applications for alteration of maintenance agreements after death of one party); and

(c) section 26 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1965 (applications for maintenance out of deceased's estate by former spouse).

(2) In section 2 of the Inheritance (Family Provision) Act 1938, as amended by Schedule 3 to the [1952 c. 64.] Intestates' Estates Act 1952, for subsection (1) there shall be substituted—

“(1) Except as provided by section 4 of this Act, an application under this Act shall not, without the permission of the court, be made after the end of the period of six months from the date on which representation in regard to the estate of the deceased is first taken out”;

and accordingly subsection (1A) (which enables the time for making applications to be extended by the court, but in particular circumstances only) shall be omitted, and in subsection (1B) for the words " the possibility that the court might exercise its power to extend that period " there shall be substituted the words " the possibility that the court might permit an application under this Act after the end of that period ".

(3) In section 25(1) and in section 26(1) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1965 there shall be omitted paragraphs (a) and (b), and there shall be added at the end of the subsection—

“An application under this section shall not, except with the permission of the court, be made after the end of the period of six months from the date on which representation in regard to the estate of the deceased is first taken out”.

(4) This section shall not apply to applications made with reference to the death of any person dying more than six months before the coming into force of this section, nor shall the repeal by this Act of any enactment referred to in this section affect the operation of that enactment in relation to applications so made.