Can my step-mother keep me from inheriting my late father's RDP house?

The long answer

Your father and mother were the beneficiaries of the RDP house. As you have to be married or have dependants to qualify for an RDP house, your name would be recorded on the RDP application as a dependant. If your father changed the permit to a title deed after his divorce but before he married again, only his name would be on the title deed. A title deed is the legal proof of ownership of a house.

As a dependant, your name would not be on the title deed. If he changed the permit to a title deed after he married again, your father could still have had the title deed in his own name or he could have included his wife’s name on the title deed. He could not have excluded you from the title deed because your name would not have appeared on it in any case. 

In a marriage in community of property, both spouses own everything, including debt, in equal shares. If your father was married in community of property to his second wife, their joint estate would first have to be wound up (in other words, all the debts would have to be paid) and after that, she would inherit 50% of what was left. If your father made a will which specified that certain children would inherit, those children would inherit the other 50%. 

Under South African law there is freedom of testation, which means that a person who makes a will can nominate anybody that they want to inherit their property. But if a father makes a will that excludes minor children, those children have a right to make a claim against the deceased estate for maintenance. This is because the common law says that parents have a duty to support their children until the children are self-supporting, which is not the same as simply reaching the age of majority, 18 years of age. And these children can include adopted children – they don’t have to be blood relatives, but they must be dependants.

If your father died intestate, which means he died without making a will, the order of inheritance in intestate succession is first spouses and then descendants. If he was married to his second wife in community of property, it means that she would still inherit 50% of the joint estate after debts had been paid. The other 50% would be shared between all of his biological children, with each child getting what is called a child’s share. A child’s share is the value of what is left in the estate divided by the number of children plus one. 

If his second wife’s children were his biological children, they are also his descendants, along with you, and you would all share the remaining 50% of the estate. 

If your father’s second wife’s children were not his biological children, then the Intestate Succession Act does not recognise them as blood relatives, and they cannot inherit through intestate succession. That means they cannot inherit if your father died without making a will.

For more information, you can call the helpline of the Chief Master of the High Court at:

Tel: 012 406 4805

Email: chiefmaster@justice.gov.za

Wishing you the best,
Athalie