Western Australian Current Acts

WILLS ACT 1970 - SECT 26

26 .         General rules of construction

        (1)         Unless the contrary intention appears by the will —

            (a)         the will is to be construed, with reference to the property comprised in it, to speak and take effect as if it has been executed immediately before the death of the testator;

            (b)         property that is the subject of a disposition, other than the exercise of a power of appointment, that is void or fails to take effect is to be included in any residuary disposition contained in the will;

            (c)         a general disposition of land or of the land in a particular area includes leasehold land whether or not the testator owns freehold land;

            (d)         a general disposition of all the testator’s property or of all the testator’s property of a particular kind includes property over which the testator had a general power of appointment exercisable by will and operates as an execution of the power;

            (e)         a disposition of property without words of limitation whether to a person beneficially or as executor or trustee is to be construed as passing the whole estate or interest of the testator therein;

            (f)         a disposition of the residue of the estate of a testator, or of the whole of the estate of a testator, that refers only to —

                  (i)         the real estate of the testator; or

                  (ii)         the personal estate of the testator,

                is to be construed to include both the real and personal estate of the testator;

            (g)         if any part of a disposition in fractional parts of the whole or of the residue of the estate of a testator fails, the part that fails accrues to the part that does not fail, and, if there is more than one part that does not fail, to all those parts proportionately.

        (2)         Subsection (1)(f) and (g) apply to the will of a person dying on or after the day on which section 19(1)(e) of the Wills Amendment Act 2007 comes into operation, whether the will was executed or made before, on or after that day, and the will of a person who died before that day is to be construed as if section 19(1)(e) of that Act had not come into operation.

        [Section 26 amended: No. 27 of 2007 s. 19.]