Family Proceedings Act 1980

Miscellaneous provisions

180: Recovery of money from estate of deceased party

You could also call this:

"Getting money owed to you from someone who has died"

Illustration for Family Proceedings Act 1980

If someone who owes you money dies, you can try to get that money from their estate. The estate is like a collection of everything the person owned when they died. You can get the money that was owed to you, but you might need to ask the court for permission. If the court ordered someone to pay you money, and they died, their estate has to pay you. But if the debt is more than a year old, you might need to ask the court if you can still get the money. The court can say yes or no, and they might have some conditions. There are some special rules if the court ordered someone to pay you money after they died. In that case, the money you are owed is like a debt that the estate has to pay. But other debts that the estate owes might be more important than yours. If there is not enough money in the estate to pay all the debts, the money will be shared out fairly. The court can still make decisions about the money, even after the person who owed it has died.

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This page was last updated on 26 November 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM41891.

Topics:

Money and consumer rights > TaxesMoney and consumer rights > Consumer protectionCrime and justice > Courts and legal help

179: Orders in respect of matrimonial homes and tenancies where parties living apart, or

"Rules about homes when couples live apart"

181: Incidence of maintenance due by estate of deceased party, or

"What happens to maintenance payments when the person who pays them dies"

Part 11Miscellaneous provisions

180Recovery of money from estate of deceased party

On the death of any person against whom an order for the payment of money has been made under this Act, any money in arrear and unpaid at the time of that person's death shall constitute a debt recoverable out of that person's estate.
Notwithstanding subsection (1), unless the order has been made to bind the personal representative of the deceased person, no such arrears in respect of a period longer than 12 months shall be so recoverable without the leave of the court, which may be given on such terms and subject to such conditions as the court specifies.
Where, by any order made under section 70, a personal representative is liable to pay any periodical sum in respect of any period after the death of the deceased, the amount so payable by the personal representative under the order, or, where there are 2 or more such orders, under all those orders, shall constitute a debt recoverable out of the estate of the deceased, but all other debts payable out of the estate shall rank in priority thereto. For the purposes of this subsection, an order made under section 99 varying or extending any order under section 70 shall be deemed to be an order under section 70.
Nothing in subsection (3) shall affect any security given, pursuant to an order under this Act, for the payment of any sum or the rights of any person in respect of that security.
Where the estate of the deceased is insufficient for the payment in full of the amounts so payable under 2 or more orders to which subsection (3) applies, so much of the estate as is available for payment of those amounts shall be applied in payment rateably of the amounts so payable under the several orders.
Nothing in this section shall restrict the power of the court to make, in respect of any order to which this section applies, an order under section 99 after the death of the person liable under the first-mentioned order.

Compare

1976 No 166 s 56