Can land be owned by a deceased person years after their death?

A extended family member lives on a large farm. The grandfather of the family passed away a number of years ago, the whole family live on this farm, but the actual farming is done by other people. I was doing law exams and as part of land law revision ordered the registered title to the farm because I thought it would be interesting. I noticed that the registered owner is still the deceased grandfather. Not the current occupants. The only name on the title is the grandfather, not the surviving grandmother so no transfer happened on death and it won’t have passed under the right of survivorship. I want to ask are there any circumstances where land can be held in the name of someone who has passed away for several years after their death? Or is this something that may cause them significant problems if not dealt with?

Emily - when a sole registered legal owner dies their land/property remains as part of their estate until such time as their executor obtains probate/letters of administration and then transfers that legal ownership.
Families can often inherit and not then actually deal with the estate and transfer the legal ownership. That's fine in law as the death is factual and the estate can essentially be dealt with at any time in the future. However if probate/letters of administration were applied for and granted then the executor is supposed to deal with the estate in a timely manner.
So it may not be a problem for many years but at some point it may well become one and I would always recommend considering options as to how to update the register with a new legal owner as appropriate

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