This is the statutory provision from s 27 of the Trustee Act 1925:
27 Protection by means of advertisements (1)With a view to the conveyance to or distribution among the persons entitled to any real or personal property, the trustees of a settlement, trustees of land, trustees for sale of personal property or personal representatives, may give notice by advertisement in the Gazette, and in a newspaper circulating in the district in which the land is situated and such other like notices, including notices elsewhere than in England and Wales, as would, in any special case, have been directed by a court of competent jurisdiction in an action for administration, of their intention to make such conveyance or distribution as aforesaid, and requiring any person interested to send to the trustees or personal representatives within the time, not being less than two months, fixed in the notice or, where more than one notice is given, in the last of the notices, particulars of his claim in respect of the property or any part thereof to which the notice relates. (2)At the expiration of the time fixed by the notice the trustees or personal representatives may convey or distribute the property or any part thereof to which the notice relates, to or among the persons entitled thereto, having regard only to the claims, whether formal or not, of which the trustees or personal representatives then had notice and shall not, as respects the property so conveyed or distributed, be liable to any person of whose claim the trustees or personal representatives have not had notice at the time of conveyance or distribution; but nothing in this section— (a)prejudices the right of any person to follow the property, or any property representing the same, into the hands of any person, other than a purchaser, who may have received it; or (b)frees the trustees or personal representatives from any obligation to make searches or obtain official certificates of search similar to those which an intending purchaser would be advised to make or obtain. (3)This section applies notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the will or other instrument, if any, creating the trust.
So yes, the minimum period is 2 months from advertisment to distribution. I presume that against the executors the usual statutory limitation period of 6 years would apply, both to unadvertised estates and to time lapse from advertisments, except for possible untraced beneficiaries against whom time doesn't run until they know that they are. I don't know about limitations on tracing against wrognful distribution.
The point as to whether the debt existed at the date the estate was distributed is an interesting one, though of course if there had been an overpayment you can say it did. There is an additional complication, which is that the right to trace into the hands of a beneficiary who is also a trustee in breach is, frankly, a mess.
To find a copy of the All England Law Reports (and note that the correct citation of this case has the year in square brackets <1974> - there is a style difference between a case that was heard in a particular year and one that was only reported in a particular year), you either need a subscription to Lexis or a friendly solicitor/law library who has this series of law reports.
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