Short answer. The administrator's right to possess and manage the estate is tied to that need. Rule 84, Section 3 gives the executor or administrator possession and management of the estate only so long as it is necessary for paying the debts and expenses of administration, so once those are fully settled, that basis for keeping possession ends.
What the law says
An executor or administrator shall have the right to the possession and management of the real as well as the personal estate of the deceased
Rule 84, Section 3 — Executor or administrator to retain whole estate to pay debts, and to administer estate not willed. Read the full provision →
What the law says
so long as it is necessary for the payment of the debts and the expenses of administration
Rule 84, Section 3 — Executor or administrator to retain whole estate to pay debts, and to administer estate not willed. Read the full provision →
The right to possess the estate is conditional, not permanent
Section 3 grants possession, but it does not grant it without limit. It states that an executor or administrator shall have the right to the possession and management of the real as well as the personal estate of the deceased. Read on its own, that sentence sounds open-ended. The rest of the same sentence is what actually limits it, and it is the part that answers your question.
The right covers both real and personal property, while it lasts
While the condition holds, the administrator's authority is broad: it extends to the real estate and the personal estate of the deceased alike, not just one category of property. That breadth is what lets the administrator manage the estate effectively during administration, but the section frames it as a means to an end, not as a standing entitlement to hold the property indefinitely.
Possession is tied specifically to paying debts and administration expenses
The section states the limiting condition directly: the right exists so long as it is necessary for the payment of the debts and the expenses of administration. That phrase is doing the real work here. It defines the right by its purpose, paying what the estate owes, rather than granting the administrator possession as a separate, freestanding power that exists independently of that purpose.
What this means once the debts are fully paid
Once the debts and expenses of administration are fully settled, the specific necessity that Section 3 ties possession to no longer exists. This section itself does not spell out the further steps for transferring the property to the heirs, but it does make clear that the administrator's right under this particular provision is not open-ended once that necessity has been satisfied and nothing further remains to be paid out of the estate.
Who this rule actually binds
Section 3 speaks to the executor or administrator, not to the heirs directly, and it defines the outer boundary of that office's authority over the estate's property rather than describing what the heirs must do to claim their share. An heir asking whether possession should now pass to them is really asking whether the condition that justified the administrator's continued hold, the need to pay debts and administration expenses, still exists. Once it does not, this section no longer supplies the administrator with a basis to keep holding the property.