Short answer. The administrator must maintain the estate's houses, other structures, and fences in tenantable repair throughout the administration, and must deliver them to the heirs or devisees in that same repaired condition once the court directs the estate to be turned over to them.
What the law says
An executor or administrator shall maintain in tenantable repair the houses and other structures and fences belonging to the estate, and deliver the same in such repair to the heirs or devisees when directed so to do by the court.
Rule 84, Section 2 — Executor or administrator to keep buildings in repair. Read the full provision →
An ongoing maintenance duty, not a one-time obligation
The administrator's responsibilities toward the estate's real property are not limited to inventorying it and collecting its income. The rule imposes an affirmative, continuing duty to maintain the estate's houses, other structures, and fences in tenantable repair for as long as the administration lasts, treating upkeep as part of properly managing the estate rather than an optional courtesy toward the eventual heirs. Letting a house or fence fall into disrepair while waiting for the estate to close is not a neutral, cost-saving choice under this rule — it is a departure from what the administrator is required to do with estate property during the entire period the administration is pending.
Delivered in repair, on the court's directive
When the court eventually directs the property to be turned over, the administrator must deliver the houses, structures, and fences to the heirs or devisees in that same tenantable repair, so the maintenance duty is not satisfied by keeping things up only until distribution is announced and then letting standards slip at the last moment. The rule ties the delivery obligation to a specific trigger — the court's direction — rather than leaving the timing to the administrator's own judgment about when the estate is ready to be handed over. Until that directive issues, the maintenance duty continues to apply in full, and the tenantable-repair standard governing delivery is the same standard that applies throughout the administration, not a lower bar reserved for the moment of handover.
What property this duty covers
The maintenance and delivery duty is specifically tied to three categories of estate property: houses, other structures, and fences. It is not phrased as a general duty to preserve every asset in the estate against any form of loss, but as a targeted obligation covering the physical condition of buildings and fences belonging to the estate. Other categories of estate property are governed by the administrator's more general duties of care under the rest of Rule 84, rather than by this specific tenantable-repair standard.
Related provisions
- Rule 84, Section 2 — Executor or administrator to keep buildings in repair
- Rule 84, Section 1 — Executor or administrator to have access to partnership books and property; How right enforced