Article 17 of the Saudi Minors' Property Guardianship Law

This article sets out the list of important dealings that the Authority's administration may carry out only with the approval of the Board of Directors and under its supervision, without prejudice to what the applicable laws provide. The aim is to protect the funds of minors and those treated like them from individual decisions on large matters.

The most important of these dealings are:

• Acquisition and investment: acquiring real estate, movables and securities; acquiring, participating in or establishing companies; and investing and liquidating funds.
• Real estate: any dealing that transfers its ownership or creates, changes or transfers a real right over it, and leasing real estate for more than three years or for a term extending more than one year after the minor reaches the age of majority.
• Valuable movables: disposing of firearms and ammunition, and of antiques and antiquities; and likewise disposing of jewelry, gems, precious stones and the like, and of non-perishable movables, personal rights and securities, if their prices exceed SAR 50,000.
• Affairs of those covered: determining the maintenance needed for them and for those they must support, and what is spent on preparing housing or marriage.
• Rights and obligations: carrying out the decedent's dispositions after verifying his commitment to them, discharging obligations established against the estate where there is no enforceable instrument, waiving rights where this serves the interest of those covered, and settlement and arbitration above SAR 50,000.
• Carrying out commercial, industrial or agricultural activities or liquidating them, and accepting or refusing donations.
• In liquidation, the Authority may undertake partition, absorption, buy-out of a share and sale, on delegation from the heirs or partners or by ruling of the competent court.
• Any other act that the Board considers to need its prior approval.

The Board may delegate some of these powers to the head of the Authority, one of its staff, or one of its committees. Anyone with an interest in one of these dealings can consult a lawyer who specializes in personal status and estates.