You've inherited property | Now what?
Many people have to deal with a major life transition where someone close passes away and suddenly they find out they have inherited a property. This article helps you figure out the next steps in handling an inherited property situation in Florida, whether you want to sell it or just keep it.
The First Step is to File Probate
When you find out that you’ve inherited property, the first step is to file probate with the local court where the deceased lived. Probate is a legal process where the assets of the deceased are distributed according to their wishes (if they left a will) and/or their heirs. In brief, the court appoints someone (referred to as the Personal Representative or PR) to manage the estate’s affairs. The PR then handles a number of things including: taking an inventory of all assets, notifying creditors, paying off creditors as required, distributing the remaining assets to the heirs, and finally closing the probate file.
There are different types of probate depending on the situation. For a thorough understanding of the probate process, we do a deep dive covering the filing of probate in Florida in another detailed article.
This article is not intended to be legal advice or a substitute for hiring a qualified probate attorney. It is highly recommended that you consult with a probate attorney who is licensed and experienced in Florida probate law before you file probate.
Common Questions
You do not have to file probate in all cases. However, this process allows creditors a fixed time-frame to file claims against the deceased’s estate. If Probate is not filed with the court and assets are distributed to heirs, creditors may be able to make claims directly against the heirs later on.
For estates of low value or where there is only one beneficiary, then you do not absolutely need to hire an attorney to handle probate for you. If the estate is of higher value and/or has multuple heirs, then yes, you will need to hire an attorney.
That being said, the difference between handling probate yourself versus hiring a qualified local attorney can mean the difference between months versus years for probate to be completed.
According to Florida law, the guidelines for reasonable attorney fees range from $1,500 for estates valued at less than $40K, to $3,000 for estates up to $900K in value.
Some firms also charge flat fee rates for filing probate which may save you some money.
This can get very complicated depending on many factors like whether the deceased is married, has a living spouse, multiple descendants, living parents, living children etcetera. Ultimately, the court will divide the estate according to Florida law.
The Florida bar has an excellent article that answers “who gets what” when there is no will.
Probate's Been Filed | What's next?
At this point, the Court has assigned a Personal Representative to manage the deceased’s estate, and all the assets have been indentified, including the property you’ve inherited. The heirs then have to decide what they want to do with the property, whether they want to keep it or sell it.
I want to sell the inherited property
You’ve decided to sell your inherited property. Your next step is to contact us regarding the property you want to sell. You can either call us at 407-738-1581 or fill out our Fair Cash Offer Form online. We then go through the process of how we buy houses, ask a couple of questions about the property and give you a written offer on a FARBAR contract, the standard form used in the state of Florida for buying and selling property.
You then present the executed contract to the court and get authorization to sell the property. Once you are given the go-ahead, we contact a local reputable Title Company who handles prepares all the paperwork and completes the sale transaction. We pay for all the fees covering the sale, so you don’t have to worry about that. The money from the sale is then paid to the Personal Representative or through the court, depending on where you are in the probate process. The funds are then distributed to the heirs per the court’s instructions.
You also have the option of completing the entire probate process first and then selling the property. However, this will cost you both extra time and money. The probate process can take anywhere from a few months to several years.
If you wait until probate has been completed,
- You have to cover the cost of transferring the property twice; first the cost to transfer the property into your name and then again to transfer the property into the buyer’s name.
- You have to continue to pay the all the expenses of the property; this includes property taxes, utilities, repairs and the mortgage (if one exists).
Common Questions
Experience: We’ve been helping heirs sell their inherited property in Florida since 2014. We understand the probate process and won’t waste your time.
Sell on your timeline: Probate can be a lengthy process. We are flexible on timing and can close in as little as 7 days; we are ready when you are ready.
Stress-free: We buy houses in their present as-is condition. This means that you don’t have to lift a finger to clean the property, undertake repairs or “get it ready” for a sale.
The answer is “it depends”; anywhere from 3 months to a couple of years. The time it takes to sell your inherited property will depend on a number of factors, including how many heirs there are and the attorney you choose. The more heirs there are, the more difficult it becomes to make decisions on what to do with the property which will slow things down considerably.
Once the heirs do decide to sell the property though, the process will go very quickly with House Solutions USA; we have bought property in as little as 7 days.
The attorney you select is also very important, especially if you live out of state. You should strongly consider hiring an attorney who specializes in probate AND who is local to the area where the case is filed. We have heard nightmare stories from heirs who don’t live in Florida and hired an attorney in their home state just because they knew them.
If you are selling your inherited property to us, the answer is no. We understand how emotionally and financially stressful it can be to clean up the home of the deceased.
We mean it when we say we buy houses AS-IS. Whether it’s clothes, furniture or needs a ot of repairs, it does not matter. We take care of all of it.
No, you do not need to wait until the probate process is closed/completed to sell your inherited property.
In fact, it may save you both time and money in fees/taxes if you sell the property directly from the estate.
I want to keep my inherited property
In some cases, you may decide to keep your inherited property either because family members are going to live in it or for just purely sentimental reasons. Once the court gives the go ahead, you can then transfer the property into your name. Your probate attorney can usually handle the transfer of the property; alternatively, you can hire a Title company to handle the transaction.
In either instance, you have to pay money out of your pocket to cover the paperwork, plus state taxes and most likely Title Insurance. If there are any liens against the property, you may have to pay those as well.
Then there are the costs associated with property itself. As we get older, many people tend to hold on to a lot of things and defer maintenance around the house for monetary reasons. As such, it is quite common for inherited property to be cluttered with personal effects and requiring a number of repairs. If you plan to keep your inherited property, you should prepare yourself for the emotional, mental and physical stress of cleaning out the home.
You should also budget how much money it is going to take care of all the repairs, as well as keeping the property going in terms of property taxes, utilities, home insurance and the mortgage (if there is one). These expenses can run into tens of thousands of dollars, so it is best to plan for them in advance.
If keeping your inherited property sounds like more than you bargained for, contact us today. It costs you nothing, and you will at least have an idea how much money you can get if you sell your inherited property without having to do all the work and spending any of your own money.
Common Questions
Depending on your financial circumstances, it may be difficult to keep the house if it has a mortgage.
If there’s a mortgage on a house in Florida, then the bank has a lien against the property that is recorded. There may be language in the mortgage documents that indicates the balance of the loan becomes due immediately upon death of the owner; this is sometimes referred to as an acceleration clause. The deceased’s debts have to be paid off before you can keep the house; they do not go away when the owner passes away.
If the bank is aware that the property owner has passed away, they may write the estate asking for the loan to be repaid in full. You can then contact the bank and request that they give you some time to get a mortgage loan to pay them off; you continue to pay the existing mortgage while you get financing to buy the house. If you are able to get a loan, then you put yourself in a position to pay off the existing mortgage and keep the house. If not, the bank may choose to file a foreclosure action to take the inherited property back to cover the outstanding loan balance. This is one of the reasons why many heirs choose to sell inherited property.
If the bank does not know about the owner’s death, they may take no action once the mortgage continues to be paid on time. Many banks don’t care as long as they continue to receive their monthly payments. However, even if you make monthly payments, this is not the same as keeping the inherited property. You still have to go through the costly legal process of transferring the property to your name, so confronting the payoff of the mortgage debt is inevitable.
It can be very difficult to get multiple heirs to agree on anything, especially when the deceased did not leave very clear instructions (with a living will).
It is important that they understand that they risk losing money and sometimes the entire inherited property if they don’t agree in a reasonable time frame. If there is a mortgage, the bank is not going to wait until all the heirs are on the same page. They will file a foreclosure suit against the property and you risk losing the property completely.
Similarly, the local county is not going to wait either. If the property taxes are not paid in a timely manner, the county can auction off the inherited property. We once dealt with a case where a home that housed a family for 3 generations was sold on auction because the heirs could not agree on who should pay the property taxes. They actually lost the house because they could not agree.
Effective impartial communication is important. Consider asking a third party like an attorney or family friend to intervene.
This article is provided to you for informational purposes; it is not intended to be legal advice or a substitute for hiring a qualified probate attorney. It is recommended that you consult with a probate attorney who is licensed and experienced in Florida probate law before you start the probate process.
As you can see, inheriting property does come with some effort. If you plan to sell the home, remember that you don’t have to clean it, fix it or touch it to sell the inherited property; just reach out to us early in the process so that we can help you expedite the sale in an easy, stress-free manner.
If you plan on keeping the property to live in it or rent it out, make sure their are no unknown liens against the property, and then budget enough money to clean it up, fix all the items that need repairs and pay the property taxes, insurance and mortgage.