Generally, you cannot legally sell a house solely owned by a deceased person until the probate process has begun and a personal representative (executor) is appointed to gain legal authority. While you can list the home, final sale, exchange, or closing usually requires the Grant of Probate or Letters Testamentary.
As we have established, you can value and put a property on the market before a Grant is applied for or issued, but you cannot complete the sale of it until after you receive the Grant. This means that exchange or completion cannot take place until the Grant is issued by the Probate Registry.
A house can avoid probate if it has been passed on to a survivor via a living trust, joint ownership, or a transfer on death deed. If not, the property will usually end up in the probate process regardless of a will. The quick answer is no, you cannot sell a house before probate.
The executor will need to apply for a Grant of Probate from the Probate Registry. You're not able to make any financial plans or sell a property until you've received a Grant of Probate. Applying for a Grant of Probate is usually one of the first administrative actions that you take after someone has died.
In a probate sale of real estate, the property is usually sold “as-is;” heirs or beneficiaries of the estate are often unable to do the repairs or updates that might typically be done before selling a house. In some cases, it may be necessary to sell the house during probate in order to satisfy the debts of the estate.
When selling a house in probate, maximizing the home sale can best serve the estate's interests. Depending on your loved one's estate planning and your own familiarity with such matters, you might not need a probate attorney. However, you will still need to be legally authorized to handle the disposal of the property.
One common method is to create a revocable trust. A revocable trust allows you to maintain control of your property during your life, and decide how the property is distributed after death, without needing to go through probate court.
That being said, it is never a good idea to delay the inevitable. California Probate Code section 8001 specifies that the executor has 30 days after the decedent's date of death and after learning they are the nominated executor to petition the court for administration of the estate.
Once you've applied for a grant of probate, you'll need to wait up to 12 weeks to be given it, though the turnaround can be quicker if you apply online (rather than by post) and provide all relevant information at the first time of asking.
Probate serves several important purposes: it validates the will, protects creditors by ensuring debts are paid, resolves disputes among heirs or beneficiaries, and provides a clear legal path for transferring ownership of assets.
There's no deadline by which you must sell a house after someone dies. However, the sooner the better, because as more time passes, more problems come up with the property, the family, the long probate process, or all of the above.
To Save Money
Because probate can be a drawn-out legal process, it can also be expensive. Avoiding probate helps you save money by: Saving on attorney and court fees. A probate attorney can help ensure the most positive outcome from probate proceedings, but you do have to pay for those legal services.
This is a legal document which gives you the authority to share out the estate of the person who has died according to the instructions in the will. You do not always need probate to be able to deal with the estate. If you've been named in a will as an executor, you don't have to act if you don't want to.
Here are the most common reasons for delays in probate administration:
Gift of an Existing Life Insurance Policy.
If an individual gifts a policy he or she owns on his or her life and continues to pay premiums and dies within three years of the transfer, the full death proceeds will be included in the insured's gross estate.
Circumstances where probate isn't required for the deceased's estate. You can avoid the probate process in certain circumstances: if the deceased's assets have a low value; if assets are owned with someone else; and if what seems to be owned by the deceased person is actually not owned by them.
If the total held by each bank or building society falls below their threshold, then you usually won't need a grant of probate for the money to be released. If it falls above the threshold, then you probably will need to apply for probate.
How to find out if a Will has been probated
You can expect to receive inheritance money anywhere from a few months to over a year, with simple estates often settling in 6-12 months, while complex ones with taxes, disputes, or many assets might take years, depending heavily on probate/trust administration, asset types, and creditor claims. After the court grants probate (if needed), final distribution often takes another 3-6 months, but this varies greatly.