Selling an inherited house in Florida: does it need probate, and who signs the deed?

Not always. It depends on how the person who died held title, and the deed that put them in title, in the county's official records, is where that is read.

One detail in the first row is often misread. In Florida a deed to two or more people creates a tenancy in common unless the deed "shall expressly provide for the right of survivorship"; the exception is a married couple's estate by the entireties (Fla. Stat. § 689.15). So a house deeded to a parent and a child, or to two siblings, with no survivorship words in the deed, does not go to the survivor. The share of the one who died passes through that person's estate.

In the first three rows no probate is needed to pass the title, but the record still has to show the death and who holds title now.

For a trust, where the recorded deed names someone trustee and gives the trustee power to sell, that power vests in the named trustee, and a buyer is not obliged to inquire into the beneficiaries or into any unrecorded trust agreement (§ 689.073(1)–(2)). After the death of the person who set the trust up, the question is who the trustee is now. A trustee may answer it with a certification of trust in place of the whole trust instrument: it states that the trust exists, who the acting trustee is and what the trustee's powers are, and it need not contain the trust's dispositive terms (§ 736.1017).

On its own, nothing a buyer can rely on. "Until admitted to probate in this state or in the state where the decedent was domiciled, the will shall be ineffective to prove title to, or the right to possession of, property of the testator" (Fla. Stat. § 733.103(1)).

The right to what a will gives vests at the death (§ 732.514), and so does an heir's right to property that passes without a will (§ 732.101(2)). The public record shows neither until the court's file does.

Where there is no will, the statute names the heirs. The surviving spouse takes the whole intestate estate if the decedent left no descendants, or if every descendant is also the spouse's and the spouse has no other descendants; otherwise the spouse takes one-half (§ 732.102). What does not pass to the spouse goes to the descendants, then to the parents, then to brothers and sisters and their descendants (§ 732.103). Where there is doubt about who is entitled, or in what shares, any interested person may ask the court to determine the beneficiaries (§ 733.105(1)). Homestead passes by its own rule, below.

The personal representative: the person the court appoints to administer the estate, whom a will may call an executor (Fla. Stat. § 731.201(28)). The court's grant of authority is called letters of administration (§ 731.201(24)), and the personal representative's powers begin on appointment (§ 733.601). Whether the personal representative can sell without going back to the court depends on the will (§ 733.613).

• The will gives a power of sale. Where the will confers a specific power to sell real property, or a general power to sell any asset of the estate, the personal representative may sell "without authorization or confirmation of court" (§ 733.613(2)).
• There is no will, or no usable power of sale. The personal representative may still sell, but "No title shall pass until the court authorizes or confirms the sale" (§ 733.613(1)).

A buyer in a sale made under a specific power to sell real property, or under a court order authorizing or confirming it, "takes title free of claims of creditors of the estate and entitlements of estate beneficiaries, except existing mortgages or other liens against real property are not affected" (§ 733.613(3)). The estate's unsecured debts stay with the estate. A mortgage on the house stays on the house, and is paid off at the closing as on any sale.

Then it follows its own rule, which starts in the Florida Constitution. A homestead "shall not be subject to devise if the owner is survived by spouse or minor child, except the homestead may be devised to the owner's spouse if there be no minor child" (Fla. Const. art. X, § 4(c); Fla. Stat. § 732.4015(1)). The limit reaches a home held in a trust the owner could revoke, as if the owner held it directly (§ 732.4015(2)).

Where the homestead was not devised as the law allows, it descends like other intestate property, with one difference. If the owner left a spouse and one or more descendants, the spouse takes a life estate and the descendants take the remainder (§ 732.401(1)). In place of the life estate the spouse may elect an undivided one-half interest as a tenant in common, with the other half vesting in the descendants. The election must be made within 6 months after the death, by a notice recorded in the county's official records, and once made it is irrevocable (§ 732.401(2)). None of this applies to property the owner held as a tenant by the entireties or as a joint tenant with rights of survivorship (§ 732.401(5)).

A homestead whose protection passes at the owner's death to the surviving spouse or heirs is "protected homestead" (§ 731.201(33)), and it is kept apart from the rest of the estate. Every personal representative takes possession of the decedent's property "except the protected homestead" (§ 733.607(1)), and it is not among the assets in the personal representative's hands for paying claims (§ 733.608(1)). The constitution's protection from the owner's creditors "shall inure to the surviving spouse or heirs of the owner" (art. X, § 4(b)).

For a sale, that means the people the homestead passed to are the ones who convey it, and all of them: a spouse holding a life estate cannot convey the whole without the descendants who hold the remainder. Whether the property was homestead is for the probate court; § 733.608(2) speaks of "a determination of its homestead status", and subsection (11) of the court's finding that property is not protected homestead. Where one of the descendants is a minor, how that interest is conveyed is a question for counsel and the court.

Summary administration is the shorter probate proceeding. It is available where any will does not direct administration under chapter 733, and either the estate subject to administration in Florida, "less the value of property exempt from the claims of creditors", does not exceed $150,000, or the decedent has been dead for more than 2 years (Fla. Stat. § 735.201). The figure was $75,000 until 1 July 2026 (Laws of Fla. ch. 2026-57, §§ 7 and 14).

The court's order assigns the property to the people entitled to it, and they are the ones who sign a deed to a buyer. The buyer is protected by name: "After the entry of the order, bona fide purchasers for value from those to whom property of the decedent may be assigned by the order shall take the property free of all claims of creditors of the decedent and all rights of the surviving spouse and all other beneficiaries" (§ 735.206(4)(c)).

The people who receive property under the order remain personally liable for a pro rata share of lawful claims against the decedent, up to the value of what each received and leaving out exempt property. After 2 years from the death neither the estate nor they are liable for any claim against the decedent, unless proceedings have been taken to enforce it (§ 735.206(4)(e)–(f)).

The probate statutes give three ways to bring an out-of-state owner's estate into the Florida record.

• Ancillary administration. When a nonresident dies leaving assets in Florida, a personal representative qualified to act in Florida is issued ancillary letters, with the same powers as any other Florida personal representative to sell local property (Fla. Stat. § 734.102(1), (7)).
• A small estate with a will. Where a nonresident left a will and Florida property with a gross value of not more than $50,000 at the date of death, the personal representative appointed in the other state may, within 2 years after the death, file an authenticated transcript of the proceedings there, and the Florida court admits a will that meets Florida's execution requirements (§ 734.1025(1)).
• An older estate. At any time after 2 years from the death, or after the personal representative in the home state has been discharged, and where no proceeding to administer the estate was brought in Florida, an authenticated copy of a will probated in another state that devises Florida real property may be admitted to record in the county where the property is. Once admitted it is "as valid and effectual to pass title to real property" as a will admitted to probate here (§ 734.104(1), (4)).

Which of the three fits an estate is its attorney's call.

The periods are written into the statute.

None of them touches a recorded mortgage. The 2-year bar "shall not affect the lien of any duly recorded mortgage" (§ 733.710(3)), and the claims deadline does not prevent "a proceeding to enforce any mortgage, security interest, or other lien on property of the decedent" (§ 733.702(4)(a)). How long does a Florida title search and closing take? has the payoff deadline.

Where the decedent was 55 or older, the personal representative must also serve the notice to creditors on the Agency for Health Care Administration (§ 733.2121(3)(d)).

A buyer cares because the sentences that free a buyer from the claims of the decedent's creditors are specific about the sales they cover: one under a specific power of sale or the court's order (§ 733.613(3)), and one from the people an order of summary administration assigned the property to (§ 735.206(4)(c)). A deed from heirs with no court file behind it has neither.

Not Florida's, for a death after 31 December 2004 where, at the death, federal law allowed no state estate tax credit or generation-skipping transfer credit: such an estate "shall not be subject to a lien" for Florida estate tax, and its personal representative need not file an affidavit that no tax is due (Fla. Stat. § 198.32(3)).

Federal estate tax is separate. Where an estate owes it, it is a lien on the gross estate for 10 years from the date of death unless it is paid sooner (26 U.S.C. § 6324(a)(1)). That is federal tax law rather than Florida title practice, and whether an estate owes the tax is a question for its CPA or tax counsel.

Two things. The owner's policy the person who died took out when they bought does not end at the death: under the standard owner's form, coverage reaches those who succeed to the title by operation of law rather than by purchase, such as heirs, and it ends when the property is sold. And the buyer needs a policy of their own; an heir nobody knew about is one of the problems an owner's policy protects a buyer against. Florida title insurance: the complete 2026 guide has both.

Look for the earlier policy in the papers from the purchase. Where the rule's conditions are met it earns the buyer the reissue rate, which the reissue rate calculator works out.

The sale itself is priced as any other. The deed carries documentary stamp tax of $3,500 on a $500,000 price outside Miami-Dade, and the seller's closing costs page sets out the rest.

What a title agency needs to hear on the first call follows from everything above:

• the date of death, and whether a probate has been opened: where, the case number, and the attorney's name;
• whether there is a will, and whether the original has been deposited with the clerk;
• whether the person was married at the death, whether any child is a minor, and whether the house was their home;
• whether the owner lived in Florida or in another state;
• any letters of administration and court orders already entered;
• the owner's policy and the closing papers from the purchase, if they can be found;
• where each person who will sign lives, including anyone outside the United States.

Heirs are often in several places. Everyone on a file can usually sign a different way, and Mobile and remote signings sets the ways side by side. Where a seller is a foreign person, federal law makes the buyer withhold 15% of the amount realized unless an exception applies; FIRPTA withholding on a Florida closing has the rule, and The seller is overseas. How do they sign a Florida closing? has the signing.

From the beginning, whenever a court has to act. Opening a probate, a summary administration or an ancillary proceeding; a petition to determine homestead or beneficiaries; the surviving spouse's election, which has a 6-month limit; an heir who cannot be found; a minor's interest; a will that is contested; and any tax question are legal work, for the estate's own Florida probate attorney or its CPA. We can tell you what the title record needs. We are not lawyers, and we do not advise on how to get it.