Q: Title to house was joint tenants, mom and son. Mother died. Does house need to go to probate?
Also she died in April and the will has not been filed so we are over the 30 days as we were not aware of that time frame. Can we still have it filed and who can file it?
A:
If the house was properly titled to mom and son as joint tenants, the house won't need to be probated. Check with a Missouri probate or real estate attorney to see if it was properly titled as joint tenants and have the lawyer draft an affidavit of death of joint tenant or other document to make title official solely in the son.
Usually, an original will should be filed by the person in possession of it and usually delay in filing the original will does not have any bad consequences as long as no one was harmed by the delay in filing and there was no intent to defraud anyone. But, again, please check with a Missouri lawyer.
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