Q: Friend passed away. Mother inherited house. House is under mortgage. Lender has offered to refinance to avoid probate?!
My friend passed away and set his mother as the beneficiary. To avoid probate, the lender claims they will simply refinance with the mother in her own name and probate will not be needed. Is this even remotely accurate? From every piece of research I have done, probate MUST be started to properly inherit the title. If they can do this, will the title be clean? Could the home be resold? Is the lender just clueless here? They were ADAMANT that they could do this and probate wasn't necessary. I'm totally at a loss as to what to believe here.
A: You are correct. While the mother could certainly re-finance, her new loan would not be properly secured by her interest in the home, absent probate.
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