Q: can affidavit of survivorship apply to only child living with parent alone? or is intestate succession mandatory?
My mom died intestate when I was 17. I am her only child and she was a widow her only living next of kin is her brother. I am trying to avoid going through the court since washoe county doesn't want to let me file everything with the court on my own but hire an attorney instead. I realize that intestate succession can be very complicated to do properly on my own so I was wondering if there was a simpler way to transfer the estate to me without all the court fees and difficulty behind it. I realize that time is also a factor when dealing with probate situations and it has now been 8 years Ive been living in the home and nothing has been done. Is my best bet to hire an estate attorney? Please help!
A: You can't get title with an affidavit. You will need to do a probate. The proper value of the estate is the value of the home at the time of your mother's death which is probably a lot less than the current value. The Court will accept the Zillow.com value and the Zillow.com website usually lets you see the value for the last five years, although when I checked a local house right now to answer your question, Zillow.com wasn't giving me the price history. However, I mention the value at the date of your mother's death because you shouldn't let a lawyer charge you for a probate based on the current value of the estate. Yes, I believe you will have to hire a lawyer to get title and there is no point delaying if you can afford to do it now.
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