Portland, OR asked in Real Estate Law for Oregon

Q: Can a homeowner lease out property that is co-owned by their deceased siblings who is an heir to without doing probate.

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1 Lawyer Answer

A: The direct answer to your question is, "it happens all the time." One day, the person will want to sell the property. When that happens, the title situation will need to be cleared up.

The co-owned issue can be fixed by filing the certificates of death for the siblings with Deeds & Records of the county in which the property resides. That is, unless the co-ownership was not a survivorship-styled interest.

If the property was held as tenants-in-common, but not with right-of-survivorship, then some form of probate court proceeding is required.

If the value of the interest is under $200,000, then a "small estate affidavit" can be used to transfer the interest. If the value of a sibling's interest is more than $200,000, then there needs to be a full probate.

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