Pompano Beach, FL asked in Probate for Florida

Q: My mom passed in Florida Dec 10th 2019. No Will. No one is quite ready to do formal admin yet. how much time do we have?

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1 Lawyer Answer
Phillip William Gunthert
Phillip William Gunthert
Answered
  • Probate Lawyer
  • Orlando, FL
  • Licensed in Florida

A: Very sorry for your loss and the passing of your mom and please accept my condolences and sympathy for you and your family. There is no rush or timetable that you must adhere to in starting a probate. When there is no Will, then the Florida Intestate Statutes (without a Will) are going to apply. It is quite common for families to wait to start a probate as there can be advantages. You will want to speak with a Florida Probate Attorney in order to cover some general questions and issues but you can wait to start the probate until you are ready. Issues that you will want to stay on top of are related to any property/homestead/land that is owned, keep up with mortgage payments, taxes and especially HOA fees, keep records of all of this ongoing so it can be reimbursed later. Also, whether a Formal Probate is even going to be needed will depend upon the type of assets that exist and whether they have to go through probate at all or if some of those pass outside of probate with pay on death, transfer on death designations or any other operation of law through the way a deed is titled and held and so forth. Do not feel any pressure or stress to start or rush into a probate and allow yourself to mourn according to your own timetables. Technically, there is no obligation to start a probate ever if there is nothing to be probated or you just want to wait and can afford to wait with respect to ownership rights and other probate related needs that you want to address or feel need to be addressed. As a general point, assets of the deceased that must go through probate are the ones in your mom's name alone, there be some, none or a lot to address and those assets generally go to the surviving spouse and or children. Also, if there is a Homestead property, you do not need to refinance, you can usually just take over the mortgage as it is under federal and state laws, you will want to notify the insurance company and keep up with all the payments as discussed above.

Seril L Grossfeld agrees with this answer

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