Q: My grandfather left his house to me in his will ,so after the reading of the will can I change the locks on the house

A: The short answer is no. The house must pass through the estate administration. The executor must first ensure that your grandfather's debts, if any are addressed, that the administrative expenses of the estate are paid, and the required inheritance tax and any other tax obligations that may exist are addressed. Payment of all of these obligations must be addressed before assets can be distributed to beneficiaries named in the Will. Assuming all of those obligations are met, then the executor would transfer the house from the estate to you if that is what the WIll calls for. So you will need to wait a bit for the administration to be carried out before you can start doing things like changing locks.

A: As Attorney Asbel has stated, the short answer is NO. The Executor of the Estate has certain procedures he or she must follow in order to carry out the provisions in your Grandfather's Will. These procedures are designed to protect the Executor , as well as the beneficiaries such as yourself, from any liabilities after the Estate administration is completed. It often takes up to a year for an Executor to make sure that all debts and taxes are paid during the Estate administration. If there are sufficient other assets in the Estate, and the Executor is comfortable that all debts and taxes can be paid from those assets, the Executor may decide to make specific distributions such as yours earlier, but that is at the discretion of the Executor and not a decision that you can make on your own.