Allegan, MI asked in Real Estate Law, Estate Planning and Probate for Michigan

Q: How to find the status of a property / parcel if the publicly listed owner has passed some time (year) ago?

It has been a year or so and the property did *not* have a will attached (according to an heir with whom I briefly spoke) and was to go through probate.

As I'm following-up currently the records still only list the decedent, and as I understood it probate usually takes under about six months? A search of county probate cases haven't shown anything for the name and/or address and the property appears vacant (but I am not totally sure about that one) could it be lack of resources to pay court fees, etc or would a lroperty enter the either way?

Ty

1 Lawyer Answer
Brent T. Geers
Brent T. Geers
Answered
  • Estate Planning Lawyer
  • Grand Rapids, MI
  • Licensed in Michigan

A: The property will not change hands until someone (usually an heir) commences the probate process. It is not uncommon, although unwise for a number of reasons, for houses to be held in a deceased person's name while family members continue to live there for sometimes multiple generations. As long as the taxes and any mortgage is being paid, it's fine. The problem comes when someone wants to sell the property and find out they don't have legal authority to do so without the probate process.

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