What Is Probate in Florida? A Plain-English Guide for Heirs

Probate is the court-supervised process of transferring property that was in a deceased person’s sole name. A Florida judge confirms who is in charge, creditors get a window to file claims, debts and taxes are paid, and whatever is left goes to the beneficiaries or heirs. Only solely owned assets go through it.

Table of Contents

1. What probate actually is
2. Five things probate is not
3. Who starts it and who runs it
4. The three Florida probate tracks
5. What the court does, step by step
6. Do you need an attorney in Florida?
7. What happens to the house in the meantime
8. Your options, including the ones that do not involve us
9. Frequently asked questions

What Probate Actually Is

When someone dies, their name stays on things. A deed. A bank account. A car title. Nobody at the bank or the county can simply take that name off and write in yours.

Probate is the legal mechanism for doing it. The Florida Bar describes it as a court-supervised process for identifying and gathering the assets of a deceased person, paying their debts, and distributing what remains to the beneficiaries.

The purpose is to produce a clean chain of title that a bank, a title company and a buyer will all accept. That is the whole job.

It only applies to assets held in the sole name of the person who died. Anything with a surviving joint owner or a living named beneficiary transfers on its own, outside the process entirely.

Five Things Probate Is Not

Most of what families fear about probate is not true.

The fear	The reality
The state takes the house	Florida does not take property from heirs. Assets go to beneficiaries under the will, or to heirs under Florida’s intestacy rules when there is no will.
A will means no probate	A will directs probate. It does not replace it. Someone still has to open a case and run the process.
Probate is always years	Formal administration usually runs six to twelve months. Summary administration often finishes in weeks.
The house cannot be sold until it ends	It usually can. Once letters of administration are issued, the personal representative generally has authority to sell.
You always need to pay a lawyer up front	Attorney fees in formal administration are typically paid from estate assets, not from an heir’s own pocket.

The real difficulties are usually more mundane. Family members who disagree. Heirs who live in other states. A permit from 2004 nobody closed out. Those cause more delay than the court does.

Who Starts It and Who Runs It

Someone with an interest in the estate files the case with the clerk of court in the county where the person lived. In Broward County that is the Broward County Clerk of Courts. In Miami-Dade it is the Miami-Dade Clerk.

If there is a will, it usually names a personal representative. Other states call this role an executor. Florida uses personal representative.

The judge issues letters of administration, which is the document that proves authority. Without letters, a bank will not talk to you and a title company will not close. With them, you can act for the estate.

If there is no will, Florida law sets an order of preference for who can serve, and the court appoints accordingly.

The Three Florida Probate Tracks

	Formal administration	Summary administration	Disposition without administration
Best for	Most estates with real property or meaningful debts	Smaller estates, or any death more than two years ago	Tiny estates with only limited personal property
Value limit	None	$150,000 for deaths on or after July 1, 2026, or no limit if dead over two years	Non-exempt personal property no more than funeral plus last 60 days of medical bills
Transfers real estate	Yes	Yes	No
Personal representative appointed	Yes	No	No
Typical duration	Six to twelve months	Weeks to about two months	Days to a few weeks
Statute	Fla. Stat. ch. 733	Fla. Stat. § 735.201	Fla. Stat. § 735.301

What the Court Does, Step by Step

1. The will, if there is one, is deposited with the clerk and a petition for administration is filed.
2. The judge appoints a personal representative and issues letters of administration.
3. A notice to creditors is published, and known creditors are served individually.
4. The creditor window runs. Under section 733.702, a claim must be filed by the later of three months after first publication, or thirty days after service on that creditor.
5. The personal representative inventories the assets and determines their value.
6. Valid claims, taxes and administration costs are paid from the estate.
7. Real property can be sold during this period, with proceeds held by the estate.
8. A final accounting is filed and the remaining assets are distributed to the beneficiaries.

Step four is the one nobody can compress. It is a statutory period, not a scheduling problem. It is also why a simple Florida estate still takes about five to six months at minimum.

One more date worth knowing. Section 733.710 provides that two years after the death, the estate, the personal representative and the beneficiaries are generally not liable for claims against the person who died. Recorded mortgages and security interests survive that cutoff.

Do You Need an Attorney in Florida?

Usually yes, and the rule is specific.

Florida Probate Rule 5.030(a) provides that every personal representative, unless the personal representative remains the sole interested person, must be represented by an attorney admitted to practice in Florida. A personal representative who is themselves a Florida attorney may represent themselves in that role.

So the exception is narrow. Sole interested person means you are the only one with a stake. One sibling, one other beneficiary, or one creditor, and you need counsel.

The cost question matters less than families expect. In formal administration, attorney fees generally come out of the estate rather than an heir’s pocket. Section 733.6171 sets a schedule of fees that are presumed reasonable, starting at $1,500 for estates of $40,000 or less.

If the estate has a house but no cash, that is a real problem and a common one. It is worth raising with the attorney directly, because there are ways to handle it, including paying fees from sale proceeds at closing.

What Happens to the House in the Meantime

This is the part that costs families the most, and almost nobody explains it.

While probate runs, the house still needs to be insured, the property taxes still come due, and in a condo or an HOA community the assessments keep accruing. An empty house in Broward or Miami-Dade also needs the lawn cut and the air running, or you get a different problem.

Insurance is the sharp edge. Many carriers treat a vacant property differently from an occupied one, and a policy written for the person who died may not respond the way the family assumes.

The good news is that the house does not have to sit there until the case ends. Once letters of administration are issued, the personal representative generally can sell estate real property, subject to the will and any court approval required. The sale and the probate case can run alongside each other.

Your Options, Including the Ones That Do Not Involve Us

Not every family in probate should sell, and not every family that sells should sell to a cash buyer.

• Hire a Florida probate attorney and run the case properly. With cash in the estate and heirs who agree, this is the cleanest route and fees usually come from the estate.
• Check whether you need probate at all. If everything passed by joint title or beneficiary designation, you may already be done.
• Ask specifically about summary administration under the new $150,000 limit. It is the single biggest timeline lever available.
• List with an agent once you have authority to sell. A house in decent condition, with no time pressure, will usually net more at retail.
• Keep it. If one heir wants to live there and the others can be bought out, the process is an inconvenience rather than a crisis.
• Sell as-is to a buyer who can work alongside the case. This fits when the house needs work, when heirs are spread across states, or when nobody can carry the monthly costs.

We pay less than retail. What you get in exchange is a closing date that does not hinge on a buyer’s lender, and a buyer who has been through Broward and Miami-Dade probate closings before. If another path serves your family better, we will say so.

What To Do This Week

1. Order several certified copies of the death certificate. You will need more than you think.
2. List every asset and write next to each one whether it was in sole name, joint name, or had a beneficiary. That list is your probate estate.
3. Find the will, if there is one, and deposit it with the clerk in the county where the person lived.
4. Call a Florida probate attorney and ask which of the three tracks applies.
5. Confirm the house is insured for its current occupancy status, today.

Conclusion

Probate is paperwork with a judge attached. It exists to move a dead person’s name off a title and put a living person’s name on it, in a way banks and title companies will accept.

It only touches assets held in sole name. It usually runs six to twelve months in its formal version and weeks in its summary version. The creditor period is the part nobody can speed up, and the house can usually be sold long before the case closes.

Start with one question: what was in sole name? Everything else follows from the answer.