How Probate Works in Florida: Timeline, Costs, and Who's in Charge
If someone you love has died and left property in Florida, you have probably heard the word “probate” more times in the last month than in your whole life before. It gets said in a tone that suggests you should already know what it means. Most people don’t, and there is no reason you would. Probate is one of those processes almost nobody learns about until they are standing in the middle of it, usually while grieving, and often while trying to coordinate with siblings scattered across three time zones.
This article walks through the whole arc of a Florida probate, start to finish, in plain English: what probate actually is, where the case gets filed, the two main types of administration, who ends up in charge, what happens with creditors, and where the house — usually the largest thing in the estate — fits into all of it. One note before we start, and we will repeat it because it matters: we are property buyers, not attorneys. Nothing here is legal advice. Your probate attorney is the person who can tell you what applies to your specific estate, and nearly every family going through formal administration in Florida works with one.
What Probate Actually Is
Probate is the court-supervised process of settling a deceased person’s affairs. That is really all it is. Someone dies owning things — a house, bank accounts, a car, maybe some debts — and the law needs an orderly way to figure out what they owned, pay what they owed, and pass the rest to the right people. Probate is that orderly way.
A common misconception is that a will avoids probate. It usually doesn’t. A will is essentially a set of instructions for the probate court; it tells the court who should inherit and often who should be in charge, but the court process still has to happen for most assets titled solely in the deceased person’s name. What actually skips probate are assets that transfer automatically by their own terms: accounts with named beneficiaries, property held in a living trust, jointly owned property with survivorship rights, and so on. Anything left over — anything the deceased owned alone with no automatic transfer mechanism — generally goes through probate. For a lot of Florida families, the single biggest item in that category is the house.
Florida homestead property is its own wrinkle. A primary residence often passes outside the ordinary probate estate under Florida’s homestead rules, which protect it from most creditor claims and route it to a surviving spouse or heirs in particular ways. The house may still need a court order confirming its homestead status before anyone can sell it with clean title. This is exactly the kind of detail your attorney sorts out early, because it changes what the rest of the process looks like.
The Petition: Where Probate Begins
Probate starts when someone — typically the person named in the will, or a close family member if there is no will — files a petition with the circuit court in the county where the deceased person lived. If your mother lived in Broward County, the case is filed in Broward. If your father lived in Miami-Dade, it is filed there, even if you live in Ohio and the rest of the family lives in New York. The property and the paperwork stay anchored to the decedent’s home county.
The petition asks the court to open the estate and, in a formal administration, to appoint someone to run it. Along with the petition, the court will want the original will if one exists, a death certificate, and filing fees. Florida requires an attorney for most formal administrations, so in practice the petition is usually prepared and filed by a probate lawyer rather than by the family directly.
If you are out of state, take some comfort in this: almost everything in a Florida probate can be handled remotely. Documents are signed and returned by mail or electronically, hearings are often brief or unnecessary, and your attorney appears on the estate’s behalf. Families settle Florida estates from across the country all the time. If that is your situation, our article on managing a Florida estate from out of state goes deeper.
Two Tracks: Formal and Summary Administration
Florida probate runs on two main tracks, and which one applies shapes everything downstream — the timeline, the cost, and how a property sale works.
Formal administration is the standard, full process. The court appoints a personal representative, creditors get formal notice and a window to make claims, assets are inventoried, debts and expenses are paid, and whatever remains is distributed. Most estates that include a house of meaningful value go through formal administration.
Summary administration is a shortened process available in two situations: when the value of the estate’s nonexempt assets is $75,000 or less, or when the person has been dead for more than two years. There is no personal representative appointed; instead, the court issues an order distributing assets directly. It is faster and cheaper, but it is not right for every estate that technically qualifies — more on that below.
| Formal Administration | Summary Administration | |
|---|---|---|
| Who qualifies | Any estate; required for most larger ones | Nonexempt assets ≤ $75,000, or death more than 2 years ago |
| Who’s in charge | Court-appointed personal representative | No personal representative; court orders distribution |
| Typical timeline | Commonly 6–12 months | Often a matter of weeks to a few months |
| Creditor process | Formal notice; roughly 90-day claim window | No formal creditor process; petitioners can carry exposure |
| Best suited for | Estates with a house to sell, debts to resolve, or any complexity | Small, simple estates with no creditor concerns |
An important nuance hiding in that table: the $75,000 test counts nonexempt assets, and Florida homestead property is generally exempt. That means an estate whose only real asset is a $400,000 homestead house can sometimes still qualify for summary administration, because the house doesn’t count against the cap. Whether that is actually the smart route is a separate question, and it is one worth asking your attorney carefully. We compare the two tracks in detail in summary vs. formal administration.
The Personal Representative and Letters of Administration
In a formal administration, the court appoints a personal representative — Florida’s term for what other states call an executor. If the will names someone, the court usually appoints that person, provided they are qualified to serve. If there is no will, Florida law sets an order of preference, starting with the surviving spouse and then the heirs.
Once appointed, the personal representative receives a document called Letters of Administration. Despite the name, it is not correspondence — it is a court order, typically a page or two, stating that this person has legal authority to act for the estate. The Letters are the key that opens every door that follows. Banks want to see them before releasing account information. Title companies want to see them before insuring a sale. Utility companies, insurers, the post office — the Letters are what turn “I’m his daughter” into “I’m legally authorized to handle this.”
The personal representative’s job is genuinely a job. It includes securing and maintaining estate property, notifying interested parties, inventorying assets, paying legitimate debts and expenses, filing any required tax returns, and eventually distributing what remains and closing the estate. It comes with fiduciary duties to every beneficiary and to creditors — meaning the representative must act in the estate’s interest, not their own, and can be personally liable for serious missteps. If you have just been handed this role, our guide on what a personal representative can and can’t do with estate property is written for you.
Notice to Creditors: The 90-Day Window
One of the personal representative’s early tasks is dealing with the deceased person’s debts. Florida handles this through a formal notice process. The estate publishes a notice to creditors and directly notifies known creditors, and creditors then have a limited window — roughly 90 days from publication in the typical case — to file claims against the estate.
This step is a big part of why formal probate takes as long as it does, and it is also one of probate’s most underrated features. Once the window closes, claims that were not properly filed are generally barred. That gives the family real finality: when the estate closes, the debts are resolved, and heirs are not left wondering whether a credit card company will surface two years later. Debts get paid from estate assets before beneficiaries receive distributions — which, as we will see, is one of the most common reasons estates sell the house during administration rather than after.
It is worth saying clearly, because it is a fear many heirs carry quietly: in general, you do not inherit your parent’s debts personally. Creditors claim against the estate’s assets. If the estate cannot cover everything, there is a legal order for who gets paid, and the shortfall does not ordinarily become the children’s problem. Your attorney can confirm how this plays out for your estate, especially where a mortgage on the house is involved.
Inventorying the Estate — and Why the House Dominates
Within the early months, the personal representative files an inventory: a list of what the estate owns and what each item is reasonably worth. For bank accounts this is easy. For real estate, it usually means getting an appraisal or at least a credible market value as of the date of death.
That date-of-death value matters beyond the inventory. Under federal tax law, inherited property generally receives a step-up in basis to its value at death, which can dramatically reduce capital gains tax when the property is later sold. Documenting the value now, while the estate is open, saves real money and headaches later. We explain this in plain terms in our article on the step-up in basis.
In estate after estate, the inventory tells the same story: the house is the biggest line by far. Retirement accounts often pass outside probate to named beneficiaries. Bank balances are usually modest. The house — often owned for decades, often paid off or nearly so — routinely represents the large majority of what the family will actually inherit. That is why so much of probate, practically speaking, revolves around one question: what happens to the house?
Where a Sale Fits Into Probate
Here is the part that surprises many families: you usually do not have to wait for probate to end before selling the property. A personal representative with Letters of Administration can often sell estate real estate while the administration is open — sometimes on their own authority if the will grants a power of sale, sometimes with a court order approving the sale. The mechanics differ, but sales during administration are routine in Florida. We walk through exactly how it works in can you sell a house while probate is still open.
Why do so many estates sell during probate rather than after? A few practical reasons come up constantly:
- The estate needs cash. Creditor claims, attorney fees, court costs, and taxes get paid from estate assets. If the estate is mostly a house and a small checking account, selling the house is how those obligations get funded.
- Carrying costs don’t pause. Property taxes, insurance, utilities, lawn care, and any mortgage payments continue every month the estate holds the property. On a Florida house, insurance alone can be a painful line item, and insuring a vacant house is harder and pricier still.
- Splitting money is easier than splitting a house. When several heirs inherit together, selling and dividing proceeds is usually far simpler than co-owning a property, and it heads off the disagreements that co-ownership tends to breed. If your family is wrestling with that, our article on multiple heirs and one house may help.
When a sale happens during administration, the proceeds go into the estate’s account — not directly to the heirs. The estate pays what it owes, and heirs receive their shares through the normal distribution process. That order of operations protects everyone, including the personal representative.
Distribution and Closing the Estate
Once the creditor window has closed, claims are resolved, taxes are handled, and assets are gathered or sold, the estate moves to its final act. The personal representative prepares an accounting showing what came in, what went out, and what remains; distributes the remaining assets to beneficiaries according to the will or Florida’s intestacy rules; obtains receipts; and petitions the court to close the estate and discharge the representative from further duty.
That discharge is worth something. It formally ends the personal representative’s responsibility and, done properly, protects them from later claims about how the estate was handled. It is the finish line, and reaching it cleanly is a big part of why representatives lean on their attorneys throughout rather than improvising.
How Long, and How Much?
The honest ranges: summary administration often wraps up in weeks to a few months. Formal administration commonly runs 6 to 12 months, and longer when there is a will contest, a missing heir, a creditor dispute, or a property matter that needs court attention. Costs include court filing fees (typically a few hundred dollars), attorney fees (Florida statute provides a presumptive fee schedule tied to estate size), and the personal representative’s compensation — all paid by the estate, not by heirs out of pocket. We break both topics down honestly in how long probate really takes and what Florida probate costs.
If the Estate Includes a House You Plan to Sell
Whatever else is in the estate, the house usually ends up being the central decision. Some families list it with an agent, invest in repairs and cleanout, and wait for a retail buyer — often the right call for a house in good shape when nobody needs the money quickly. Others prefer to sell as-is to a direct buyer, trading some price for certainty, speed, and not managing a renovation from another state.
That second path is what we do. 123SellCash buys inherited and probate properties across Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties, as-is, for cash — full of furniture, behind on maintenance, mid-probate, it doesn’t matter. We are a family business that has worked in Florida real estate since 1995, we coordinate with your probate attorney and the title company so the sale closes the way the court expects, and we will tell you plainly that a cash offer is a trade-off: you will typically net less than a well-executed retail sale, in exchange for zero repairs, zero cleanout, and a closing date the estate can plan around. If it is worth comparing, request a no-obligation offer — and read how it works first so you know exactly what to expect. Either way, let your attorney drive the legal side. That is what they are there for.