Estate and Probate Homes

Why this matters

When an owner dies, the house does not stop needing work. The furnace still fails in January, the roof still leaks, and the house usually has to be cleaned out, repaired and sold. But the person who calls you is no longer the owner, often not the person with authority to hire you, sometimes one of several relatives who disagree, and almost never someone who knows how they will pay. Shops that treat an estate house like any other service call end up with work nobody authorized, an invoice nobody owns, and a sibling accusing them of taking sides. The trade work is ordinary. Everything around it is not.

This card is the landscape: who has authority and when, what the house is likely to look like, and how estate money moves. The procedure for confirming authority before you start is its own article. See related: Getting Authorization to Work on a Probate Property.

This is not legal advice. Probate is entirely state law, and states differ on nearly every point below.

The vocabulary you will hear on the first call

• Decedent: the person who died.
• Probate: the court process that settles a decedent's estate: confirming the will if there is one, appointing someone to manage the estate, paying debts, and distributing what is left.
• Executor: the person named in the will to manage the estate. Named is not the same as appointed; the court still has to appoint them.
• Administrator: the person the court appoints when there is no will, or the named executor cannot serve.
• Personal representative: the general term many states use for either. You will hear all three.
• Letters testamentary (with a will) or letters of administration (without): the court document that gives the personal representative authority to act for the estate. This is the paper that matters.
• Heir or beneficiary: someone who will inherit. Being an heir gives no authority to hire anyone.
• Successor trustee: when the house was held in a living trust, the person who takes over as trustee manages it, usually without probate.

Who can actually hire you, and when

Before the court appoints anyone, generally nobody can bind the estate. The named executor has no legal authority until the court issues letters, which takes anywhere from a few weeks to several months depending on the state and the court's backlog. A son with the house keys and a copy of the will is, legally, a relative with keys.

A power of attorney ends at death. This catches families constantly. The daughter who managed her mother's affairs under a durable power of attorney for years lost that authority the moment her mother died. She may genuinely not know this.

A trust works differently. If the house was titled to a living trust, the successor trustee usually has authority right away under the trust document, without a court, and can show you a certification of trust instead of letters.

Small estates may skip full probate. Most states have a simplified procedure, often a sworn affidavit, for estates below a threshold. Whether real estate can pass that way, and the threshold, vary widely by state. California, for instance, has a separate small-estate path for real property with its own limit; many states do not allow real property through the simplest affidavit at all.

Some appointed representatives still need court approval for major work. In states with supervised or dependent administration, a personal representative may need the court's permission to spend estate money on significant repairs. Texas's independent administration and California's administration under its Independent Administration of Estates Act are examples of regimes where the representative can often act with less court involvement, though California's version comes in full and limited forms with different powers. The representative's attorney knows which applies.

The practical upshot: emergency work to protect the property, such as stopping a leak, is often done at a relative's request before anyone is appointed, and the estate later reimburses it as a preservation expense. Planned work, a cleanout, a repaint or a replacement, should wait for the appointed person.

What the house is likely to look like

Estate houses come in three conditions, and they call for different preparation before anyone is sent.

Decluttered. The family has cleared it, or an estate sale has run. Treat it like a vacant listed home: access, utilities, and whoever is coordinating the sale. See related: Working in a Vacant Listed Home.

Furnished and packed. Belongings everywhere, often decades of them. Expect blocked access to the panel, the water heater and the attic; boxes stacked against furnace cabinets; a crawlspace door behind furniture. Quote time to clear a working path or ask the family to clear it, and do not move belongings beyond what you need to reach the equipment, because estate items have value and disputed ownership.

Hoarded or neglected. Narrow paths, structural load from stored material, rodents, mold, sometimes sharps and medication. Ask on the call. Send a lead to look before a crew goes in, with gloves and eye protection, and with a respirator only under a written respiratory protection program per 29 CFR 1910.134; if no one on the crew is in that program, the crew does not do work that disturbs mold or rodent debris. Rodent droppings and nesting are cleaned up wet, never swept or vacuumed dry, per the CDC's hantavirus cleanup guidance.

If the death was in the house and was not discovered quickly, the area may need biohazard remediation by a specialist before any trade enters. Ask the family gently and directly whether a remediation company has been through. If not, that is the first call, not yours.

Utilities and insurance

Utilities may be off, in the decedent's name, or about to be shut off for nonpayment. Water off in winter is a frozen-pipe claim waiting to happen; power off means no sump pump and no heat. Ask who is paying the utilities and whether the account has been transferred to the estate.

Insurance is often the bigger issue. Many homeowners policies limit or exclude certain coverages, frequently water damage, vandalism and freeze damage, once a house has been vacant beyond a period the policy defines, commonly somewhere around 30 to 60 days. The policy may also need to be moved into the estate's name. You do not resolve this, but asking "has the insurance company been told the owner passed and the house is empty" is a question families are grateful for, because no one else has asked.

A winterized estate house that needs restoring for a sale or an inspection has its own procedure. See related: Restoring a Winterized Vacant Home for Inspection.

Siblings who disagree

This is the part that pulls trades into family conflicts. Two siblings want the house sold as-is; a third wants it renovated first. Each calls you. Each tells you they are in charge.

Take instructions from one person: the appointed personal representative. When there are co-representatives, some states let either act alone and others require them to act together; ask the representative's attorney which applies, and get written instructions from both if in doubt.

Do not send scope, photos or quotes to a sibling who is not the representative unless the representative tells you to in writing. Information from a contractor becomes ammunition in an estate dispute fast. If a sibling who is not the representative calls asking what you found, the reply is that the report went to the representative and they can share it.

How estate money moves

The estate pays from an estate account, opened by the representative in the estate's name with its own tax identification number. A check from that account is the cleanest payment you can get.

Payment may wait for the sale. Estates are often illiquid: the house is the main asset and there is little cash until it sells. In most states, reasonable expenses of administering and preserving the estate are paid ahead of most other debts, which works in a contractor's favor, but "at sale" still means months.

A relative may pay personally and seek reimbursement from the estate. That is their arrangement with the estate. Your contract is with whoever signs it, so if a relative pays personally, they are your customer.

Unpaid work for the decedent before death is a claim against the estate, filed through the probate's creditor process within a deadline set by state law and the notice to creditors, commonly a few months from first publication of that notice. Miss it and the claim can be barred. Ask your attorney the day you learn a past customer has died with an open balance.

A worked case

A woman called about her late father's house: the basement was wet after a storm and the sump pump was not running. Her father had died five weeks earlier. She had the keys and said her brother was the executor named in the will, but the court had not yet issued letters.

The emergency. Water around a sump pit means water near electricity. The tech's first action was to confirm from the stairs whether the water was in contact with any outlet, appliance or the panel. It was not, and the panel was upstairs. He turned off the breaker for the sump circuit at the panel before stepping into the water, then found the pump's float jammed by debris. He freed it, climbed out of the water before restoring the breaker, and watched the pump cycle from the dry stairs: 1 hour in all. He told her the basement needed drying and the walls checking for mold, and that he would not quote that work until the estate could authorize it.

Who he invoiced. The daughter, personally, for the 1 hour of emergency work, at her request and in writing on the work order, with a note that she could submit it to the estate for reimbursement.

Three weeks later the brother called, with letters testamentary issued 9 days earlier. The tech confirmed them, quoted the drying and a pump replacement with a battery backup, and contracted with "Estate of [name], [brother], Executor," payment from the estate account at completion.

What would have changed it. Had the house been in a living trust, the brother as successor trustee could have authorized the full scope on the first call with a certification of trust. Had the state required court approval for repairs above a set amount, the representative would have needed the court's order first and the drying would have waited longer. In a state with a strong small-estate procedure for real property, the daughter might have been the authorized person all along. The questions are the same in every state; the answers are not.

References

• Your state's probate code, for appointment of personal representatives, their powers, and creditor claim deadlines
• California Probate Code, Independent Administration of Estates Act, and Texas Estates Code, independent administration, as examples of how representative authority varies
• CDC guidance on cleaning up after rodents (hantavirus prevention)
• 29 CFR 1910.134, respiratory protection program requirements
• See related: Getting Authorization to Work on a Probate Property