A man called me in February about his mother's house in Jacksonville. She'd passed in September. He'd been paying the electric bill out of his own account for five months because he didn't know what else to do, and he was worried he'd already ruined something by doing it.
He hadn't. But three real deadlines had gone by while he was waiting for someone to tell him it was okay to act, and one of them was going to cost his family about four thousand dollars a year, forever.
Nobody had explained any of it to him. So let me explain it to you.
The house didn't come with instructions.
Nobody gets handed a checklist at the funeral. Most of what goes wrong with inherited property in Florida goes wrong in the first six months, quietly, while everyone is still grieving and waiting for permission.
I'm Kady. I work with Florida families through foreclosure, hardship, divorce, and inherited houses — the things that arrive without asking. I'm not an attorney and I'm not a CPA. I'm the person people call when they aren't sure who to call.
Most of what follows has nothing to do with me and earns me nothing. That's the point. You're going to make some real decisions in the next few months, and you should make them knowing what the rules actually are.
The short version
You probably need probate, but Florida just made the easy version available to far more families — the summary administration limit doubled to $150,000 on July 1, 2026, and the homestead doesn't count toward it. Your parent's low property tax bill does not come with the house; it resets, and that's the shock most heirs never see coming. The mortgage can usually be kept at its original rate because federal law says the lender can't call it due — but you have to tell the servicer you exist. Homeowners insurance on an empty Florida house is the thing that quietly goes wrong. And if you sell reasonably soon after the death, the capital gains tax is often close to nothing. None of this happens on its own. All of it starts with a few phone calls.
In this article
If you only remember five things
- Call the insurance company this week. An empty Florida house is the fastest way to lose everything the house is worth.
- The tax bill resets. Save Our Homes dies with the owner. Plan for a bigger number, not the one on the last bill.
- March 1 is a real deadline. If you're moving in, that's when the homestead exemption application is due.
- The lender can't call the loan due. Federal law protects you — but only once you identify yourself to the servicer.
- Nobody can sell it until the court says who owns it. Starting probate early isn't giving up. It's the thing that unlocks every other option.
What to Do in the First Thirty Days
If you're reading this in the first weeks, good. Here's the short list, and none of it requires a lawyer or a decision about the future.
Call the homeowners insurance company
Tell them the owner died and the house is unoccupied. I know it feels like it can wait. It cannot. Most policies limit or exclude coverage once a home has been vacant for thirty or sixty days — water damage, vandalism, theft, exactly the things that happen to empty houses. Ask what your options are for an unoccupied or vacant policy. In Florida, an uninsured empty house is one storm away from being worth nothing.
Order more death certificates than you think you need
Certified copies, and get eight or ten. The bank wants one. The mortgage servicer wants one. The insurance company, the property appraiser, the utility companies, the court. People always order three and then spend six weeks reordering.
Find out if there's a mortgage, and tell the servicer
Check the county's official records for a recorded mortgage, or look for statements in the mail. Then call the servicer and say you're a successor in interest. Payments should keep going out if there's any way to make them — a loan doesn't pause because someone died, and foreclosure on an inherited house is a real thing that happens to families who were simply waiting for probate.
Secure it, and don't throw anything away yet
Change the locks. Set the thermostat so it doesn't grow mold. Stop the mail or forward it. And leave the paperwork alone until someone has gone through it — I have watched families shred the only copy of a deed, a life insurance policy, or a will because it looked like junk.
Look for the will, and for a deed that skips probate
Florida law requires anyone holding an original will to deposit it with the clerk of court in the county where the person lived, within ten days of learning of the death. Also check the deed itself. If it says "enhanced life estate" or people call it a Lady Bird deed, or the property was in a trust or held jointly with survivorship, the house may pass without probate at all. That single sentence on a deed is the difference between a two-month process and a nine-month one.
Paying bills out of your own pocket isn't a mistake, but track it
Plenty of people keep the lights and the insurance on with their own money because someone has to. That's usually the right call. Just keep receipts from day one — every payment, every date, what it was for. When the estate settles or the house sells, those amounts can be sorted out between the heirs, but only if somebody wrote them down. Six months of "I think it was around two thousand" turns into an argument.
The Probate Question, and the 2026 Change
Almost everyone hopes the answer is no. Usually the answer is yes, and usually it's less awful than the word suggests.
Probate is just the court process that moves ownership from a dead person's name into a living person's name. Nothing gets sold, refinanced, or cleanly transferred until that happens. If the deed still says your mother's name, no title company in Florida is going to close on that house.
And here's the part that changed this summer, which almost nobody has updated their advice for.
That came from CS/HB 1337, signed in April 2026 as Chapter 2026-57, and it passed both chambers unanimously. It applies to people who died on or after July 1, 2026. A few smaller thresholds went up alongside it, including the no-administration route for personal property, which moved from $10,000 to $20,000.
Why it matters to you: the value that counts is non-exempt assets. Homestead property is exempt. So is a lot of what families assume disqualifies them. A house worth $400,000 plus a modest bank account can still land inside summary administration, and that's the difference between a court order in about a month and a formal administration that runs six to twelve.
What you'll find searching
Page after page saying the Florida limit is $75,000, that probate takes a year, and that you'll need a personal representative and a full creditor claims period. Most of it was accurate right up until this summer.
What's true in Florida today
For deaths on or after July 1, 2026, the limit is $150,000 in non-exempt assets, homestead excluded. Summary administration needs no personal representative and typically finishes in four to eight weeks.
The three paths, plainly
No probate at all. If the property was in a trust, held jointly with rights of survivorship, or transferred by a Lady Bird deed, it may already be yours. Worth checking before you spend a dollar on anything else. And Florida does not recognize the ordinary transfer-on-death deed for real estate, so if someone tells you a TOD deed handles it, be careful.
Summary administration. The short track under § 735.201. No personal representative, no mandatory creditor claims period, one order from a judge directing who gets what. Also available regardless of value if the person has been gone more than two years — which is the answer for families who let a house sit and are only now dealing with it. That happens more than you'd think and it isn't too late.
Formal administration. The full process, with a court-appointed personal representative, a published notice to creditors, and a three-month window for claims. Six to twelve months is typical. Sometimes it's required by the size of the estate, and sometimes families choose it on purpose — when there are real debts, unknown creditors, disagreement among heirs, or a business involved, that structure protects everyone.
One thing that surprises people: qualifying for the fast version doesn't automatically make it the right version. Summary administration skips the creditor claims process, which means creditor exposure can outlive the case. There's still a hard two-year bar from the date of death under § 733.710, but a lawyer should tell you which track fits your family, not a website.
The homestead rule that overrides the will
Florida's constitutional homestead protection is powerful, and it also restricts who your parent could leave the house to. If there was a surviving spouse and there are descendants, the law generally gives the spouse a life estate with the children as remaindermen — unless the spouse elects instead to take a half interest as tenants in common, and that election has a deadline measured in months, not years.
That means a will can say one thing and the outcome can be another. If there's a surviving spouse and children from a prior marriage, do not try to sort this out from an article. Not mine, not anyone's. Get a probate attorney on the phone this month.
The Four Bills That Don't Stop
The house keeps costing money whether or not anyone has decided anything. Here's what's running in the background right now.
The big one · resets every time
Property taxes
Save Our Homes caps a homesteaded property's assessed value at 3 percent a year. Over twenty or thirty years that gap becomes enormous — and it does not come with the house. On a transfer to adult children who weren't already on title, the cap is lost and the property is reassessed toward market value as of the next January 1. The homestead exemption goes too. Tax bills that double or triple are normal, not a mistake.
Plan for the new number, not the old billThe urgent one · days, not months
Homeowners insurance
The policy was written for an occupied home. Once nobody lives there, coverage usually starts falling away — commonly after thirty to sixty days of vacancy — and the carrier may not renew at all. In this state, with these premiums and this weather, an uninsured empty house is the single fastest way for a family's inheritance to disappear entirely.
Call before anything elseStill due · every month
The mortgage
Death doesn't pause a loan. Payments keep coming due, late fees accrue, and a servicer that has never heard from you will eventually start a foreclosure on a house nobody is defending. Federal rules give heirs the right to be recognized and to apply for help — covered in the next section — but somebody has to make the call.
Tell them you existQuiet · and it can foreclose
HOA or condo assessments
Associations keep billing, and they can foreclose over unpaid assessments the same way a lender can. The amounts look small next to a mortgage, which is exactly why they get ignored. Post-Surfside inspection and reserve requirements have pushed special assessments in older Florida buildings into real money.
Get the estoppel letter earlyAbout that March 1 deadline
If you're going to live in the house, you can apply for your own homestead exemption — and the application is generally due by March 1 of the tax year. Missing it is one of the most common and most expensive mistakes heirs make, because it costs you a full year of a benefit you were entitled to.
Two things to be honest about, though. Your own exemption starts a fresh Save Our Homes cap from the new assessed value; it does not restore your parent's. And portability doesn't come along either — the accumulated savings simply end.
The exception is a surviving spouse. A spouse who continues living in the home generally keeps both the exemption and the cap, with no reassessment. That's a genuinely different situation, and if that's you, breathe.
One more, since people ask: if the county reassesses and the new value looks higher than what the house would actually sell for, you can challenge it. The window is short — roughly 25 days from the TRIM notice, which usually arrives in August. Comparable sales are the evidence.
The Mortgage Nobody Explained to You
This is the part that surprises people most, and it's almost always good news.
You may have heard that a mortgage becomes due in full when the borrower dies, because of the due-on-sale clause. For heirs, that is generally not true. The Garn-St Germain Act (12 U.S.C. § 1701j-3) prohibits a lender from calling the loan due when a property transfers to a relative because the borrower died.
Read that again if you need to. The lender cannot force you to pay it off. It cannot force you to refinance. You can usually step into the existing loan — at the existing interest rate.
In 2026, that rate matters enormously. If your mother refinanced in 2021 at 3 percent, that loan is an asset. Refinancing it into today's rates could add hundreds of dollars a month to the payment on the exact same house. If a servicer's first suggestion is that you refinance, be skeptical and ask about assumption instead.
What "successor in interest" means and why you should say it
Under CFPB servicing rules, an heir who inherits a mortgaged property is a successor in interest. Once the servicer confirms your status, it has to treat you essentially as a borrower — talk to you about the loan, send you information, and let you apply for loss mitigation. Even before you've formally assumed the loan.
What they'll ask for: a certified death certificate, something showing you have an ownership interest (a recorded deed, or letters of administration from the probate court), and your ID. Send it, keep a copy, and write down the date.
Why this changes what you should do today
These protections switch on when the servicer knows who you are. Not before. A house sitting silent, with payments missed and nobody identified on the file, is a house heading toward foreclosure — and I have sat with families who lost a home with real equity in it purely because everyone assumed they had to finish probate before they were allowed to call.
You don't. Call now, say "I'm a successor in interest on this loan and the borrower has died," ask what documents they need, and get a reference number. Fifteen minutes.
If it's a reverse mortgage
Different rules, and a much shorter clock. When the last borrower on a HECM dies, the loan becomes due. Heirs generally have around thirty days to tell the servicer what they intend to do, and typically up to six months to sell or pay it off, with extensions available in some circumstances.
The number that matters most: on a HECM, heirs can usually satisfy the loan by paying the lesser of the full balance or 95 percent of the home's appraised value. So even if the balance has grown past what the house is worth, the family isn't chased for the difference — and if there's equity above the balance, that equity still belongs to you. Do not walk away from a reverse mortgage house without having someone check that math.
Keep It, Rent It, or Sell It
Once the legal side is moving, there's a real decision to make. And it should be made with numbers, not guilt.
This is the piece almost nobody knows, and it's the one that most often changes a decision. People assume selling means handing over a third of the proceeds because their parent bought the house in 1987 for $52,000. That's not how inherited property works. Your basis resets to the date-of-death value. Sell near that value and there's often little or no taxable gain at all.
Hold it for years while it appreciates, and gain starts accumulating. Rent it, and the tax picture changes again. Which is why the honest version of this decision looks like the table below rather than a slogan.
| Move in | Rent it out | Sell it | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property taxes | Resets, but you can file for your own homestead by March 1 | Resets to market value, no homestead at all | Stops at closing |
| Insurance | Normal occupied policy | Landlord policy, higher premium | Only until closing |
| The mortgage | Assume it and keep the old rate | Assumption may be limited if you're not occupying | Paid off from proceeds |
| Capital gains | None now; primary-residence exclusion later | Gain accrues, plus depreciation recapture | Often near zero if you sell soon after death |
| Multiple heirs | Hardest option — someone has to buy the others out | Works only if everyone agrees to be a landlord together | Cleanest way to split fairly |
| Repairs | On your schedule | Must be rent-ready and code-compliant now | Can be sold as-is to a cash buyer |
The part people don't say out loud
Sometimes the house is a gift and sometimes it's a job. A 1970s house two hours from where you live, with a roof that's aged out and an insurance carrier that won't renew, is not a windfall. It's a second mortgage on your weekends.
And sometimes the house is the last place your mother made coffee, and no spreadsheet is going to settle that. I'm not going to pretend it's only math. But I'd rather you decide with the real numbers in front of you than avoid the numbers and end up deciding by default eighteen months from now, with three tax bills and a lapsed insurance policy behind you.
If selling is where you land, you have two versions of that. A traditional listing usually nets more but needs the house cleared out, repairs made, showings scheduled, and a buyer whose financing holds. A cash sale nets less but takes the house as-is, contents and all in many cases, and closes on a date you choose. Families spread across three states, or dealing with a house full of forty years of belongings, often choose the second one for reasons that have nothing to do with price.
Either way, you generally can't close until probate has established who has the authority to sign. Which is the whole reason section two matters so much.
“There's no wrong answer here. Keep it, rent it, sell it — I've watched all three work and all three go badly, and the difference was almost never which one they picked. It was whether they picked it, or let it happen to them.”
If you want somebody to look at the actual numbers with you before you decide anything — taxes, mortgage, what it's really worth as-is — that's a conversation I have most weeks and it costs nothing. Call or text 904-400-2131, or email kady@helpinghandhomesfl.com. If the answer is "keep it," I'll tell you that. — Kady
When the Family Doesn't Agree
One sibling wants to sell now. One wants to keep it in the family. One lives out of state and just wants it resolved. And one has been living in the house since before your father died.
This is the most common version of the story, and it isn't a sign that your family is broken. Everyone is negotiating grief and money at the same time, which nobody is good at.
What the law actually allows
When heirs take title together, they usually own it as tenants in common. Any co-owner — even one holding a small share — can file a partition action under Chapter 64 to force the issue. You do not need your siblings' permission. That's the leverage everyone in these conversations has, whether or not they know it.
Florida softened the edges of that in 2020 by adopting the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (§§ 64.201–64.214). When property qualifies as heirs property — family land held in common without a written ownership agreement — the court has to get an independent appraisal first, the other co-owners get the right to buy out the person who wants out at that appraised value, and if a sale is still necessary it has to happen on the open market rather than a fire-sale courthouse auction.
That was written to stop families from losing generational property to a forced auction at a fraction of its worth. It's a genuinely good law and most heirs have never heard of it.
What actually resolves these
Almost never a lawsuit. Partition is expensive, slow, and it takes a chunk out of the very asset everyone is fighting over, so the threat of it is mostly what gets people to the table.
What resolves them, in my experience: getting one neutral number everybody trusts. Most of these fights aren't really about whether to sell. They're about whether the sibling who wants to buy the others out is offering a fair price, and nobody knows what fair is. An independent appraisal, or two honest as-is offers on paper, ends more family arguments than any amount of talking.
A few other things worth naming. If one heir has been living there rent-free while the others pay taxes and insurance, that gets accounted for in the end — it's not free, it's just unpaid so far. If one heir has been paying everything, that's usually reimbursable too. Write it all down as it happens. And decide early whether you want a lawyer for the family or a lawyer for you, because those are different jobs and it's an awkward thing to discover in month eight.
How to Spot the People Who Aren't Helping
Probate filings are public record in Florida. Within weeks of a case being opened, the letters and calls start — and some of those people are fine, and some of them are counting on you being tired, sad, and spread across three states.
Here's how to tell them apart.
Walk away from
"Sign here today before the other heirs find out." Anyone encouraging you to move fast, quietly, or without the rest of the family knowing. Every legitimate transaction survives a week of sunlight.
Real help sounds like
"Take this to your attorney and to your siblings. If it still makes sense in a week, call me." Written offers with no expiration pressure, and a willingness to be checked.
Walk away from
Anyone wanting to buy just your share, especially cheap, especially early. Selling a fractional interest to an outside investor turns a family conversation into litigation with a stranger who does this professionally.
Real help sounds like
"If you want out, the cleanest path is a buyout from your siblings at an appraised value, and here's how that usually gets structured." An offer for the whole property, made to everyone at once.
Walk away from
Fees charged up front to "handle the probate paperwork" by someone who isn't a licensed Florida attorney. Florida generally requires a lawyer for probate administration. A form-filling service is not that.
Real help sounds like
A named Florida attorney with a bar number, a written fee agreement, and a clear answer about whether summary or formal administration fits your estate and why.
One more, because it's specific to inherited houses: be careful with anyone who wants to "help you clean it out" before the family has walked through and before an inventory exists. Whatever's in that house belongs to the estate until it's distributed. That includes the things nobody thought were worth anything.
A note from me, Kady
“I buy houses. So read anything I say about selling with that in mind — that's fair and you should. But most of the people who call me about an inherited house don't end up selling to me, and a lot of them don't sell at all. They needed somebody to tell them the tax bill was about to change, or that they could keep the 3 percent mortgage, or that their brother couldn't actually stop them.”
“You just lost somebody. You shouldn't also have to become an expert in probate law in the same month. Ask me anything and I'll tell you straight, including when the answer has nothing to do with me.”
Five things, if that's all you keep.
Call the insurance company. Call the mortgage servicer and say you're a successor in interest. Find out whether a deed already skipped probate. Plan for a bigger tax bill. And get one number everyone in the family trusts.
Inheriting a property in Florida isn't a windfall or a burden by default. It's a set of decisions with real deadlines attached, most of which nobody tells you about until you've already missed one.
You haven't ruined anything. Almost nothing here is unfixable. But the clock is running on a few of these, and it started the day of the death whether or not anyone told you.
Not sure where to start? Start with a conversation.
Tell me what you're dealing with and I'll help you figure out which of these steps applies to your situation and which ones you can skip. If what you need is a probate attorney or your county property appraiser, I'll point you there. And if selling turns out to be the right answer, you'll get a fair, no-obligation cash offer with no timeline and no pressure.
Get My Cash Offer Just Talk to KadyQuestions People Ask Me
Do I have to go through probate to sell an inherited house in Florida?
Usually yes, unless the property already passed outside of probate — through a trust, joint ownership with rights of survivorship, or a Lady Bird (enhanced life estate) deed. If the deed still shows the deceased owner's name alone, a title company won't close until a court establishes who has the authority to sign. Check the deed first, because that one detail decides whether this takes weeks or months.
How long does probate take in Florida?
Summary administration typically wraps up in about four to eight weeks — it needs no personal representative and no creditor claims period. Formal administration usually runs six to twelve months, sometimes longer if there are disputes, creditors, or homestead questions. Which track you're on depends mostly on the value of the non-exempt assets.
What changed about Florida probate in 2026?
The summary administration limit doubled from $75,000 to $150,000 in non-exempt assets, effective July 1, 2026, under CS/HB 1337 (Chapter 2026-57). Homestead property doesn't count toward the limit, so many estates now qualify for the fast track that would have been forced into formal administration a year ago. It applies to deaths on or after July 1, 2026.
Will my property taxes go up on an inherited home in Florida?
For most heirs, yes, and often sharply. The Save Our Homes 3 percent cap and the homestead exemption belonged to the person who died. On a transfer to adult children who weren't already on title, the cap is lost and the property is reassessed toward market value as of the next January 1. A surviving spouse who continues living in the home is the main exception — the exemption and the cap carry over with no reassessment.
Can I get the homestead exemption on a house I inherited?
You can if you make it your permanent residence and apply with your county property appraiser, generally by March 1 of the tax year. But it starts a new Save Our Homes cap from the new assessed value — it doesn't restore your parent's accumulated savings, and portability doesn't transfer to heirs. Missing the March 1 deadline costs you a full year of the benefit.
Can the lender force me to pay off the mortgage on a house I inherited?
Generally no. The Garn-St Germain Act prohibits a lender from enforcing the due-on-sale clause when a property transfers to a relative because the borrower died. You can usually assume the existing loan at its original rate rather than refinancing. If a servicer's first suggestion is that you refinance at today's rates, ask about assumption instead.
What is a successor in interest, and why does it matter?
It's the federal term for someone who acquires an ownership interest in a mortgaged property because the borrower died. Once the servicer confirms your status, it has to communicate with you about the loan and let you apply for loss mitigation, even before you formally assume it. The protections switch on when you identify yourself — so call, say the phrase, and send the death certificate, proof of your interest, and your ID.
Do I have to keep paying the mortgage during probate?
Someone does. A loan doesn't pause because the borrower died, and foreclosure on an inherited house is a real thing that happens to families who were waiting for probate to finish. If money is tight, contact the servicer as a successor in interest and ask what options exist — that's exactly what those rules are for. Keep receipts for anything you pay personally so it can be sorted out later.
Do I owe capital gains tax if I sell an inherited house in Florida?
Often very little. Inherited property gets a stepped-up basis to its fair market value on the date of death, so only the gain since then is taxable. Sell near that value and the taxable gain is frequently close to zero. Florida also has no state income tax, no estate tax, and no inheritance tax. Get the date-of-death value documented, and confirm your specifics with a CPA.
What happens to the homeowners insurance when the owner dies?
This is the one that quietly ruins inheritances. The policy was written for an occupied home, and most policies limit or exclude coverage once the house has been vacant — commonly after thirty to sixty days — with carriers sometimes declining to renew at all. Call the insurer within the first week, tell them the situation, and ask about an unoccupied or vacant policy. In Florida, an uninsured empty house is the fastest way for the whole asset to disappear.
My siblings and I disagree about selling. What can we actually do?
Any co-owner, even one with a small share, can file a partition action under Chapter 64 and force the issue without the others' consent. But Florida's Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act requires a court-ordered appraisal first, gives the other co-owners the right to buy out the one who wants out at that value, and requires an open-market sale rather than a courthouse auction. In practice, most of these settle once everyone sees one independent number they trust.
What if the person died years ago and we never did anything?
You're not too late, and you're not the first. Summary administration is available regardless of the estate's value once the person has been deceased for more than two years. There's also a hard two-year bar on most creditor claims running from the date of death. Back taxes and insurance gaps may need cleaning up, but the path is usually more open than families expect.
The house has a reverse mortgage. What are our options?
The loan becomes due when the last borrower dies, and the clock is shorter — heirs generally have about thirty days to tell the servicer their intentions and up to six months to sell or pay it off, with extensions possible. Importantly, heirs can usually satisfy a HECM by paying the lesser of the balance or 95 percent of appraised value, so the family isn't chased for a shortfall. And if there's equity above the balance, that equity is still yours.
Can I sell the house as-is, with everything still in it?
Once probate has established who can sign, yes — cash buyers routinely take inherited homes as-is, contents included. It nets less than a cleaned-up traditional listing, and you should know that going in. For families spread across several states, or facing forty years of belongings and a roof that needs replacing, it's often the right trade. Just make sure the family has walked through first and nothing meaningful gets hauled away.
Do I need a lawyer for this?
For probate administration in Florida, generally yes — the rules require it in most circumstances, and it's not an area to improvise. Where a lawyer is non-negotiable: a surviving spouse plus children from a prior marriage, any dispute among heirs, a house with significant debt against it, or a business in the estate. Costs vary, so ask for a written fee agreement up front and ask which administration track fits and why.
Where to learn more
- Florida Probate Code, Chapters 731 through 735 — and § 735.201 for summary administration
- CS/HB 1337 (2026), Chapter 2026-57, Laws of Florida — the July 1, 2026 threshold increase
- Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution, and Fla. Stat. § 732.401 — homestead protection and how it passes
- Fla. Stat. § 193.155 — Save Our Homes assessment limits and when they reset
- Your county property appraiser — homestead exemption (form DR-501), the March 1 deadline, and TRIM notices
- Garn-St Germain Depository Institutions Act, 12 U.S.C. § 1701j-3 — due-on-sale protection for heirs
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — successor in interest rights under Regulation X
- HUD — HECM reverse mortgage rules for heirs, including the 95 percent appraised value option
- Fla. Stat. §§ 64.201–64.214 — the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act
- Florida Courts — probate forms and self-help information at flcourts.gov
A gentle note: I'm a Florida home buyer and property specialist, not an attorney, a CPA, or a licensed tax adviser, and this is general information rather than advice for your particular situation. Probate rules have exceptions, homestead descent is genuinely complicated, and tax outcomes depend on facts I can't see from here. Statutory references reflect Florida law as of August 2026, including the summary administration change effective July 1, 2026. Please confirm the specifics for your own circumstances with a licensed Florida probate attorney and a CPA before you sign anything or file anything.
Written by Kady Andreoli — Florida real estate professional focused on helping families through inherited property, probate sales, foreclosure and hardship. Honest guidance, no pressure. 904-400-2131 · kady@helpinghandhomesfl.com
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