For families with a house in probate

What happens to the house

Someone has died, and a house has become your responsibility. If the court has named you personal representative, you are probably holding documents you have never seen before and a list of questions nobody prepared you for. This page is about the property side of it: what the paperwork generally has to show before a house in an estate can be listed or closed, what a title company tends to ask for, and which dates in the process are actually fixed. It is general information, not legal advice, and the legal questions in here belong to a Florida probate attorney. One thing is worth knowing before anything else, because it shapes the order of everything that follows: Fla. Prob. R. 5.030(a) requires a personal representative to be represented by an attorney admitted to practice in Florida, unless the personal representative remains the sole interested person. Whether that narrow exception fits a particular estate is itself a legal question, which is why for most families the call to a lawyer is an early step rather than a last one.

Updated 2026-10-06

Where you stand, before anyone decides anything

Florida has three routes, and it helps to know their names before someone uses them at you. Formal administration is the full version: the court appoints a personal representative, who receives letters. Summary administration is the shorter one, and no personal representative is appointed at all — the court enters an order distributing the assets instead. The third is called disposition of personal property without administration, and its name is the whole point. It reaches four narrow things: exempt personal property, a limited amount of other personal property, small balances left in bank accounts, and federal income tax refunds. That third route only moves personal property — a bank balance, a tax refund — never a house.

One naming correction, because it confuses almost everybody: Florida has no "letters testamentary." Whether or not there is a will, the statute says every such grant of authority is designated letters of administration. The letters themselves are a short order signed by the probate judge, saying the court has appointed this named person to act for the estate. They arrive at the end of a sequence rather than on request. The court appoints the person entitled and qualified, sets the amount of any bond, and any required oath or designation of and acceptance by a resident agent is filed. Once all of that is done, the letters are issued.

It is also worth correcting the common assumption that every step in probate needs a hearing. Most do not. The code tells a personal representative to proceed expeditiously with settlement and distribution and, except where the code or the court specifies otherwise, to do it "without adjudication, order, or direction of the court." Real property is one of the places where the code does specify otherwise — and then only in some situations, which is the next section.

Which route fits a particular family, and which documents a particular file needs, is a legal determination this page cannot make for anyone. Plenty of families also decide not to sell, or not yet, and that is a legitimate outcome rather than a failure of the process. What you can usefully do right now, without a lawyer and without deciding anything, is establish what you already have.

Two things are worth knowing before a first meeting with an attorney, because both are easy to miss. The first is that Florida puts the disclosure duty on the attorney rather than on the family. Where an attorney for a personal representative intends to charge a fee based on the statutory schedule, s. 733.6171(2)(b) requires written disclosure to the personal representative that there is not a mandatory statutory attorney fee for estate administration, that the fee is not required to be based on the size of the estate, that it is subject to negotiation between the personal representative and the attorney, that selecting the attorney is the personal representative's decision and need not be the attorney who prepared the will, and that a summary of services is available at the end of the representation. The attorney must also obtain a signed acknowledgment of those disclosures. That is the legislature's language, not anyone's negotiating position. The second is that compensation arranged in some other way is expressly contemplated — the schedule is not the only shape a fee can take. What a reasonable fee looks like on any particular estate is not something an agent can tell you.

Who can sell it, and whether a judge has to sign

Here is the structural fact everything else turns on. A personal representative's general powers cover most things without a court order — but the list deliberately excludes real estate. The power to acquire or dispose of an asset, for cash or on credit and at public or private sale, carves out "real property in this or another state." Authority over the house is not the same as authority over the bank account or the car. For real property the code sends you to one section instead, s. 733.613, and that is the number to put in front of the estate's attorney.

There are two routes inside it. Where the will confers a specific power to sell or mortgage real property, or a general power to sell any asset of the estate, the personal representative may sell, mortgage or lease estate real property without authorization or confirmation of court — and the sale, mortgage or lease need not be justified by a showing of necessity. On that route the estate does not have to prove it needs the money.

The other route covers the estate with no will, and the estate whose will conferred no power of sale, or conferred one so limited by the will or by operation of law that it cannot be conveniently exercised. A sale is permitted, at public or private sale — but no title passes until the court authorizes or confirms it. Where that is the route, a property can be marketed and a contract signed while the closing waits on an order. Fla. Prob. R. 5.370 sets out what that takes: a verified petition giving the reasons for the sale, a description of the property, and the price and terms, with an order authorizing a private sale having to specify that price and those terms. Two consequences are worth knowing in advance. The negotiated price becomes part of a public court file. And because the order is tied to that price, renegotiating afterwards can mean going back to court. Where this step applies it belongs in the contract as a scheduled date, not discovered in week five. Which route governs a particular estate turns on reading the will, and that reading is the attorney's.

There is a drafting wrinkle in the same section that is better flagged to the attorney early than argued about late. The no-court-order route is available under either a specific or a general power of sale. But the protective clause — the one that gives a purchaser or lender title free of claims of creditors of the estate and entitlements of estate beneficiaries, with existing mortgages and other liens against the real property not affected — names only a sale or mortgage under a specific power to sell or mortgage real property, or one under a court order authorizing or confirming that act. Whether a particular title underwriter is comfortable with a general power is their decision and their written policy, not a rule anyone can quote you. Ask in week one.

In a summary administration there is no personal representative and no letters at all. Where the estate qualifies, the court must enter an order distributing the probate assets and specifically designating the person to whom each asset is to be distributed (Fla. Prob. R. 5.530(d)). The people named in that order are the owners of what they receive, and therefore the sellers, signing personally. The certified order is the document, and there is no petition for authority to sell to file. After the order is entered, bona fide purchasers for value from those to whom property may be assigned by it take the property free of all claims of creditors of the decedent and all rights of the surviving spouse and all other beneficiaries.

Three situations where the right answer is "ask the attorney before anything is signed." Co-personal representatives: unless the will provides otherwise, older estates need all of the joint personal representatives to concur — where the will or codicil was executed before 1 October 1987, or where an intestate decedent died before that date — and later wills and later deaths need a majority. Who must actually sign a listing, a contract and a deed on a given file is for the estate's attorney and the closing agent to confirm in writing before a property goes live. A personal representative buying the house: s. 733.610 makes a sale or encumbrance to the personal representative, or to their spouse, agent or attorney, or any transaction affected by a conflict of interest on the personal representative's part, voidable by any interested person except one who has consented after fair disclosure — unless the will or a contract entered into by the decedent expressly authorized it, or the court approves it after notice to interested persons. That is the common sibling buy-out, and it goes to the attorney before an offer is written. An owner who lived out of state: a probate already open in New York or New Jersey does not by itself authorize anyone to convey Florida real property. There is a separate Florida proceeding for that, called ancillary administration, and the code requires all proceedings for appointment and administration of the estate to be as similar to those in original administrations as possible. It is a frequent and expensive surprise.

The deed itself is ordinary Florida law: a written instrument, signed in the presence of two subscribing witnesses. The statute also allows that two-witness requirement to be satisfied by witnesses being present and electronically signing by means of audio-video communication technology — which matters constantly on estates here, where the family often lives elsewhere. Whether remote execution is accepted on a given file is the closing agent's and the underwriter's call. Note also that "personal representative's deed" is conveyancing shorthand rather than a statutory form, which is why having the letters, the case number and the attorney's contact in hand before a contract is written saves an amendment later.

None of the above tells you which situation you are in. It tells you what question to put to the estate's attorney, and why the answer changes the schedule rather than just the paperwork. This is general information about how the statutes read, not legal advice about any particular estate.

Homestead, and why an estate listing can stop

If the house was the decedent's homestead, it may not be the estate's to sell at all. This is the single most common reason a probate listing stops several weeks in, after a buyer is already attached to it.

Start with what a personal representative does and does not get. Except as otherwise provided by a decedent's will, s. 733.607(1) gives every personal representative the right and the duty to take possession or control of the decedent's property — "except the protected homestead." The same exception runs through the section after it: everything except the protected homestead is what the personal representative holds for devises, allowances, taxes, claims, administration expenses and distribution. And where property that reasonably appears to be protected homestead is unoccupied, the role narrows to caretaking only — possession for the limited purpose of preserving, insuring and protecting it, with any rents collected for the account of the heir or devisee, and expressly no duty to rent the property or otherwise make it productive.

"Protected homestead" is a constitutional term, not a line on a tax bill. It means the property the Florida Constitution describes, on which the exemption passes at the owner's death to the owner's surviving spouse or heirs. The probate code adds one carve-out that decides a great many files: real property owned in tenancy by the entireties, or in joint tenancy with rights of survivorship, is not protected homestead. That is a large part of why the first question on any inherited-property call is how the deed was titled — and that, at least, is readable from the recorded deed.

Then there is what a will can and cannot do with it. As the State Constitution provides, the homestead is not subject to devise if the owner is survived by a spouse or a minor child, with one exception: it may be devised to the owner's spouse if there is no minor child. Where a devise is not authorized, the homestead descends in the same manner as other intestate property — except that where the decedent is survived by a spouse and one or more descendants, the surviving spouse takes a life estate in the homestead, with a vested remainder to the descendants in being at the time of the decedent's death, per stirpes. In lieu of that life estate, the surviving spouse may instead elect an undivided one-half interest in the homestead as a tenant in common, exercised by filing a notice of election containing the legal description for recording in the county's official records. That election must be made within 6 months after the decedent's death and during the surviving spouse's lifetime, and once made it is irrevocable (s. 732.401(2)).

Purely mechanically, and this is the part that reaches a closing table: a life estate with vested remainders, or a one-half and one-half tenancy in common between a spouse and several descendants, means several people hold interests in the same house, and a conveyance generally needs every one of them. Fla. Prob. R. 5.405 is the proceeding that resolves it. An interested person files a verified petition, it is served on interested persons by formal notice, and the court's order must describe the real property and determine whether any of it constituted protected homestead — and if it did, identify by name the person or persons entitled to it and define the interest of each. That named-persons-and-interests order is what a closing agent can actually work from, which is why it is worth asking about early rather than late.

One more line that shows up in the title search. Where the personal representative has spent money preserving an apparent homestead, that spending is recoverable as a debt chargeable against the property, and the lien attaches and takes priority from the recording of its notice in the county's official records. A payoff figure has to be given within 14 days of a written request, and a satisfaction recorded within 30 days after complete payment. Ask for that estoppel letter early rather than at the closing.

This is the part of the page where it matters most that none of this is legal advice. Whether a specific house is protected homestead, who holds what interest in it, whether a devise was effective, and what a surviving spouse should do about a six-month election are questions for a Florida probate attorney. There is no safe way to guess at them, and practicing law in Florida without a license is a third-degree felony. That is the reason this page describes the mechanism and then stops.

The dates that are fixed, and the one nobody can give you

Start with the honest part. Nothing in the Florida Statutes or the Probate Rules says how long probate takes. Any page that tells you "usually six to nine months" invented the number. What does exist is a set of fixed deadlines, and they are enough to plan around.

10 days: the custodian of a will deposits it with the clerk of court after being informed the testator has died, and the clerk keeps the original for at least 20 years (s. 732.901). 60 days: the inventory is filed, counted from the day the letters are issued. 3 months: creditor claims, counted from the first publication of the notice to creditors (s. 733.702(1)), which is published once a week for two consecutive weeks; and 30 days from service for a creditor who had to be served. 3 months, separately: from service of the notice of administration, to object to the validity of the will, the venue or the court's jurisdiction. After that, those objections are barred for good. 6 months: a surviving spouse's homestead election. 12 months: the final accounting and petition for discharge, again counted from the issue of letters, unless there is a federal estate tax return or the court extends the time for cause. 2 years: the absolute bar on claims.

Two of those do real work on a sale calendar. The three-month creditor window runs from first publication, not from the date of death and not from the day the family hires anybody, so a delay in opening the estate moves the whole window later rather than shortening it. And estates where the death was long ago often move more simply, because two years after a person's death the estate, the personal representative and the beneficiaries are no longer liable for claims or causes of action against the person who died, subject to the exceptions the statute goes on to list. The separate three-month objection window is the period in which a will contest would surface, which is why some title underwriters prefer to see it run.

The carve-out in that two-year bar matters more than the bar. It does not touch a duly recorded mortgage or other recorded security interest, or the right to foreclose and enforce it. The mortgage on an inherited house does not go away, it keeps accruing, and it can be foreclosed while the family is still deciding. Code liens and tax liens are paid at closing too. That is a fact about the calendar, not a reason to hurry.

The same two-year point opens a second door that is easy to miss. Summary administration is available where the value of the entire estate subject to administration in Florida, less property exempt from the claims of creditors, does not exceed $150,000 — or where the person has been dead for more than two years, and that second branch carries no dollar limit at all (s. 735.201(2)). In a market where houses often sit for years while nobody deals with them, that is the most useful line in the statute. Three cautions. The ceiling is measured against the estate subject to administration less exempt property, which is narrower than everything the owner owned. The $150,000 replaced $75,000 on 1 July 2026; rule books and articles printed before then still show the old figure, and Florida practitioners have generally read the higher one as applying to deaths on or after that date, so which figure is in play is a question for the estate's attorney rather than a given. And whether an estate qualifies for any of this at all is the attorney's determination, not an agent's.

Where a court order is required, the petition, the notice and the hearing sit on the schedule between contract and closing. Nobody can tell you what a particular division's calendar will do, which is precisely why that step belongs in the contract as a known date rather than in a hope.

What the house costs while the estate is open

This part is squarely mine rather than the attorney's, and it is the part almost nobody budgets for.

The exemption. The homestead exemption belongs to a living person. It turns on who held legal or beneficial title on 1 January and lived there in good faith as a permanent resident. An estate is not a permanent resident, and an heir living elsewhere has nothing to claim. The Miami-Dade Property Appraiser's stated position, as the office publishes it, is that where an owner dies after 1 January the exemption may be inherited for that year if the property was the decedent's permanent residence on 1 January, that the inherited exemption applies only until the next 1 January, and that the new owner must then file an original application of their own. The office also notes that renewal receipts are not sent to properties with any ownership change.

Telling the office. Florida law directs the owner of property granted an exemption who is not required to file an annual application to notify the property appraiser promptly whenever the use of the property, or the status or condition of the owner, changes so as to change the exempt status of the property (s. 196.011(10)(a)). Where that is not done and the exemption is later found not to have been due, the statutes provide for back taxes for up to ten years, interest at 15 percent a year and a penalty of 50 percent of the taxes exempted, with a tax lien; Miami-Dade's own page states the same figures. How those provisions apply to an estate-owned house is for the Property Appraiser's office and the estate's attorney, but it is among the most expensive things a family can leave undone and one of the cheapest to put right.

The assessment reset. Save Our Homes caps annual increases in a homestead's assessed value at 3 percent or the change in CPI, whichever is lower. A property assessed that way is then assessed at just value as of 1 January of the year following a change of ownership (s. 193.155(3)). The same subsection carves out several transfers, among them one occurring by operation of law to a surviving spouse or minor children and, on the owner's death, a transfer to another person who was already a permanent resident entitled to the exemption and legally or naturally dependent upon the owner. Whether any of them fits a given family is for the Property Appraiser and the family's attorney, not for me. Where none fits, decades of accumulated cap on a long-held Homestead, Redland or Palmetto Bay house come off, once. Portability is not inherited either: the assessment difference follows the person who held the exemption to a new homestead of their own, capped at $500,000 of benefit, rather than following the house to its heirs. After the exemption ends the property is non-homestead residential, assessed at just value the January following the change and then capped at 10 percent a year for all levies other than school district levies — the school portion is assessed on just value with no cap. Date that 10 percent: Amendment 3 on the 3 November 2026 ballot would lower the non-homestead cap from 10 percent to 5 percent, effective 1 January 2027 if 60 percent of voters approve it, and as at 6 October 2026 it is not law. Check which rule applies before relying on either.

The tax calendar. Taxes are due and payable 1 November, or as soon after as the certified roll reaches the tax collector, and become delinquent 1 April following the year of assessment or 60 days after the original tax notice is mailed, whichever is later. Paying early earns a discount: 4 percent in November, 3 in December, 2 in January, 1 in February. If the first thing an heir sees is a TRIM notice carrying a reset value, note that a petition to the Value Adjustment Board on valuation issues may be filed on or before the 25th day following the mailing of that notice by the property appraiser (s. 194.011(3)(d)). Whether to petition is a question for a tax professional. The deadline is just a deadline.

Water and rubbish. An unpaid water and sewer account on an empty house is not a loose bill. Under the Miami-Dade County Code, charges unpaid 60 days after the final bill date become a lien on the property, which the County records — a lien equal in rank and dignity with the liens of County ad valorem taxes and superior in rank and dignity to all other liens, encumbrances, titles and claims, for twenty years from the date the charges become a lien. The residential solid waste collection fee is a different animal: it rides on the annual property tax bill as a non-ad valorem assessment, collected under the uniform method and included in the combined tax notice, and it keeps running whether anybody lives there or not. Municipal service areas set their own.

Insurance, early rather than late. The filed ISO HO-3 Special Form carries a Death condition: the insurer insures "the legal representative of the deceased but only with respect to the premises and property of the deceased covered under the policy at the time of death," and treats the person having proper temporary custody of the property as an insured until a legal representative is appointed and qualifies. So there is usually a bridge, and it is narrow. The same form removes vandalism and malicious mischief cover where the dwelling has been vacant for more than 30 consecutive days immediately before the loss, conditions the water-damage exclusion on reasonable care having been used to maintain heat or to shut off and drain the water supply, and excludes "neglect of the insured to use all reasonable means to save and preserve property." Vacancy thresholds differ between policy forms and carriers, so it is your own policy's wording that governs, not the number in this paragraph. An inherited house is routinely empty far longer than thirty days before anyone reaches the insurance question.

Policy notices go to the insured's mailing address, which is frequently the empty house. On personal lines residential property, a carrier owes at least 120 days' advance written notice of nonrenewal, cancellation or termination, at least 10 days where the premium has not been paid, and at least 20 days for other reasons within the first 60 days of a new policy. Changing the mailing address and forwarding the mail early costs nothing. Whether the existing carrier will keep covering an unoccupied inherited dwelling, and what form, endorsement or named insured it would want, is for a licensed Florida insurance agent. I am not one, and there is no general rule worth quoting you.

One free thing worth knowing about. The Miami-Dade Clerk's Property Fraud Alert is free and emails you when a document is recorded against a folio you have registered. The Clerk is explicit that it cannot prevent a fraudulent deed from being filed, only let you respond quickly. A vacant house whose record owner has died is exactly the profile these schemes look for.

When the house does go on the market

The documents. The set that recurs in a Florida probate closing is short: the certified Letters of Administration; the will as admitted to probate, for its power-of-sale language; the order authorizing or confirming the sale, where one is required; an order determining protected homestead status naming the persons entitled and defining each interest, where homestead is in play; or, in a small estate, the certified order of summary administration designating who receives the property. Which of those a given file needs is the attorney's and the closing agent's call, not mine. The logistics are mine to warn you about. Miami-Dade probate certified copies are $1 per page plus $2 per document for the certification, with a search fee of $2 per year per name if you do not know the case year, orderable online, by mail or in person from the Probate Correspondence Department at the Osvaldo N. Soto Miami-Dade Justice Center, 20 NW 1st Avenue, Suite 6.223 — and a mail request takes a cashier's check or money order, not a personal check. Filing fees as the Clerk publishes them: $401 formal or ancillary administration, $236 summary administration for an estate under $1,000, $346 at $1,000 or more, $232 disposition of personal property without administration. All figures checked 6 October 2026; the Clerk changes them, so confirm before you rely on one.

Two pricing points specific to estates. First, the Department of Revenue's real property transfer qualification codes put estate transfers in the disqualified group — code 19 is used where a grantor or grantee is referenced as a bankruptcy trustee, administrator, executor, guardian, personal representative or receiver — so the deed that moves the house to the heirs shows a nominal figure in the sales history that is not a value, and the family's eventual sale may never read as a comparable there. Second, if the CPA asks for a date-of-death value, that is a retrospective appraisal with an effective date in the past, prepared by a licensed appraiser. A broker's price opinion is not a substitute for it, and it is easier to obtain while the house is still in its date-of-death condition.

Basis, briefly, because it is the most misunderstood figure. IRS Publication 551 states that the basis of inherited property is generally its fair market value at the date of the individual's death, or the value on the alternate valuation date where the personal representative elects it. A great many heirs arrive believing they will be taxed on the whole gain since their parent bought the house in 1974. Whether that is right for a particular family, and how the sale is reported, is the CPA's conversation, and a better one to have before a contract than at filing time.

Disclosure runs on knowledge, which cuts both ways. A personal representative who never lived in the house may genuinely begin with very little to disclose — and then learns things, from a sibling, a clean-out, a roofer, an inspection, a prior claim. Knowledge acquired during administration is still knowledge. My own obligation is separate and does not depend on what you know: s. 475.278 requires a Florida licensee to disclose all known facts that materially affect the value of residential real property and are not readily observable to the buyer, and presumes a licensee operates as a transaction broker unless another relationship is established in writing.

The question families often ask first, quietly. Florida answers it directly: the fact that a property was, or was at any time suspected to have been, the site of a homicide, suicide or death is not a material fact that must be disclosed in a real estate transaction (s. 689.25(1)(b)). The same section says the same of an occupant's HIV infection or AIDS diagnosis. How to respond if a buyer asks the question directly is a separate issue and one for the attorney. Two other notices are required regardless of who the seller is: the property tax disclosure summary, which tells a buyer not to rely on the seller's current taxes because a change of ownership or property improvements triggers reassessments that could result in higher property taxes — a requirement that exists for exactly the situation a long-held inherited homestead creates — and the radon notification.

If it is a condominium or sits in an association. Unpaid assessments do not stay with the estate: a unit owner is jointly and severally liable with the previous owner for all unpaid assessments that came due up to the time of transfer of title (s. 718.116), so arrears accrued while the unit sat empty follow the title to whoever takes it, and then to a buyer. The estoppel certificate must be issued within 10 business days after a written or electronic request, and is effective for 30 days where delivered by hand or electronically and 35 days by regular mail — request it early. The resale package includes the declaration, articles, bylaws and rules, the annual financial statement and budget, the frequently-asked-questions document, and where applicable the milestone inspection summary and the structural integrity reserve study, with a buyer right to cancel within 7 days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, after the buyer executes the agreement and receives the documents. For buildings three habitable stories or more in height, a milestone inspection is required, and a structural integrity reserve study at least every ten years; those drive assessments, and assessments drive both price and a buyer's financing. In an HOA, a disclosure summary is required before the contract is executed, and if it is not given the buyer may cancel within three days of receiving it or before closing, whichever comes first.

What I actually do here, and where it stops. I can tell you what the county record and the permit history show, what genuinely comparable houses have closed at and which comparables a buyer's side will use against you, what the condition and repair position realistically is, what a clean-out and a listing would involve, and where a court step belongs in the contract so it is a scheduled date rather than a surprise in week five. I have worked probate sales, and one of the public reviews on my Google profile is from a client who sold a property out of a family estate. I will not tell you which form of administration applies, who inherits, who has to sign, whether a court order is needed, or whether you should sell at all. Those are not close calls. This page is general information, not legal advice; those questions belong to the estate's attorney, and in places to the Property Appraiser, a CPA, or a licensed insurance agent.

Common questions

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General information for Miami-Dade property owners. It is not legal, tax or insurance advice, not a substitute for counsel, and nothing in it should be read as telling any reader what their own legal rights or obligations are. Zac Tranten is a licensed Florida real estate sales associate, license SL3576483, with Keys Gate Realty, 10 NE 3rd Street, Florida City, FL 33034; he is not an attorney, an accountant, an appraiser or an insurance agent. This is where the page's sources sit, so that the page itself can stay in plain English. Florida probate is governed by chapters 731 to 735 of the Florida Statutes, the Florida Probate Rules and Article X, section 4 of the Florida Constitution; statutes and rules are summarized as they read on 6 October 2026, and they change. For anyone who wants to read the page's spine in the original: estate real property is s. 733.613, with the petition and order at Fla. Prob. R. 5.370; a personal representative's general powers are s. 733.612 and the duty to proceed without court direction s. 733.603; letters are defined in s. 731.201 and issued under Fla. Prob. R. 5.235; possession and the homestead exception are ss. 733.607 and 733.608; homestead devise, descent and the spouse's election are ss. 732.4015 and 732.401, with the court's determination at Fla. Prob. R. 5.405 and deposit of the will at s. 732.901; the creditor and objection clocks are ss. 733.2121, 733.702, 733.212 and 733.710, with the inventory at Fla. Prob. R. 5.340(a) and the discharge at Fla. Prob. R. 5.400(c); summary administration is ss. 735.201 to 735.206 with Fla. Prob. R. 5.530, and disposition of personal property without administration is ss. 735.301 and 735.304, neither of which reaches real property. On the property and transaction side: the exemption and the consequences of losing it are ss. 196.031, 196.011(10)(a) and 196.161; the assessment caps and portability ss. 193.155 and 193.1554; the tax calendar and Value Adjustment Board petitions ss. 197.162, 197.333 and 194.011(3)(d); non-ad valorem assessments ss. 197.3632 and 197.3635; county water and sewer liens Miami-Dade County Code ss. 32-93 and 32-94; disclosure ss. 475.278, 689.25, 689.261 and 404.056(5); condominiums and associations ss. 718.116, 718.503(2), 718.112(2)(g), 553.899 and 720.401; and insurance notice periods s. 627.4133(2)(b). Matters touched on in passing — ancillary administration, conflicts of interest, co-personal representatives, partition, the summary administration petition, attorney fees, deeds and witnesses, and the unlicensed practice of law — are ss. 734.102, 733.610, 733.615, 733.814, 735.203, 733.6171, 689.01 and 454.23. Dated items: the $150,000 summary administration figure in s. 735.201(2) replaced $75,000 under ch. 2026-57, Laws of Florida (CS/HB 1337), approved 29 April 2026 and effective 1 July 2026, and the same act raised the non-exempt personal property figure in s. 735.304 from $10,000 to $20,000; the House's final staff analysis records that effective date, Florida practitioners have generally read the higher figures as applying to deaths on or after it, and reference books printed before July 2026 still show the old numbers, so which figure applies to a given estate is a question for that estate's attorney. Miami-Dade Clerk filing and certified copy fees, Property Appraiser procedures, county water, sewer and solid waste charges and the non-homestead assessment cap were checked 6 October 2026; Amendment 3 on the 3 November 2026 ballot would lower the non-homestead assessment cap from 10 percent to 5 percent effective 1 January 2027 if approved by 60 percent of voters, and as at 6 October 2026 it is not law. Insurance wording quoted here is from a filed ISO HO-3 Special Form; your own policy's terms, including any vacancy period, are what govern, and coverage questions belong to a licensed Florida insurance agent. Title underwriting and lender requirements are private policy and vary by file. Zac has worked probate sales; that experience is deliberately not quantified and no past closing is a prediction of any particular outcome. Verify anything specific with a Florida probate attorney, a qualified tax professional, the Miami-Dade Clerk of the Court or the Property Appraiser. Equal Housing Opportunity.