What goes wrong with title after a death

When someone dies owning real estate in Michigan, the property does not automatically move to the people who are supposed to inherit it. A will says who should get it. A will does not, by itself, transfer the deed. Until a deed is recorded in the county register of deeds, the public record still shows the property in the name of the person who died. That gap is where most of these problems begin.

A will is not a deed

A will tells the probate court how the deceased wanted their property distributed. But the will only does that work through the probate process. The personal representative, once appointed by the court, has the authority to sign a deed transferring the real estate to the heirs or to a buyer. If no one ever opens the estate, or opens it and closes it without recording that deed, the property stays titled in the deceased person's name. Years can pass. The family may have moved in, paid the taxes, made repairs, and treated the house as their own. On paper, it still belongs to someone who is gone.

An estate can close without ever conveying the land

This surprises people. An estate can be opened, administered, and formally closed, and the real estate can still be left stranded. Probate closes the court case. It does not, by itself, record a deed. If the personal representative never signed and recorded a fiduciary deed, or never had the real estate specifically within the scope of the court's authority, the title chain still has a break in it. Reopening the estate, or petitioning for the authority to convey, is how that gap gets fixed. But by the time most families discover the problem, the property has often been drifting for years.

What a personal representative's deed does

A personal representative's deed, sometimes called a fiduciary deed, is the instrument that actually moves real estate out of a probate estate. The personal representative, acting under the authority granted by the probate court, signs the deed and records it at the register of deeds. That recording is what transfers title. Until that deed is recorded, nothing in the public record has changed. The court order appointing the representative gave the authority, but the deed is what carries the property forward.

Lady Bird deeds, and why some property skips probate

A Lady Bird deed, formally an enhanced life estate deed, is different. With a Lady Bird deed, the owner keeps a life estate and the right to sell, mortgage, or revoke during their lifetime, while naming a remainder beneficiary who takes the property automatically on death. Because the interest passes by operation of the recorded deed itself, the property does not go through probate at all. If a Lady Bird deed was properly recorded before death, the transfer is already done. One of the first things I look at, when reading a chain of title, is whether a Lady Bird deed exists. If it does, the problem is often already solved, or it is a different problem entirely.

Why small estate procedures often leave the house behind

Michigan has a simplified procedure for small estates called a petition and order for assignment. It can include real estate, and the court form has a space for the legal description of the property. What limits it is value. The procedure is only available when the estate is worth less than a threshold set by statute, measured after funeral and burial expenses, and a house of almost any value puts an estate over that line. The order also assigns only what the petition actually listed. So a family may complete a small estate, believe everything is handled, and find years later that the house was never part of it.

What this means

The common thread is this: title to real estate moves by recorded deed, not by intention, will, or the passage of time. If no deed was recorded, the property is stuck, regardless of what everyone understood or agreed to. Most of the work I do comes down to identifying exactly where the chain of title broke, and then taking the steps necessary to record the document that repairs it.

This page is general information about how Michigan title and probate work in these situations. It is not legal advice, and it may not apply to the specifics of your property. Anyone in this situation should talk to a licensed Michigan probate attorney before making decisions.