Maryland Probate Step by Step for Heirs Who Inherited a House

Here is the answer you came for, so I will put it first. In Maryland you cannot sell an inherited house until the Register of Wills has appointed a personal representative and issued Letters of Administration. Once those Letters are in your hand, you can list the house and sell it without going back to court for permission.

Everything below is the sequence, and where it trips people up when they have inherited a house in Maryland and are trying to work out what they are allowed to do with it. I have been doing this work for more than 25 years. Most of the families I sit with never sell to us, and the conversation is free either way.

Two Maryland rules do more work here than anything else, and neither shows up plainly on the government pages you have already read. Section 1-301(a) of the Estates and Trusts article puts legal title to the house in the personal representative, not the heirs. And § 5-601(d) measures the small estate limit net of the recorded mortgage.

The Short Version

• A Maryland estate is opened with the Register of Wills in the jurisdiction where the person was domiciled at death, not a general trial court. Each of Maryland's 24 jurisdictions has its own elected Register.

• Under Maryland Estates and Trusts § 1-301(a), all property of a decedent, real and personal alike, passes on death to the personal representative, who holds legal title.

• Once Letters of Administration issue, § 7-401(a)(1) and § 7-401(n) let the personal representative sell, mortgage, or lease estate property without application to, approval of, or ratification by the court.

• The small estate limit is $50,000, or $100,000 where the surviving spouse is the sole legatee or heir, under § 5-601(b) and (c). Section 5-601(d) measures value net of debts of record secured by the property.

• Opening probate does not pause a foreclosure. Section 8-103(d) preserves any action to enforce a mortgage, judgment, other lien, or security interest against estate property.

Who Runs Probate in Maryland, and Whether You Need It

Probate here means opening an estate, getting someone appointed to act for it, notifying heirs and creditors, and accounting for what came in and went out. It is run by the Register of Wills, an office established under the Maryland Constitution, with a Register in each county and in Baltimore City. People expect a courtroom. What they get is a counter and a clerk barred by statute from giving legal advice.

The estate is opened where the person was domiciled at death. For most families I work with that is the Prince George's County Register of Wills at 14735 Main Street, Room D4001, Upper Marlboro, MD 20772, at 301.952.3250, listed in the 2025 edition of Administering Estates in Maryland. Registers are elected, so check the live directory first.

The Orphans' Court is the second office in the picture, and the Registers' 2025 guide notes something no national article will. In Harford, Howard, and Montgomery Counties a Circuit Court judge sits as the Orphans' Court. In the other 21 jurisdictions three judges are elected, and in 18 of those they need not be attorneys.

Whether you need probate is not a question about the will. It is a question about the deed. The Registers' guide is direct: if a person dies owning property in their name alone or as a tenant in common, an estate must be opened.

1. Titled to the decedent alone. A probate asset. An estate has to be opened.

2. Joint tenants with right of survivorship. The share passes automatically to the survivor. Not probate.

3. Tenants by the entirety, between spouses. Also carries survivorship. Not probate.

4. Tenants in common. No survivorship, so the decedent's fractional interest passes under the will or intestacy. A probate asset, and the one families get wrong constantly.

Filing the will is mandatory even when no estate is opened. Maryland Estates and Trusts § 4-202 requires whoever holds it to file it promptly with the Register of Wills in the county of domicile. But there is no deadline to open the estate. The Maryland People's Law Library, a service of the Maryland State Law Library, states plainly that there is no time limit, though once it is opened the clock starts.

Read that twice if you have been sitting on this for months feeling like you failed somebody. You are late on nothing yet.

If you are not sure which of those describes your deed, that is a five minute call, or send the basics through our home support form. Free, and you are never required to sell.

Small Estate or Regular Estate, and the Mortgage Rule Almost Nobody Explains

Does the mortgage count against Maryland's small estate limit?

No. Maryland Estates and Trusts § 5-601(d) provides that for small estate purposes, value is fair market value less debts of record secured by that property as of the date of death, to the extent insurance benefits are not payable to the lien holder. A mortgaged house counts net of the mortgage.

The limits come from § 5-601(b) and (c): $50,000 or less in probate assets, or $100,000 where the surviving spouse is the sole legatee or heir. Take a house with a date-of-death fair market value of $420,000 and a recorded mortgage balance of $385,000. What it contributes is $35,000. That matters, because the small estate track carries no filing fee, no Inventory, no accounts, and a shorter creditor clock.

A woman called me a while back about her father's rancher in Prince George's County. Two people had already told her she was facing a full regular estate, because the house was worth what houses are worth now. We sat at her kitchen table with the mortgage statement and the assessment notice side by side, and I asked one question: what does the payoff say. It said most of the value. She walked into the Upper Marlboro office herself that week.

Getting Appointed, and What Letters of Administration Do

Appointment is a separate step from being named in the will, and nothing involving the house moves until it happens. Maryland Estates and Trusts § 5-104 sets a mandatory order of priority: the personal representative named in a will admitted to probate, then the surviving spouse, registered domestic partner, and children, then residuary legatees, grandchildren, parents, and siblings.

Why can't the heirs just sign the deed if everyone agrees?

Because in Maryland they do not own it yet. Section 1-301(a) provides that all property of a decedent passes on death to the personal representative, who holds legal title for administration and distribution, with no distinction, preference, or priority as between real and personal property. That last clause covers the house.

Letters of Administration open every other door. The Registers' guide defines them as the instrument authorizing a personal representative to administer an estate, with powers commencing on issuance. It is what the listing agent, the settlement company, and the buyer's lender all ask to see. Local operators here report uniformly that Maryland title companies will not insure a transfer without Letters on file, which is market practice rather than statute.

The Deadlines That Start the Day You Are Appointed

Nearly every Maryland probate deadline runs from the date of appointment, not the date of death. The major exception is the six-month creditor bar, which runs from death.

Filing or event	Regular estate deadline	Authority
List of Interested Persons	20 days from appointment	Register of Wills deadline table; Form RW1104
Deliver published notice text and heir addresses to the Register	Not later than 20 days from appointment	Md. Est. & Trusts § 7-104(a)
Register forwards that notice to each heir and legatee	Within 5 days of receipt	Md. Est. & Trusts § 2-210
Newspaper publication of the Notice of Appointment	Once a week for 3 successive weeks	Md. Est. & Trusts § 7-103(a)(1)
Inventory and Information Report	3 months from appointment	Register of Wills deadline table
Creditor claims bar	Earlier of 6 months from death or 2 months after mailed notice	Md. Est. & Trusts § 8-103(a)
Objection to the appointment or to probate of the will	6 months from appointment	Md. Est. & Trusts § 7-103(b)
Initial account	9 months from appointment	Register of Wills deadline table

The small estate track is not a compressed version of the above. Several deadlines are structurally different, and it is where commercial probate websites get it wrong most often.

Item	Regular estate	Small estate
List of Interested Persons	20 days after appointment	Filed with the petition
Objection to the appointment	6 months from appointment	30 days after publication
Creditor claims bar	Earlier of 6 months from death or 2 months after mailed notice	Earlier of 6 months from death or 30 days after mailed notice
Inventory and accounts	Required	Not required

The 30-day small estate figure comes from Maryland Estates and Trusts § 5-603 and Form RW1109. The Register's statewide deadline table does not separate the tracks and shows only the two-month figure, which is where most of the confusion online begins.

One more, for anyone afraid of personal liability. Section 7-103.1(c) provides that a personal representative is not liable for failing to ascertain or notify a creditor. Make a reasonably diligent effort. You do not have to be psychic.

This is the section where most people put their head in their hands. You do not have to figure it out alone. Free consultation, every option explained, including the ones that do not involve us. If you want to know who you are dealing with first, read who we are and how we get paid.

Selling the House While the Estate Is Open

There is no statutory waiting period. Section 7-401(a)(1) authorizes the personal representative to exercise the powers conferred by statute or by the will without application to, the approval of, or ratification by the court, and § 7-401(n) enumerates the power to sell, mortgage, exchange, or lease. A court-supervised route exists where the will restricts that power or interested persons dispute the sale.

Now a valuation shortcut missing from nearly every competing page I have read. The Inventory must state fair market value as of the date of death, and the 2025 Registers' guide is firm that appraisals using the word "approximate" are not acceptable. But the same section allows real property to be valued at the contract sales price where settlement on an arm's-length contract occurs within one year of the death. If you are selling anyway, that saves a retrospective appraisal.

Whether an estate lists with a broker or sells the house as it sits comes down to its condition and what the family can carry meanwhile. Both are legitimate. We cover what selling a Maryland house as is actually involves elsewhere on the site.

The Mortgage Does Not Pause While You Sort This Out

Opening probate does not keep a lender from doing what its loan documents allow. Maryland Estates and Trusts § 8-103(d) states that nothing in the claims-bar section prevents an action to enforce a mortgage, judgment, other lien, or security interest on estate property. Letting the six-month claims window run does not extinguish the lien. Probate and the mortgage are two separate tracks running at once.

A man in Charles County reached out after his mother died. The first thing he told me was that he had not opened anything, because he did not want to start the clock. Meanwhile the loan had gone unpaid since the month before she passed, the house sat empty, and a letter from the servicer sat unopened on his counter.

I drove down and we opened it together on the porch. The estate being open or closed does not change what the lender is entitled to do. He got in front of an attorney that week.

Two federal protections attach to the person who inherits. The Garn-St Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982, at 12 U.S.C. § 1701j-3(d), bars a lender from enforcing a due-on-sale clause on a transfer to a relative resulting from the borrower's death.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's servicing amendments, effective April 19, 2018, then defined "successor in interest" in Regulation X at 12 C.F.R. § 1024.31 and expanded the RESPA definition of borrower to include one. In plain terms: the servicer has to deal with you.

Where a loan is in default, the timeline you are racing is the foreclosure one, and it helps to understand how the Maryland pre-foreclosure process is structured. If a sale date is set, the mechanics of a Maryland foreclosure auction work differently again.

This is the point where an attorney earns their fee. We can connect you with someone who handles these in your county, and the introduction costs you nothing.

One last thing. The mail you are getting is not a coincidence. Maryland estate filings and legal notices are public and searchable, and there are operators who pull them daily. I have opinions about that practice and none are printable. Nobody who found you through a death record knows the first thing about your situation.

How the Estate Closes

A regular estate closes through accounts filed with and audited by the Register of Wills. The initial account is due within nine months of appointment. If it is not final, subsequent accounts follow at the earlier of six months from the order approving the prior account or nine months from its filing.

Modified administration is worth knowing about, because it eliminates both the Inventory and the accounts. It is available where the residuary takers are limited to the personal representative and people exempt from inheritance tax under Tax-General § 7-203, and the estate is solvent. Since a spouse, children, parents, and siblings are exempt, an ordinary family estate often qualifies. The election goes in within three months of appointment, the Final Report by ten, and distribution within twelve.

I am not going to give you an average duration, and be careful with any site that does. No Maryland government source publishes one. The state publishes filing deadlines, not completion times.

Probate fees are assessed when the first account is filed, on a published sliding scale starting at $100 for estates between $50,000 and $100,000. No fee is due on a small estate opened on or after October 1, 2022.

Keep the two taxes straight. Maryland's inheritance tax is collected by the Register of Wills, not the Comptroller, and reaches only property passing outside the exempt classes: a spouse or registered domestic partner, parents, grandparents, children and their descendants, and siblings. The Maryland estate tax is separate, administered by the Comptroller, with a return due within nine months of death and a $5,000,000 exemption.

Where This Leaves You

The sequence is the sequence. File the will, open the estate in the right county, get appointed, meet the notice deadlines, then decide what happens to the house. You make that last decision, and you make it without anybody standing over you. If this sounds like where you are, it costs nothing to find out where you stand.

Reach out and tell us what you are dealing with. If you would rather keep reading, start with our guide to inherited property in Maryland.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I sell my parent's house in Maryland before probate is finished?

Yes, once you have been appointed. In Maryland the personal representative may sell estate property under Maryland Estates and Trusts § 7-401(a)(1) and § 7-401(n) without application to, approval of, or ratification by the court, unless the will or a court order limits that power. What you cannot do is sell before Letters of Administration have issued.

How long do I have to open an estate in Maryland after someone dies?

There is no time limit to open an estate in Maryland, according to the Maryland People's Law Library, though once it is opened the deadlines begin. The Register of Wills materials say only that the petition should be filed promptly. Filing the will itself is separate and is required promptly under Maryland Estates and Trusts § 4-202, even if no estate is opened.

What is the small estate limit in Maryland?

$50,000 or less in probate assets, or $100,000 or less where the surviving spouse is the sole legatee or heir, under Maryland Estates and Trusts § 5-601(b) and (c). Section 5-601(d) values property at fair market value less debts of record secured by it as of the date of death, so a mortgaged house counts net of the mortgage.

Does opening probate in Maryland stop a foreclosure on the house?

No. Maryland Estates and Trusts § 8-103(d) expressly preserves any action or proceeding to enforce a mortgage, pledge, judgment, other lien, or security interest on property of the estate. The six-month creditor claims bar does not extinguish or delay a lender's lien, and an inherited Maryland house with a defaulted loan stays exposed throughout the estate administration.

Do I have to file the will if there is nothing to probate?

Yes. Maryland Estates and Trusts § 4-202 requires whoever holds a document appearing to be the last will to file it promptly with the Register of Wills in the county where the person was domiciled. The Registers' 2025 guide states this applies even if the will is not being offered for probate and even if there are no probate assets.

You will find more of these on our Maryland homeowner questions page.