How Long Does Probate Take in Georgia?
Hey guys, it’s Brad from georgiaprobateresource.com.
Appreciate you checking out this video. I’m here today with Josh Nelson with Nelson Elder Care Law out of Woodstock, Georgia, and Marietta, Georgia, and he’s going to answer some questions for us today. So appreciate you checking this out, and I hope these videos help you out. Thanks again.
So how long does probate usually take in Georgia?
I’m going to let Josh answer this question. I’ve done a lot of videos about this, but you’re going to hear it straight from attorney here. How long does it usually take?
Josh Nelson:
Absolutely. I think that people get scared of probate because it often is described as taking months and months and months. And in some cases, it can. There are certain cases where we can’t locate heirs, we can’t get people to play their right roles in this. Or maybe they’re fighting over inheritances. Maybe there’s what we call family dynamics or infighting in the family. All of those things can make it draw out for a long time, sometimes even years.
But the average case in Georgia is going to usually take about six to nine months.
That doesn’t mean that you can’t sell the property for six months, though. As soon as you get appointed as the administrator or as the executor, you usually can either sell it or get the judge to give you additional power to be able to sell it. So if you have something where you can’t handle the carrying costs of the property, if it’s something where you can’t pay the property taxes, the utilities, the mortgage, rather than letting that thing go to a short sale or a foreclosure, if you start probate right away, usually within 30 to 60 days you’ll have the legal power to be able to get the house sold.
Now that money then comes into an estate account and it doesn’t go to the heirs for a couple months, but at least you can get it turned into cash rather than having a house that might be getting burglarized or windows broken or just the overall carrying costs as a burden for people.
So generally probate is going to take six to nine months in Georgia. Sometimes it’ll take up to a year depending on what county it is. Some counties are a little bit slower than others, but that doesn’t mean that you have to not sell the assets. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to be paying the mortgage on this house for 12 months. Usually that’s only 30 to 60 days.
Brad:
Yeah, I’ve done a lot of other videos about this. As soon as you’ve got your letters of administration or your letters testamentary and they grant you that power to sell the house, you can sell the house. Your probate’s not done at that point, but you can sell the house at that point.
Josh Nelson:
And I think we can all agree you’d rather have cash in the bank than a house that’s costing you a couple hundred bucks every month to keep up. It also makes it a lot easier than whenever you go to give the checks out to heirs because you’re just transferring money rather than fighting over property.
Brad:
Absolutely. Definitely. Appreciate you checking out the video guys. Again, this is Brad with georgiaprobateresource.com here with Josh Nelson with Nelson Elder Care Law. We appreciate you checking out these videos. If you do have a house that you need to sell and you just want a quick, easy, fast cash, no BS offer, we’d love to buy the house from you. Or if you want to go the traditional route and list it the traditional way with an agent, I am a licensed agent in Georgia with OneSource in Woodstock and I’d be happy to help you with that as well. So thanks again, Josh, for your time and I hope you guys enjoyed the video.