QUESTION
Can I change the locks of a home to a person who just died and has no will?
Asked on Nov 27th, 2016 on Estate Planning - Texas
More details to this question:
There is no will. He left us the keys and we were considered family. He never talked about him having family for the past 12 years. Now, cousins are coming down and are saying they’re coming to take all his stuff. He has no wife or kids and both parents are dead.
1 ANSWER
Wills and Estate Planning Attorney serving Sugar Land, TX
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Law Offices of Kimberly D. Moss, PLLC
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If you are not a blood relative of this person, and his family is now coming to assert ownership of his property and belongings, you cannot legally change the locks of his home. Even without a will, a person's belongings pass by a law known as intestate succession, so the relatives coming out of the woodwork have a legal claim to the residence as well as any other items of value he left behind. They can assert this claim by filing a small estate affidavit in the county where your friend died.
Answered on Jan 12th, 2017 at 4:29 PM