Personal Representative Deed Requirements in Florida
At a glance
| Governing law and transaction scope | Florida Probate Code fiduciary, possession, transaction, and realty-sale provisions (Fla. Stat. §§ 733.602-.615), especially § 733.613 |
|---|---|
| Property subject to representative control | Representative controls decedent's property needed for administration except protected homestead and specified surviving-spouse community property; estate realty is an asset for statutory obligations and devises (Fla. Stat. §§ 733.607-.608) |
| Will power and independent authority | Specific realty-sale/mortgage power or general asset-sale power permits sale, mortgage, or lease without court authorization or confirmation. Intestacy, no power, or unusably limited power requires court authorization or confirmation (§ 733.613) |
| Court petition and required findings | No-power route requires court authorization or confirmation before title passes; § 733.613 states the representative must consider the sale in the estate's and interested persons' best interest but states no separate petition contents or confirmation findings |
| Notice, hearing, and objections | The researched sale provisions state no sale-specific notice, publication, hearing, or objection schedule. A conflicted sale to the representative or related person is separately voidable unless authorized or court-approved after notice (§§ 733.610, 733.613) |
| Sale method, price, credit, and appraisal | Public or private sale. Under will power: cash, credit, part cash/part credit, with or without security, with no necessity showing; no statutory appraisal percentage or bid formula appears in § 733.613 |
| Confirmation, report, and deed execution | No-power route: authorization or confirmation must precede title passage. Will-power route: no authorization or confirmation. Sections 733.607-.615 state no sale-report deadline or probate-specific deed recital |
| Recording the order and companion documents | Sections 733.607-.615 state no requirement to record a confirmation order, letters, or probate affidavit with the deed; ordinary deed and county-recording requirements remain separate |
| Purchaser protection and title effect | Good-faith value dealer generally protected without inquiry into representative authority, except § 733.613(1). Sale under specific will power or court order passes title free of estate-creditor claims and beneficiary entitlements, but existing mortgages and liens remain (§§ 733.611, 733.613) |
Requirements one by one
Property control excludes protected homestead
Sections 733.607-.608 give the personal representative possession or control of estate property needed for administration and make Florida realty an estate asset for named obligations and devises, but protected homestead is excluded. Section 733.607 also excludes the surviving spouse's one-half share of property covered by Florida's community-property-at-death act.
The will determines whether a court order is needed
Section 733.613 creates the core split. A specific power to sell or mortgage realty, or a general power to sell any estate asset, permits public or private sale without court authorization or confirmation. The representative may use cash, credit, part cash and part credit, and may secure unpaid balances. The statute says no necessity showing is required.
For intestacy, no power, or a power too limited to use conveniently, the representative may sell when the representative considers it in the estate's and interested persons' best interest, but no title passes until the court authorizes or confirms the sale.
The sale section does not supply a uniform procedural checklist
The researched §§ 733.607-.615 do not state a sale-specific petition form, notice period, publication sequence, hearing schedule, appraisal percentage, overbid formula, report deadline, confirmation findings, or probate-specific deed recital. Those matters must come from the applicable court procedure and order rather than being inferred from § 733.613.
Section 733.612(2), (27) (§ 733.612(2)) separately lets the representative perform an enforceable decedent contract to convey realty and execute necessary instruments. That contract-performance route is not a substitute for the ordinary third-party sale analysis in § 733.613.
A conflict transaction is different. Section 733.610 makes a sale to the representative or specified related persons voidable unless the decedent authorized it or the court approves it after notice to interested persons.
Title and purchaser protection
Section 733.611 (§ 733.611) generally protects a good-faith person dealing for value without requiring inquiry into the representative's authority, but expressly preserves the no-order exception in § 733.613(1).
Under § 733.613(3), a purchaser under a specific will power or a court order takes free of estate-creditor claims and beneficiary entitlements. Existing mortgages and other real-property liens remain unaffected.
What trips people up
Joint-representative signatures are not governed by a universal all-sign rule. Section 733.615 generally requires majority concurrence for representatives appointed under wills executed on or after October 1, 1987 and for intestate decedents dying on or after that date, unless the will provides otherwise. Its older-estate branch uses all representatives.
Common questions
Does a will power eliminate every title concern?
No. It eliminates court authorization or confirmation for the statutory sale, but existing mortgages and liens remain, and fiduciary duties and ordinary deed requirements still apply.
Does the personal representative control protected homestead?
Not under the ordinary possession and asset rules in §§ 733.607-.608. Separate homestead statutes and proceedings determine that property.
Can the court confirm a sale after the representative contracts?
Section 733.613 says title may pass after the court “authorizes or confirms” the sale, but the statute does not itself provide the filing and hearing mechanics.
Statutes and sources
- Fla. Stat. §§ 733.602-.603 and 733.607-.608 — fiduciary duty, court role, possession, protected-homestead boundary, and estate assets. Official current chapter 733, accessed 2026-08-12: https://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0733/0733.html
- Fla. Stat. §§ 733.610-.613 — conflict sales, good-faith dealing, contract performance, will power, court authorization or confirmation, title passage, and lien exceptions. Official current chapter 733, accessed 2026-08-12: https://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0733/0733.html
- Fla. Stat. § 733.615 — concurrence of joint personal representatives. Official current chapter 733, accessed 2026-08-12: https://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0733/0733.html
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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