Probate Notice to Creditors and Claim Deadlines in Texas

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Two claims tracks

Texas separates court-supervised administration from independent administration. Section 355.001 permits a supervised claim to be presented before the estate closes if suit is not already barred by the general statutes of limitation. Section 403.058 says the supervised claim procedures generally do not apply in an independent administration, so a creditor must identify the administration type before choosing a presentation or litigation route.

Publication and proof

Estates Code § 308.051 places the publication duty on the personal representative and starts it from receipt of letters:

“Within one month after receiving letters testamentary or of administration, a personal representative of an estate shall provide notice requiring each person who has a claim against the estate to present the claim within the period prescribed by law.”

The notice goes in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the letters issued. It must state the letters date, the claim address, and the representative's chosen addressing instruction. If no qualifying newspaper exists, the statute calls for posting and a filed return instead.

Section 308.052 ties proof to the title's publication-service rules. Estates Code §§ 51.054 and 51.103 supply one-time publication on the judiciary's public-information website and in the county newspaper, plus publication proof. The published notice and publisher's affidavit must be filed in the pending probate proceeding.

Creditor-specific notice

Texas does not state a general statutory duty in these claims chapters to search for every known or reasonably ascertainable unsecured creditor. Section 308.053 instead creates an actual-knowledge rule for secured claims. The representative must notify each known secured creditor within two months after receiving letters and must notify a later-discovered secured creditor within a reasonable period after obtaining actual knowledge.

Secured-creditor notice goes by a qualified delivery method to the record holder's last known post-office address. Section 22.0295 defines those methods as courier hand delivery with proof, certified or registered mail with return receipt, or a Treasury-designated private delivery service with proof. Copies, receipts, and the representative's affidavit are filed with the clerk.

Section 308.054 separately permits, but does not require, qualified-delivery notice to an unsecured creditor. That notice must warn that the claim must be presented before the 121st day after receipt or will be barred, subject to the general statutes of limitation.

Presenting a supervised claim

Under § 355.001, the claimant may present a claim to the personal representative. Section 355.002 also permits deposit with the clerk, with the vouchers, necessary exhibits, and affidavit attached. A claim deposited with the clerk is presumed rejected if the representative does not act by day 30.

Section 355.004 requires a money claim's affidavit to state that the claim is just, all known offsets, payments, and credits have been allowed, and—when the claim is not founded on an instrument or account—the supporting facts. Under § 355.008, filing or depositing a money claim with the clerk tolls the general limitation period.

Presenting an independent-administration claim

Section 403.051 requires the independent executor to give the general publication and secured-creditor notices and permits the optional unsecured notice. For the optional notice to be effective, it must also say that a claim can be effectively presented only by a method in the independent-administration subchapter.

Section 403.056 allows three vehicles: an affidavit-compliant written instrument sent by a qualified delivery method to the independent executor or the executor's attorney; a pleading filed in a lawsuit about the claim; or an affidavit-compliant instrument or pleading filed in the probate court.

Presentation alone is not enough to stop limitations. Section 403.057 says limitations are tolled only by the independent executor's signed written approval, a pleading in a suit pending at death, or a creditor's suit against the independent executor, subject to the death suspension in Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.062.

Short deadlines, closing, and the death rule

The required general publication does not itself create a fixed publication- based claim bar. The short bar arises only if the representative sends the optional unsecured-creditor notice. Estates Code §§ 355.060 and 403.055 bar the claim unless the creditor presents it before the 121st day after receiving that notice.

In a supervised administration, § 355.064 separately requires suit on a rejected claim within 90 days after rejection. Section 403.058 expressly says that rule does not apply to an independent administration, so rejection or inaction by an independent executor does not by itself trigger that 90-day bar.

Texas does not state a separate death-based probate nonclaim or repose period in the researched scheme. Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.062 instead suspends an applicable statute of limitations for 12 months after death. If an executor or administrator qualifies sooner, limitations begin running again at qualification.

The Estates Code does not state an extension of the 121-day bar. For a supervised estate, a still-unbarred claim may be presented before closing under § 355.001. After an order for final partition and distribution, § 355.063 bars allowance and a new suit against the representative but preserves a limited action against heirs, devisees, or creditors up to the value each received, so long as the claim is not otherwise time-barred.

Secured claims and taxes

Estates Code §§ 355.151-.152 give a secured claimant in supervised administration a choice between a matured secured claim paid in due course and a preferred debt and lien limited to the collateral. The choice is due by the later of six months after letters or four months after the secured-creditor notice is received. A late or unspecified election becomes the collateral-only preferred debt and lien treatment.

Section 403.052 supplies the parallel independent-administration election and adds county deed-record filing for an election secured by real property. A missed election or recording step leaves the claim against the collateral and prevents assertion against other estate assets. Section 403.054 permits foreclosure and other collection on that preferred lien, but bars a nonjudicial foreclosure sale during the first six months after letters.

Section 308.051 also requires qualified-delivery notice to the comptroller when the decedent remitted or should have remitted taxes administered by that office. The surveyed claims chapters state no separate insurance-only exception.

What trips people up

The publication notice does not give every creditor one universal claim date. It directs claims to be presented within the period prescribed by law. The 121-day bar requires creditor-specific optional notice, and ordinary limitation periods may expire earlier.

Supervised and independent presentation rules are not interchangeable. Clerk deposit tolls limitations under the supervised procedure, while mere delivery of a claim or claim notice to an independent executor does not.

A secured creditor's missed election does not necessarily erase the lien. It changes the claim to collateral-only preferred debt and lien treatment and may prevent recovery from other estate assets.

Common questions

Must the representative mail every unsecured creditor?

Not under the surveyed statutory notice provisions. Individual notice is mandatory for known secured creditors. Section 308.054 makes unsecured-creditor notice optional, although sending it can start the 121-day bar.

Does the published notice start the 121-day period?

No. The 121-day period runs from the creditor's receipt of the optional qualified-delivery notice under § 308.054, not from newspaper publication.

Does a rejected claim always require suit within 90 days?

Only in the supervised procedure addressed by § 355.064. Section 403.058 says that 90-day rule does not apply in independent administration.

Can a real-property lender elect payment from the general estate?

Potentially, but the independent-administration election must be timely and the creditor must also record the election in the county deed records. Otherwise § 403.052 limits the claim to preferred debt and lien treatment against the specific collateral.

Statutes and sources

• Tex. Est. Code §§ 22.0295, 51.054, and 51.103 — qualified delivery, one-time publication service, and proof. Texas Legislative Council: https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/ES/htm/ES.22.htm and https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/ES/htm/ES.51.htm (accessed 2026-08-11).
• Tex. Est. Code §§ 308.051-.054 — general publication, proof, secured- creditor notice, and optional unsecured-creditor notice. Texas Legislative Council: https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/ES/htm/ES.308.htm (accessed 2026-08-11).
• Tex. Est. Code §§ 355.001-.008, 355.060, 355.063-.065, and 355.151-.152 — supervised presentation, authentication, tolling, bar, closing, rejection, and secured-claim election. Texas Legislative Council: https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/ES/htm/ES.355.htm (accessed 2026-08-11).
• Tex. Est. Code §§ 403.051-.059 — independent-administration notices, presentation methods, tolling, enforcement, and secured claims. Texas Legislative Council: https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/ES/htm/ES.403.htm (accessed 2026-08-11).
• Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.062 — limitation suspension after death. Texas Legislative Council: https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/CP/htm/CP.16.htm (accessed 2026-08-11).