Selling a House in Probate in Miami-Dade County: Court, Checklist, Fees, and Who Signs

The Probate Division of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, sitting at the Osvaldo N. Soto Miami-Dade Justice Center in downtown Miami, handles the estate and with it any petition to sell the house. Most of the case moves through the statewide e-filing portal, but the circuit's Probate Attorney's Corner is explicit that original wills, codicils, bonds, and original death certificates must be physically filed at 20 NW 1st Avenue, 6th Floor, Room 223, Miami, FL 33128, and it asks that the original death certificate arrive within two working days of the case being opened electronically and receiving a case number.

Two local habits matter more than heirs expect. First, the circuit requires its own Smart Form petition or order wherever one exists for the matter, and states that judges may refuse to sign orders that do not use the Smart Forms. Second, proposed orders go through the courtMAP system rather than the e-filing portal, and the circuit's Probate Checklists page warns that submissions lacking the required petition identifiers are rejected. An attorney who practices mostly in Broward or Palm Beach and only occasionally in Miami-Dade can lose weeks on form alone.

For the county's wider inherited-property picture, the buyers who work it, and the condo special-assessment problem, see selling an inherited house in Miami-Dade County.

As published by the Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts in 2026, the probate filing fee is $401 for formal or ancillary administration, $346 for a summary administration where the estate is $1,000 or more, $236 for a summary administration under $1,000, and $232 for disposition of personal property without administration. Those are the clerk's fees to open the case; attorney's fees, publication of the notice to creditors, certified copies of the letters, and recording fees are separate.

The clerk's small-estate track does not help with a house. The clerk describes its small estates petition as available only where the decedent lived in Miami-Dade County at death, the assets are $6,000 or less and do not exceed the funeral bill, and no real property is involved. A house titled in the decedent's name therefore always needs either summary or formal administration. And if the decedent lived in another state and owned the Miami-Dade house, the estate generally needs an ancillary administration here on top of whatever is happening in the home state.

Only if the will gives the personal representative a power of sale. Under section 733.613, Florida Statutes, where the will grants that power the representative may sell, mortgage, or lease estate real property without authorization or confirmation of the court, and the sale need not be justified by a showing of necessity. Where there is no will, or the will is silent, the statute says no title passes until the court authorizes or confirms the sale.

In practice, Miami-Dade title companies and buyers want to see the letters of administration either way, and many attorneys petition for an order even when the will contains a power of sale, because a recorded order settles the question for the title insurer. Both paths end in the same place: a purchaser who buys from the personal representative generally takes title free of the claims of the estate's creditors and the entitlements of the beneficiaries, though an existing mortgage or lien on the house is not affected and still has to be paid at closing.

CC-09 is a one-page checklist and certification that the attorney of record completes, e-files, and signs with a petition to sell estate real property in Miami-Dade, and the circuit lists it among the checklists that are mandatory. The version the court posts, CC-09, last revised November 2024, opens with three qualifications: the property was titled to the decedent at death and is currently an asset of the estate, no order determining homestead status has been entered for it, and the case is not a summary administration. If any of those fails, the sale takes a different route, covered in the homestead and summary administration sections below.

The petition itself must comply with Florida Probate Rule 5.370(a), state that the sale is an arm's length transaction for fair market value, contain the street address and legal description, and be accompanied by notarized waivers and consents from the beneficiaries entitled to the asset or proof of formal notice to them. The supporting documents are a copy of the proposed sale contract plus either a comparative market analysis or a signed broker's letter with comparable sales; an appraisal is required only when the property is valued at more than $600,000.

The required prior filings are the order appointing the personal representative and the letters of administration, the inventory, proof of service of the notice of administration, and an order designating a restricted depository for the estate (or a petition for one submitted at the same time). The proposed order goes through courtMAP, must include the street and legal description and the terms of sale, and must direct the decedent's share of the sale proceeds into that restricted depository. The attorney then signs a certification that the checklist is an official statement subject to section 837.06, Florida Statutes.

Two contrasts with Palm Beach County are worth knowing if the family is dealing with estates in both. The Fifteenth Circuit's checklist for a petition to sell real property asks for an appraisal unless all beneficiaries have consented to the sale, where Miami-Dade accepts a CMA or broker's letter below $600,000. And where Palm Beach's proposed order may direct proceeds to the attorney's trust account or a restricted depository while the creditor period runs, Miami-Dade's checklist calls for a court-designated restricted depository and directs the decedent's share of the proceeds there.

Usually not, but it controls when the money can leave the estate. Under section 733.702, creditors must file their claims by the later of three months after the first publication of the notice to creditors or, for a creditor who had to be served with the notice, 30 days after service. Until that window closes the estate does not know what it owes, which is why CC-09 routes the decedent's share of the proceeds into a restricted depository rather than to the heirs.

The practical effect for a seller is that the closing and the distribution are separated. A buyer can contract, the court can authorize the sale, and the closing can fund, with the proceeds held until the claims period has run and the court orders distribution. Ask the estate's attorney for the date of first publication; three months from that date is the earliest the family should expect the money, and title companies will want to know where the claims period stands before they insure the sale.

Then the CC-09 process generally does not apply, because its first qualification is that no order determining homestead status has been entered. Florida treats a decedent's protected homestead differently from every other asset: section 733.608 makes all of the decedent's real and personal property estate assets except the protected homestead, and gives the personal representative only a limited power to take possession of it, for the purpose of preserving, insuring, and protecting it, when no heir or beneficiary is occupying it.

In Miami-Dade the homestead question runs on its own checklists, CC-07 for summary administration and CC-08 for formal administration, and once the court enters an order determining homestead status the property passes to the people entitled to it rather than through the estate. Those heirs, not the personal representative, are generally the ones who sign the deed. Title companies typically want that homestead order before they will insure a sale, so raise it with the attorney in the first week rather than the last. The three separate meanings of homestead in Florida, and the devise restrictions where a spouse or minor child survives, are covered in our Florida inherited-house guide.

Yes. CC-09 excludes summary administration proceedings entirely, because a summary administration has no personal representative: the order of summary administration assigns the property to the people entitled to it, and under section 735.206 they are entitled to have it transferred to them, and a bona fide purchaser for value who buys from them takes the property free of the claims of the estate's creditors. Those beneficiaries, all of them, sign the deed.

Whether the estate qualifies is governed by section 735.201. The statute as currently published allows summary administration where the value of the estate subject to administration in Florida, less property exempt from creditors' claims, does not exceed $150,000, a figure raised from $75,000 by a 2026 amendment (chapter 2026-57), or where the decedent has been dead for more than two years. Which threshold applies can turn on when the decedent died, so confirm it with the attorney rather than assuming. Note that the test subtracts exempt property first, which is why a family can sometimes use summary administration even though the house alone is worth more than the figure.

Expect it to change, and usually upward. The Miami-Dade Property Appraiser's Save Our Homes page explains that the cap limits the annual increase in a homesteaded property's assessed value to 3% or the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower, and lists only three transfers that carry the cap to a new owner: between spouses, to legal or natural dependents of the previous exemptee, or to correct an error in title. Read that list against your own situation. If the transfer to you is not on it, the capped assessed value the parent paid on does not carry forward, and the exemption itself depends on the new owner qualifying for one.

For a house a parent owned for decades, the gap between the capped value and the just value can be large, and the estate carries the house at the new number from the January 1 after the change of ownership until it sells. Look the parcel up on the Property Appraiser's site before pricing anything, and confirm the reassessment with a tax professional. Capital gains and the stepped-up basis on the sale itself are a separate question, covered in taxes on selling an inherited house.

Buyers who work estates write the contract to close on the letters or on the order authorizing the sale, not on a fixed calendar date. The estate goes under contract as soon as the family chooses an offer, the attorney files the petition with CC-09, the contract becomes one of the supporting documents the court reviews, and closing is set for after the order is entered. Because the checklist wants a CMA or broker's letter, a written offer at a defensible number is also evidence the court sees.

One Miami-Dade pattern is worth naming. A 1950s concrete-block house in Hialeah or Miami Gardens often comes to market still titled to a parent or grandparent who died years ago, with no estate ever opened. No buyer can close on that house until someone opens the estate, and the first serious conversation with a buyer is frequently what surfaces the problem. If the death was more than two years ago, summary administration may be available regardless of the estate's value, which is often the fastest way through.

BuyerMatch.ai is built for that middle stretch. One free property profile is matched against independent cash buyers in the network who purchase Miami-Dade estate property, and the family compares competing written offers side by side. BuyerMatch does not buy the house and charges the seller nothing; the matched buyers close on the court's timeline, and nothing is signed until the estate can sign. For what can move before the order is entered, see selling during probate.