The first two weeks
Contact the insurer immediately. This is the most time-sensitive item on the list and the one most commonly missed. A home policy may respond differently once a property is unoccupied following the death of the owner, and some policies require notification within a defined period. An uninsured or under-insured estate property is a serious exposure for an executor personally.
Ask specifically: does coverage continue, for how long, under what conditions, and is a vacancy permit or specialised policy required? Get the answer in writing.
Then secure the property: confirm who has keys, change locks if the answer is unclear, arrange for mail to be collected, and make sure heat is on and set appropriately.
What the property needs while probate runs
Probate in Alberta commonly takes six to eighteen months before a property can be dealt with. That is at least one full Alberta winter, often two, during which the house is empty and someone has to be responsible for it.
The requirements are the same as any vacant property, with the added complication that the people responsible are often grieving, in another city, and dealing with a great deal else.
- Heat maintained through winter, or water shut off and drained
- Regular monitoring visits with documentation
- Snow clearing — the bylaw obligation continues
- Lawn and yard maintenance through the growing season
- Mail collected so the property does not advertise its state
- Utilities kept on where heating and monitoring depend on them
- Any maintenance issue addressed rather than deferred to the eventual buyer
Why documentation matters more here than anywhere else
Families disagree. It is ordinary and it is not anyone's fault. A sibling in another province wants to know the house is being looked after. A beneficiary asks what happened to the contents, or why money was spent on a repair. Someone questions whether the property was maintained before it sold.
A dated, photographed record of every visit and every authorised piece of work answers all of it without argument. It is also useful when accounting to beneficiaries formally, and it is exactly the sort of thing that is impossible to reconstruct after the fact.
Executors who have been through a contested estate do not need convincing about this. Executors who have not, generally underestimate it.
Contents, and being careful
Contents are the most sensitive part of estate property work and the area where clear boundaries protect everyone. Nothing should be moved, removed, disposed of or valued without specific written instruction from the executor.
That extends to well-meaning tidying. A property-care service should not be deciding what is rubbish in a deceased person's home, and any service that does so casually is creating a problem for the executor rather than solving one.
When contents do need to be dealt with, document thoroughly beforehand — photographs of every room before anything is moved.
Before listing or transferring
- Consider a professional inspection so the estate understands the property's condition before it is marketed
- A sewer scope is worth doing on any older home, particularly inner-city Calgary properties with mature trees
- Address anything that would become a negotiating point
- Cleaning and junk removal coordinated once the family has finished
- Full photographic record before contents are removed
- Pre-listing preparation coordinated with the estate's Realtor