Who inherits the house when there's no will

The order Florida follows

Florida works down the family tree one level at a time. If anyone is alive at a level, the estate stops there. If no one is, it moves to the next.

1. Spouse and descendants (children, grandchildren, and so on).
2. Parents, if there's no spouse and no descendants. Both parents share equally, or the surviving parent takes it all.
3. Brothers and sisters, and the children of any brother or sister who has died (nieces and nephews).
4. The grandparents' side. Half goes to the father's side and half to the mother's side: grandparents if living, otherwise their descendants, which means aunts, uncles, and cousins.

We're not attorneys, and this is a simplified summary. The attorney on the estate will build the actual family tree and confirm each heir's share.

How the spouse and children split it

The first level has a few variations that matter a lot.

• Spouse, no children: the spouse takes everything.
• Spouse and children, all of whom are children of both, and the spouse has no other children: the spouse generally takes everything.
• Spouse and children, but at least one child is from another relationship (on either side): the spouse generally takes half, and the descendants share the other half.
• Children, no spouse: the children share equally. If a child died before the parent, that child's own children usually split the share their parent would have received.

The family home can follow different rules. When the house was the person's homestead and a spouse survives, Florida's homestead law controls how it passes, and the spouse's interest often looks different from the split above. Our inherited homestead guide covers that.

Plain examples

These are made-up families to show how the order works, not real cases.

That last row is where heir counts climb. A cousin-level estate can include a dozen or more people, some of whom never met the person who died.

Finding heirs nobody has heard from

Every heir has to be identified, even the ones the family lost touch with decades ago. The court won't finish the case with someone missing, and a title company won't insure a sale that leaves an heir out. Heir searches usually draw on:

• Family knowledge. Old address books, holiday card lists, a family Bible, photos with names on the back.
• Obituaries and funeral programs, which often list surviving relatives.
• Public records such as marriage, divorce, and death records.
• A private investigator, when the trail goes cold.

Sometimes the search turns up an heir who had no idea. In one case of ours, a private investigator located a man in Romania who learned, through us, that his former wife and son had died in Florida and that he was next of kin to their homes. He later wrote, "If not for him, I would have never known about this situation, and would still be wondering."

What happens when one of many heirs won't cooperate

Intestate estates often have more heirs than wills would have named, and more heirs means more chances for one person to stall. Generally, every owner needs to sign to sell the whole house. When someone refuses or can't be reached after a diligent search, the attorney has formal tools, including service and notice, and in some cases partition.

We worked one probate where a Tampa Bay home with no will passed to 42 relatives across the country. A title company and a national underwriter declined it as too complex. We found every heir. Twenty-eight signed voluntarily, the rest were served and noticed under Florida partition law, no one contested, and the court approved the sale. It closed in spring 2026, and all 42 heirs were paid their share.

More on that in our guide to houses with multiple heirs.

If you're one of the heirs and want to sell

No will doesn't mean no options. The estate still goes through probate, and if it qualifies for summary administration, it can move quickly once the heirs sign. Since July 1, 2026, summary administration is available when the non-exempt Florida estate is $150,000 or less, and protected homestead doesn't count toward that number.

Pinellas Probate Home Buyers is the probate division of 131 Cash Home Buyers in St. Petersburg. When we buy the house, an independent licensed Florida probate attorney prepares the filings, and we pay the probate cost, typically about $3,000, not deducted from the heirs' share. Taxes, liens, and any mortgage are paid from the sale at closing.

We’re a home-buying company, not attorneys. This page is general information about Florida probate, not legal advice; an independent licensed Florida probate attorney represents the estate in every probate we pay for. Last updated November 2026.