Probate statement of lieu, has anyone used it?

Well I bet your doing small estates probate? If so then what this in lieu of is to affirm that there are no outstanding bills and that all real property is / was wholly owned by the deceased. Basically it’s stating that there are no encumbrances to / on the property so you can do a distribution as per their will.

if you can’t find a specific form from your PC, Google Harris Co (TX) probate courts in lieu of forms. Their site actually is a great resource for basic templates; great info for those attempting to pro se probate. It’s for Texas law but you can figure out how to make it work for your situation. But that probate atty should be providing this stuff to you and then they scan & enter it via their online portal to the courthouse….. so no need to go to the CH. The portal is tied to their bar card so it’s all properly verified and recorded.

The “in lieu of” basically means in exchange for another more comprehensive &/or traditional document. Like for full probate, it’s usually used for the inventory of all the items the deceased owned. Is this what you are referring to. My answer is based on it bring an in lieu of inventory

Say your the executor for Great Aunt Tillie, so in theory you write down & describe each and every item that Tillie owned and thier value. And for fun in all this, she has rooms & rooms of “junque”. Well the court really doesn’t want 100+ pages of details on Tillies knickknacks. So instead you do an In Lieu of Inventory……, you basically figure out bigger categories of stuff and come up with a reasonable price it could fetch at a tag sale. So it’s “personal contents of 2 BR apt $ 2,000”, appliances from 2 BR apt $500”. Now if some of the items are “real property” eg items that are recorded in some way by state / local authorities (like tax assessor), those will need a more precise and current value placed. Like if Aunt Tillie own a home, had 2 cars and had a summer home on 5 acres, all of those each need some sort of appraisal or assessment done and that documentation (of how value was determined) is filed along with however you described them on the “in lieu” inventory form. often executor uses the tax tax bill for value on home & land & Kelly Blue book on cars. But if tax assessor value is whack, like way way off, then IMO you’ll need to get an independent appraisal done. I’ve been an Executor x 3 and did this for 2 out of 3. What I did was got inspections done first on property, then hired an appraiser who got the inspection report and they gave me an appraisal that I gave to my probate atty who entered as an attachment to the inventory. It’s a way more precise figure.

Your probate attorney should have given you some sort of info or guidelines on how to do an in lieu inventory. Some courts have on thier website an example of how they can be done. But that probate guy really needs to be working with you to get this stuff done. Your paying for expertise…. Just sayin’.

I am bumping this up. I have done probate and didn't deal with anything like this.