If no relatives claim a body or come forward to handle the estate, what happens?
Question Details:
My estranged father passed away in FL; I live in NH. I got a call from my aunt telling me the hospital needed me to call them and have his body released from the hospital. Now I have got to deal with all of his belongings and do not have the money to travel to there or pay for a lawyer and I do not know what he had or did not have. If I do not go to FL to deal with any of this will the state just take over. I have not heard from him in 8 years. Do you know what my legal rights are?
Wills, Trusts, Probate Law Answers
Ask your aunt to take over.
You have the legal right to ignore the situation. You aren't obligated to administer his estate; if he left a will naming you as the executor, you have the right to refuse to take the job.
Your aunt, assuming she's his sister, could do these things, just as well, although you might be asked to verify that you're not interested. Another relative, if there is one, could also step in; sometimes a scammer will try to claim kinship, just to loot the estate, but it sounds as if you couldn't care less about that. If nobody wants to deal with it, then, at some point, the state would indeed take over.
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