Sell Inherited Property in Alabama

Selling inherited property in Alabama depends on how title was held, whether probate is required, whether a surviving spouse has homestead rights, and whether Alabama-specific issues like the heirs-property partition statute, the constitutional homestead life estate, or an out-of-state probate affect the sale.

• Alabama has no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax. Selling inherited property creates no state-level death tax. Only federal estate tax can apply, and only to estates above the federal exemption.
• Real property vests in heirs at death, but that is not the same as sale-ready title (Ala. Code Title 43). A title company may still require probate, all heirs’ signatures, an affidavit of heirship, creditor resolution, or court confirmation before insuring a sale.
• Alabama does not authorize transfer-on-death deeds for real estate. A solely titled inherited house usually needs probate, ancillary probate, or another title-clearing route before it can be sold.
• The small-estate procedure is for personal property only. It does not clear title to inherited real estate, so it is rarely the answer for selling a house.
• When several heirs inherit together, Alabama’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act controls. It requires an appraisal, gives non-selling co-owners a buyout right at appraised value, prefers physical division, and routes any forced sale to the open market rather than a courthouse auction (Ala. Code §§ 35-6A-1 to 35-6A-14).
• A surviving spouse’s homestead rights can delay or prevent a fee-simple sale of the family home (Ala. Code § 6-10-101).

Whether inherited property in Alabama needs probate depends mainly on how title was held. A solely titled house usually needs probate, ancillary probate, or a title-company-approved route before a buyer can receive insurable title. Property that passed through a trust, or through a true joint tenancy with a clearly written right of survivorship, generally transfers outside probate.

• Sole ownership: Probate (or, for older estates, a title-company-approved affidavit of heirship) to clear title. Passes by will or intestacy.
• Tenancy in common: Probate (or alternative). Alabama’s default for co-owners, even spouses, unless the deed clearly created survivorship. The deceased owner’s undivided share passes by will or intestacy.
• Joint tenancy with right of survivorship: No probate, but only when the deed clearly states the survivorship right (Ala. Code § 35-4-7). Passes to the surviving owner.
• Trust: No probate, if the property was properly titled in the trust before death. The trustee transfers it under the trust terms.
• Payable-on-death or securities accounts: Pass outside probate, but are not a way to transfer real estate.
• Small estate (summary distribution): Personal property only. Does not clear title to a house.

Because real property vests in heirs at death (Ala. Code § 43-2-830(a)), heirs hold a conveyable interest right away. That does not mean a buyer can close right away. The title company decides what it will insure, and it often wants probate completed, all heirs’ signatures, or a cleared chain of title first. For how the court process works once it starts, see our guide to probate real estate.

Alabama is a common-law, separate-property state with no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax. Its defining feature for inherited real estate is procedural: Alabama does not have informal probate the way Uniform Probate Code states do, so most inherited real estate sales turn on title, probate authority, a surviving spouse’s homestead rights, and, when multiple heirs disagree, the state’s heirs-property partition statute. Real property vests in the heirs at death (Ala. Code § 43-2-830), subject to estate administration, creditor claims, court authority, and title-company underwriting.

Alabama has three rules that distinguish it from most other states for inherited real estate: a dedicated heirs-property statute that controls multi-owner sales, a constitutional homestead right that can freeze the family home for a surviving spouse, and the absence of any transfer-on-death deed for real estate.

How Does Alabama’s Heirs Property Act Affect Sales?

When two or more people inherit Alabama real estate together and at least one of them received their interest from a relative, the sale is governed by the Alabama Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (Ala. Code §§ 35-6A-1 to 35-6A-14, effective January 1, 2015). Instead of sending the property straight to a courthouse auction, the court must order an appraisal, offer the other co-owners a chance to buy out the share of whoever wants to sell, prefer physically dividing the land where that is practical, and route any sale to the open market. The full sequence is covered in the heirs-property section below. No single heir, and no buyer who acquires one heir’s share, can force a quick auction of the whole property in Alabama. For how a forced sale works as a concept, see our guide to whether a sibling can force the sale of inherited property.

How Can Alabama Homestead Rights Delay a Sale?

A surviving spouse’s constitutional homestead right can hold up a sale of the family home (Ala. Code § 6-10-101). Depending on the home’s value and acreage measured against the statutory limits, the spouse may take the homestead in fee simple within those limits, or hold only a life estate when the property exceeds them. A life estate can prevent a fee-simple sale until it ends. A surviving spouse also has the right to remain in the dwelling, rent-free, until the homestead is formally assigned (Ala. Code § 43-8-114). For many families, this is the rule that determines whether the home can be listed at all right now. The details are explained in the surviving-spouse section below.

Does Alabama Allow Transfer-on-Death Deeds for Real Estate?

No. Alabama does not authorize transfer-on-death deeds for real property. Some neighboring states let an owner name a beneficiary who receives the home automatically at death, which avoids probate. Alabama does not offer that for real estate. It does allow transfer-on-death registration for securities and payable-on-death bank accounts (Ala. Code §§ 8-6-140 to 8-6-151), but neither moves a house. The practical result is that heirs usually cannot sidestep probate on an inherited Alabama home, which makes the title-clearing route the first thing to sort out. For the broader picture, see our guide to how to avoid probate on inherited property.

Alabama recognizes several forms of ownership that determine whether inherited property passes through probate, and the state’s signature rule is that survivorship is never presumed: co-owners are treated as tenants in common unless the deed clearly created a right of survivorship.

Sole ownership passes by will or intestacy and needs probate, or a title-company-approved route, to clear title. Tenancy in common is the default for co-owners, including married couples; a deceased owner’s undivided share passes by will or intestacy with no survivorship. Joint tenancy with right of survivorship passes to the surviving owner outside probate, but only when the deed clearly states the survivorship right (§ 35-4-7); without that language, Alabama treats the co-ownership as a tenancy in common, and a clearly stated survivorship is what the statute requires, not mathematically equal shares. Tenancy by the entirety is abolished in Alabama, along with dower and curtesy (§ 43-8-57), so that married-couple form does not exist here. Trust property passes outside probate if it was titled in the trust before death, with the trustee transferring it under the trust terms. Transfer-on-death deeds are not available for Alabama real estate, and while payable-on-death and securities registrations are allowed for accounts and securities (§§ 8-6-140 to 8-6-151), neither transfers a house.

The title company’s requirements to insure a sale can be stricter than the bare legal rule about who inherits. Even where a vehicle bypasses probate, the title company still confirms the chain of title and the death before it insures the buyer.

When someone dies without a will in Alabama, who inherits depends on whether the decedent left children or parents and, critically, on whether the children are also the surviving spouse’s children. The surviving spouse’s share is set by statute (Ala. Code § 43-8-41). The biggest trap is the blended-family rule: when even one child is not the surviving spouse’s child, the spouse loses the base dollar amount and takes only one-half of the estate.

Several Alabama-specific rules sit on top of these formulas. An heir must survive the decedent by at least 120 hours to inherit through intestacy (Ala. Code § 43-8-43). Half-blood relatives inherit equally with whole-blood relatives (§ 43-8-46), and children conceived before but born after death can inherit (§ 43-8-47). Stepchildren do not inherit unless legally adopted, while a child born outside marriage inherits from a biological parent when paternity is established (§ 43-8-48). Advancements count only with a contemporaneous writing (§ 43-8-49), an Alabama-specific rule that makes oral claims of an advancement unenforceable. A relative related to the decedent through two lines takes only one share, the larger (§ 43-8-58), and under the slayer rule a person who intentionally and feloniously kills the decedent cannot inherit from the victim (§ 43-8-253).

Probate for inherited real estate in Alabama commonly takes 6 to 12 months in a simple, uncontested estate, and 12 to 24 months or more when there are creditor claims, a court-approved sale, missing heirs, homestead rights, or title disputes. Alabama does not offer informal probate the way Uniform Probate Code states do, which is why even straightforward estates run on a court calendar.

The delay is not only the court calendar. The creditor period, sale authority, a surviving spouse’s homestead rights, and title insurance requirements can all affect when a deed can safely close. One timing point surprises families: the six-month creditor claim period does not start at death. It starts when the county probate court grants letters to the personal representative, the executor or administrator appointed to handle the estate, and it runs alongside the rest of the administration.

The main steps, in order:

1. File the petition with the probate court in the decedent’s county (Ala. Code § 43-2-40), within five years of death (§ 43-8-161).
2. Letters issue. The court grants Letters Testamentary (with a will) or Letters of Administration (without one) (§§ 43-2-20 et seq.), usually one to four weeks after the petition.
3. Bond is posted unless the will or the court waives it (§ 43-2-80).
4. Notice to creditors is published once a week for three consecutive weeks (§§ 43-2-60, 43-2-61).
5. Inventory is filed within two months of letters (§§ 43-2-310 to 43-2-312, § 43-2-835).
6. The six-month creditor claim period runs from the grant of letters (§ 43-2-350 et seq.).
7. If the personal representative sells real property through a court-supervised probate sale, notice and court confirmation may be required (§ 43-2-444; §§ 43-2-451 to 43-2-465). If the will grants an independent power of sale, or the title company accepts another authority route, the requirements may differ.
8. Final settlement is filed with an accounting after the creditor period closes (§§ 43-2-500 et seq.).
9. The court orders distribution, and the personal representative distributes to the heirs or devisees (§§ 43-2-690 et seq.), at which point the deed and closing can follow.

A personal representative’s compensation is capped at 2.5% of the value of the estate plus 2.5% of disbursements, though the court can approve more for extraordinary service (§ 43-2-692). Timelines vary by county, and probate moves at different speeds in Jefferson County (Birmingham), Madison County (Huntsville), Mobile County, Baldwin County, Montgomery County, Shelby County, and Tuscaloosa County. Once appointed, the personal representative carries specific duties to sell estate property correctly, which our guide to what a personal representative must do to sell inherited property walks through.

The main ways to transfer inherited Alabama real estate are formal probate, ancillary probate when the owner lived out of state, a title-company-approved heirship route for older estates, or a court partition process when co-heirs disagree. The small-estate procedure does not clear title to real property, so it is rarely the route for selling a house.

The Revised Alabama Small Estates Act (effective October 1, 2025) revised Alabama’s personal-property small-estate summary distribution process and its inflation-adjusted threshold. It does not create a shortcut for transferring or selling inherited real estate. Because the adjusted threshold changes over time, confirm the current amount with the probate court before relying on it. The summary process is also unavailable if there is a surviving minor child who is not also the surviving spouse’s child. While probate, title, or co-heir issues are sorted out, an inherited home in Birmingham, Mobile, Huntsville, Montgomery, or a rural county can sit vacant, and property taxes, insurance, utilities, repairs, and security can fall to heirs who are not yet able to list. For the full process across property types, see our complete guide to selling inherited property.

Alabama protects a surviving spouse through an elective share, a constitutional homestead right, and statutory allowances. These rights do different jobs. The elective share affects how much value the spouse receives, not whether the home can be sold. The homestead life estate can affect whether the home can be sold in fee simple at all. The rent-free right to occupy can delay possession and listing until the homestead is assigned. The allowances affect how much estate cash the spouse receives and where they rank against creditors. For the broader picture when a spouse has died, see our guide to selling a house after the death of a spouse.

What Is the Elective Share in Alabama?

The elective share in Alabama is the lesser of (1) the entire estate minus the surviving spouse’s separate estate, or (2) one-third of the estate (Ala. Code § 43-8-70). The election must be made within six months of death or of probate of the will, whichever is later (§ 43-8-73).

What makes Alabama unusual is what the elective share cannot reach. In Russell v. Russell, 758 So.2d 533 (Ala. 1999), the Alabama Supreme Court rejected the Uniform Probate Code’s augmented-estate approach. That means assets a decedent placed in a revocable trust, lifetime gifts, and most non-probate transfers are generally not pulled back into the estate for elective-share purposes. The practical consequence is significant: a spouse who fully funded a revocable trust during life can largely defeat the survivor’s elective share, which makes Alabama spouses more weakly protected against disinheritance than spouses in many other states. This is a point worth confirming with an attorney in a specific estate. Separately, a pretermitted spouse, meaning someone the decedent married after making a will and then died without updating it, generally takes an intestate share unless the will provided for that situation (§ 43-8-90).

Can a Surviving Spouse Stay in the Inherited Home?

Often, yes, and this is the rule that most often holds up a sale. Under Alabama’s constitutional homestead provision, the homestead interest a surviving spouse receives depends on the home’s value and acreage measured against the statutory limits. Within those limits, the spouse may take the homestead in fee simple; when the property exceeds them, the spouse may instead receive a life estate (Ala. Code § 6-10-2; § 6-10-101). A life estate means the home generally cannot be sold in fee simple while it lasts. Because the exact limits, the fee-simple-versus-life-estate line, and how a minor child’s interest interacts with the spouse’s all turn on the specific facts, confirming the outcome with an Alabama attorney is worthwhile before making plans for the home.

A surviving spouse also has the right to remain in the dwelling, rent-free, until the homestead is formally assigned (§ 43-8-114). For families deciding whether they can list the home, this right, and the homestead interest above, often answer whether a sale is possible yet.

What Are Alabama’s Probate Allowances?

Alabama gives a surviving spouse (and in some cases minor or dependent children) statutory allowances that have priority over most creditor claims and come in addition to the inheritance share. The homestead allowance has a statutory floor of $15,000, adjusted over time for inflation (§§ 43-8-110, 43-8-116). The exempt property allowance has a statutory floor of $7,500, also inflation-adjusted, covering household furniture, automobiles, and personal effects (§ 43-8-111). The family allowance is a reasonable allowance for maintenance during administration, set by a reasonableness standard rather than a fixed dollar amount, with a one-year limit that applies only when the estate is inadequate to pay claims (§ 43-8-112). Because the homestead and exempt-property figures are inflation-adjusted, confirm the current amounts with the probate court rather than relying on the statutory floors alone.

Does Alabama Have an Estate or Inheritance Tax?

No. Alabama has no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax for deaths after December 31, 2004. Heirs selling an inherited Alabama property face no state-level death tax. The only death tax that can apply is the federal estate tax, which reaches very few estates and only those above the federal exemption.

What Is the Capital Gains Tax on Inherited Property in Alabama?

For most heirs, the feared capital-gains bill turns out to be small or nothing. Inherited property generally receives a stepped-up basis to its fair market value at the date of death under federal law, so an heir who sells soon after inheriting often has little or no taxable gain (IRS, gifts and inheritances). Alabama does not create a special inherited-property capital-gains exclusion, so the state-income-tax question usually follows whether the sale produces taxable gain after basis is determined. In short, if the property sells for more than its stepped-up basis, the taxable gain may be included in Alabama income. For how basis and gain work in detail, see our guide to capital gains tax on inherited property.

Does Inheriting Property in Alabama Trigger Property Tax Reassessment?

No. Alabama does not have a Proposition 19-style reassessment trigger on inheritance, so inheriting a home does not by itself reset its value the way it can in some states. Property tax does keep accruing during probate. The personal representative is responsible for paying it from estate funds, and if the estate is short on cash, the heirs may need to advance those payments. Alabama statute does not set a reimbursement formula for that, so it is handled equitably. For most Alabama heirs, taxes are less of an obstacle than title, probate authority, co-heir consent, and holding costs.

To sell inherited property in Alabama, the title company needs proof of who has legal authority to sign the deed, and that proof depends on how the property is passing. Because real property vests in heirs at death (Ala. Code § 43-2-830), heirs sometimes hold a conveyable interest before an administration closes, but the title company decides what it will insure, and it frequently wants probate completed or a cleared chain of title first.

Can Alabama Heirs Sell Before Probate Closes?

Sometimes, but a full sale is harder than it looks. Because real property vests in heirs at death, a single heir can often convey that heir’s own undivided interest before probate closes. That does not mean the buyer receives clean title to the whole property, practical control, possession, or the ability to force an immediate resale. The buyer steps into the selling heir’s position and remains subject to cotenant rights, creditor claims, homestead rights, title underwriting, and the Heirs Property Act if the property qualifies.

Selling the whole property is different. It usually needs every required signature, the title company’s approval, and resolution of the estate’s debts and any homestead rights. If the personal representative is selling estate real property through a court-supervised probate sale, the court typically has to authorize and then confirm the sale (Ala. Code §§ 43-2-451 to 43-2-465), and objections have to be raised before confirmation. If the will grants an independent power of sale, or the title company accepts another authority route, the requirements may differ.

A few other closing realities for Alabama inherited property. The deed recording tax is $0.50 per $500 of consideration, which works out to $1.00 per $1,000 (Ala. Code § 40-22-1); on a $200,000 sale, that is $200. The mortgage tax is $0.15 per $100 of the mortgage amount (§ 40-22-2). An existing mortgage does not automatically force repayment when a relative inherits; federal law protects an heir who inherits and occupies the home from having the lender call the loan due solely because of the transfer (12 U.S.C. § 1701j-3(d)). A contract signed with heirs before probate closes is enforceable only if the heir’s interest has vested (§ 43-2-830) and the agreement satisfies Alabama’s Statute of Frauds for real estate (§ 8-9-2). If the decedent received Medicaid long-term care, the Alabama Medicaid Estate Recovery Program (§§ 22-6-150 to 22-6-156) may file a claim that has to be resolved at closing; our guide to whether Medicaid can take an inherited house covers how that works. The Alabama Property Protection Act of 2026, effective October 1, 2026, adds identity-verification requirements for remote real-property transfers, so out-of-state heirs should confirm current requirements with their closing agent before signing remotely.

Out-of-state heirs selling Alabama property usually need to solve the Alabama title issue in Alabama, even when the main probate is happening somewhere else. When a person who lived in another state owned Alabama real property, clearing title generally requires an ancillary probate in Alabama, because the Alabama court has authority only over property within the state (Ala. Code §§ 43-2-190 to 43-2-214).

A nonresident named in the will may serve as executor in Alabama (§ 43-2-191), but for an intestate estate an Alabama resident generally has to serve as administrator. Filing means submitting certified copies of the will, the death certificate, and the letters from the home state to the probate court in the Alabama county where the property sits. A will already admitted in another state can be recognized in Alabama (§ 43-8-175); the five-year probate deadline does not bar ancillary probate when the will was admitted in the home state within five years of death, but if it was admitted there more than five years after death, Alabama is unlikely to recognize it. Because Alabama does not allow real-property transfer-on-death deeds, out-of-state heirs cannot use one to skip ancillary probate. A realistic timeline for ancillary probate is roughly 9 to 15 months, though it can run shorter or longer depending on the county, title issues, and the status of the home-state probate. This comes up often with inherited homes in Baldwin County, Jefferson County, Madison County, Mobile County, and Lee County, where heirs may live outside Alabama but still need Alabama title cleared before sale. For the general mechanics, see our guide to ancillary probate.

Alabama adopted the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act in 2014 (Ala. Code §§ 35-6A-1 to 35-6A-14, effective January 1, 2015) to stop forced-auction sales of family-inherited land. In Alabama, heirs property generally means tenancy-in-common real estate with no binding partition agreement, where at least one co-owner acquired title from a relative. These cases often involve family land, what relatives call “Grandpa’s land,” or a tangled title where a family has treated the property as its own for years without clean probate records. When property qualifies and any co-owner files to partition, the court has to follow a protective sequence rather than sending the property straight to auction.

Consider a common example. Three siblings inherit their late mother’s Birmingham home as tenants in common, each owning an undivided one-third interest. Sibling A wants to sell, Sibling B wants to keep the house, and Sibling C is undecided. Under the Heirs Property Act, the court orders an independent appraisal (§ 35-6A-6), and Siblings B and C then have the right to buy out Sibling A’s one-third interest at the appraised value (§ 35-6A-7). If neither buys it, the court first considers whether the property can be physically divided (§ 35-6A-8), and only if division is impractical does it order an open-market sale through a broker rather than an auction (§§ 35-6A-9 to -11). If Sibling A instead sells their one-third interest before any court filing, the buyer steps into Sibling A’s position and the same process applies, with Siblings B and C still holding the buyout right at the appraised value.

Do All Alabama Heirs Have to Agree to Sell?

For a voluntary sale of the entire property, generally yes: all of the owners, or a personal representative with court authority, have to sign. A single heir usually can sell only that heir’s own undivided share, not the whole house. When heirs disagree about whether to sell, the Heirs Property Act and Alabama’s partition rules are what ultimately control, which is why the buyout-and-appraisal process above matters so much in practice. When the disagreement is really about family dynamics rather than law, our guide to selling inherited property with siblings covers how to get through the sale without wrecking the relationship.

A few Alabama rules are widely misunderstood, and getting them right early saves heirs time and money. Each point reflects current Alabama statute.

• Alabama does not recognize tenancy by the entirety. It was abolished, along with dower and curtesy (Ala. Code § 43-8-57). Co-ownership defaults to tenancy in common unless a deed clearly created survivorship.
• The small-estate procedure cannot transfer an inherited house. Summary distribution covers personal property only and does not clear title to real estate.
• Alabama does not have informal probate. Most inherited real estate is handled through formal probate, ancillary probate, court-supervised sale authority, or a title-company-approved route (§§ 43-2-60, 43-2-61).
• A disagreement among co-heirs is not an ordinary auction partition. Heirs property is governed by the Heirs Property Act, which requires an appraisal, a co-owner buyout right, and an open-market sale before any auction (§§ 35-6A-1 to 35-6A-14).

• Revised Alabama Small Estates Act, effective October 1, 2025. Revised Alabama’s personal-property small-estate summary distribution process and its inflation-adjusted threshold. It does not create a shortcut for transferring or selling inherited real estate.
• HB 96, effective June 1, 2026. Increased the senior creditor homestead exemption for owners age 62 or older or disabled. This is a creditor-protection figure only and does not change the probate homestead allowance under § 43-8-110.
• Alabama Property Protection Act of 2026, effective October 1, 2026. Adds identity-verification requirements for remote real-property transfers, aimed at title fraud. Most relevant to out-of-state heirs closing remotely.
• Other estate and elder-protection bills were active in the 2026 session. Because legislative status and effective dates can change, confirm current law with a qualified Alabama professional before relying on any recent change.