Inheriting a house should be the beginning of a process, not a year of silence from an executor while squatters claim ownership and a sale falls apart.
That’s the situation one woman is stuck in after being left a home that’s still moving through probate. The property had a buyer lined up and was headed toward a sale when the buyers showed up to move in and found people already inside claiming to have a deed and asserting ownership. The sale collapsed. The squatters are still there. She’s reached out to the realtor and the executor of the estate, and neither has done anything meaningful to resolve the situation. The executor stopped returning her calls, texts, and emails nearly a year ago, and she’s now watching a property she was supposed to inherit sit occupied by strangers while she waits for answers that aren’t coming.
💸 Take Back Control of Your Finances in 2025 💸
Get Instant Access to our free mini course
5 DAYS TO A BETTER BUDGET
The Two Problems Running Simultaneously
What she’s dealing with is actually two separate legal emergencies that need to be addressed on parallel tracks. The first is the squatter situation, which is a property law and civil matter that requires a formal eviction process regardless of what the occupants are claiming about having a deed. The second is the executor problem, which is a probate court matter involving a fiduciary who has gone silent on a beneficiary for nearly a year while an estate asset is at risk.
Both are urgent, but the executor problem may be the more foundational one. Until probate is resolved and title transfers cleanly, her ability to take direct action on the property is limited. An executor who isn’t communicating and isn’t protecting estate assets isn’t just being unhelpful. They may be in breach of their fiduciary duty, and the probate court has authority to address that directly.
What to Do About the Executor
The probate court that opened the estate has jurisdiction over the executor and the power to intervene when an executor isn’t fulfilling their responsibilities. She can file a petition with the probate court asking for several things depending on what the situation requires, including a status update on the estate, an accounting of what has happened with estate assets, and if necessary a motion to remove the executor and appoint someone else.
She doesn’t need the executor’s cooperation to do this. She needs to identify which probate court is handling the estate, which is typically in the county where the deceased lived, and file the appropriate paperwork. An estate attorney can help her draft the petition and understand what remedies are available in her state, but in many jurisdictions a beneficiary can initiate this process without an attorney if cost is a concern. The court clerk’s office can often point her toward the right forms.
The Squatter Claim About the Deed
The claim that the occupants have a deed to the property needs to be taken seriously and investigated rather than dismissed. If someone is holding a fraudulent deed or a deed obtained through improper means after the original owner’s death, that’s a title fraud issue that affects the entire probate and sale process. It’s also possible the deed claim is completely false and being used as a delay tactic, which is common in squatter situations.
A title search run by a title company or real estate attorney will show every recorded instrument on the property and clarify whether any deed transfer has been recorded in their names. If a fraudulent deed exists, that opens up additional legal remedies including potentially involving law enforcement for deed fraud, which is a criminal matter in most states. If no deed exists and they’re simply claiming to have one, the eviction process moves forward on a cleaner factual record.
The Eviction Process She Can’t Skip
Even if the squatters have no legitimate claim whatsoever, removing them requires going through the formal eviction process in most states rather than simply changing the locks or removing their belongings. Self-help eviction, meaning any attempt to remove occupants outside of the legal process, can create liability and actually slow down the legitimate removal. The eviction process requires proper notice, a court filing, a hearing, and ultimately a court order before law enforcement can physically remove someone.
Because the property is still in probate, the executor is typically the party who would initiate eviction proceedings on behalf of the estate. Since the executor has gone silent, this circles back to the probate court petition as the mechanism for forcing action. A newly appointed executor or a court order directing the current executor to act would give the process somewhere to go.
The Bank and the Timeline
Her concern about the bank taking the house suggests there may be a mortgage on the property that requires ongoing payments, and that the estate may be falling behind while all of this sits unresolved. If that’s the case, the urgency of getting the probate court involved increases significantly, because a foreclosure on an estate asset while probate is open creates complications that affect her inheritance directly.
She should find out immediately whether there is a mortgage, whether payments are current, and whether the executor has been managing that obligation. All of that information should be accessible through the probate court file, and an estate attorney can pull it quickly. The combination of a non-communicating executor, occupied property, a failed sale, and potential mortgage delinquency is serious enough that getting legal help is not optional at this point. It’s the only path that actually moves the situation forward.
Featured on Cents + Purpose