Delaware probate timeline: the 30-day wait and creditor deadlines

The one date this page can source

The distribution without grant of letters (small estate affidavit) (12 del. c. 2306) route requires 30 days to elapse from the date of death. This is a precondition: the affidavit or petition cannot be presented before it runs, regardless of how straightforward the estate is.

(2) Thirty days have elapsed since the death of the decedent. (3) The value of the personal estate of the decedent other than property described in § 1901(b) and (c) of this title and other than jointly owned property, does not exceed $50,000.12 Del. C. 2306 — State of Delaware (Delaware Code Online); 85 Del. Laws, c. 281, § 1.

Delaware runs eight months from the death itself, whether or not anyone published notice

12 Del. C. § 2102(a) bars pre-death claims unless they are presented under § 2104 "within 8 months of the decedent’s death whether or not the notice referred to in § 2101 of this title has been given." That closing clause is the whole difference between Delaware and the uniform-code states covered elsewhere on this site. In Arizona, Montana, North Dakota and Idaho the creditor clock starts when notice is published; in Delaware it starts at the death, and a representative who never published still gets the benefit of the bar.

The exception named in the subsection points the other way. Debts "of which notice is presumed pursuant to § 2103" are outside the eight-month bar, so the reliability of the deadline depends on which category a given debt falls into rather than on the calendar alone.

Post-death claims run on a separate six-month clock under subsection (b): a claim based on a contract with the personal representative must be presented within six months after the representative’s performance is due, and any other claim within six months after it arises. These are not the eight-month period restarted; they are a different provision with a different trigger.

Subsection (c) then adds a third and much shorter clock that catches people out. A claim that survived (a) and (b) but was rejected by the executor or administrator "shall be barred forever unless an action or suit be commenced thereon within 3 months" after written notice of the rejection is delivered in person or mailed to the claimant’s last known address. The executor may consent to extend that three months, and the Court of Chancery may order an extension on petition "to avoid injustice," but "in no event shall the extension run beyond the applicable statute of limitations."

Two carve-outs are worth knowing before treating the eight months as a clean cut-off. Subsection (d) exempts claims for legacies or shares of the estate entirely — a beneficiary is not a creditor for these purposes. Subsection (e) bars a deficiency claim on a bond secured by a mortgage after eight months from the death, but expressly preserves the mortgage: the failure to present "shall not invalidate the bond so as to prevent the foreclosure of the mortgage on real estate at any time thereafter." And subsection (f) preserves proceedings against the decedent or representative "to the limits of the insurance protection only."

Source: 12 Del. C. § 2102, read from the enacting state’s own published code on 2026-09-17. Quoted wording is the statute’s; the surrounding explanation is this site’s reading of it and is not legal advice.

General sequence: first week, how long probate takes.

Delaware record: 4/4 verified, 16 matched checks, latest source re-fetch October 3, 2026. Source record · method · report a correction