Texas timeline
Texas probate timeline: the 30-day wait and creditor deadlines
The simplified route starts 30 days after death.
Texas creditor deadlines are not verified to this site’s standard, so none is published below.
Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch October 3, 2026.
The one date this page can source
The small estate affidavit (estates code ch. 205) 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.
The distributees of the estate of a decedent who dies intestate are entitled to the decedent's estate without waiting for the appointment of a personal representative of the estate to the extent the estate assets, excluding homestead and exempt property, exceed the known liabilities of the estate, excluding any liabilities secured by homestead and exempt property, if: (1) 30 days have elapsed since the date of the decedent's death; (2) no petition for the appointment of a personal representative is pending or has been granted; (3) the value of the estate assets on the date of the affidavit described by Subdivision (4), excluding homestead and exempt property, does not exceed $75,000;Tex. Est. Code § 205.001 — Texas Legislature (statutes content host); eff. September 1, 2017..
Creditor deadlines
Texas creditor deadlines run from multiple independent triggers (permissive notice by publication, required actual notice to secured/known creditors, and a claim-presentation window) set out across Estates Code ch. 308 and ch. 355; the operative periods depend on the notice type and are not a single statewide day count.
Read this: Tex. Est. Code chs. 308 & 355. The probate clerk in the county of filing can also state the local practice, which sometimes differs from the bare statutory minimum.
General sequence: first week, how long probate takes.
Texas record: 3/3 verified, 12 matched checks, latest source re-fetch October 3, 2026. Source record · method · report a correction