Where to start when you have inherited a house you did not expect

If you are reading this in the first week or two, I am sorry. You are being asked to make decisions about a building while you are grieving a person, and the two things do not sit well together. Here is a sequence you can follow without deciding anything permanent.

1. Secure the house

Lock it, and work out who has keys. Bring in anything left outside. If the house will sit empty, ask a neighbour to keep an eye on it and collect anything that piles up at the door. Empty houses attract attention, and post visible from the porch is the clearest sign of all.

2. Keep the insurance going

This is the one people miss, and it is the one that can cost the most. Many homeowner policies restrict or exclude cover once a house is unoccupied for a stretch of weeks. Call the insurer, tell them plainly what has happened and that the house is now empty, and ask what they need to keep it covered. Do this before anything else on the property list.

3. Keep the utilities on

Especially heat in winter. A house with the furnace off can suffer burst pipes, and repairing water damage costs far more than a few months of gas. Basic lighting also makes the house look lived in.

4. Find out what is owed

• Is there a mortgage, and is it up to date? Contact the servicer and tell them the owner has died; they deal with this regularly.
• Are the property taxes current? County records will tell you.
• Is there a home equity line, a reverse mortgage, or any lien registered against the property?

5. Talk to a probate attorney

Before the house is cleared, sold, or given away. They will tell you whether probate is needed at all, who has authority to act, and in what order things have to happen. If you do not know one, I can give you names of attorneys in Central Ohio who handle this work regularly. I take nothing for the referral.

6. Only then, think about value

Once you know where the estate stands, a written valuation helps in several ways at once. The estate paperwork often needs a figure. Siblings need a shared number to talk about. And if the house is eventually sold, you are not starting the conversation cold.

You do not have to decide about the house this month. Almost nothing here gets worse for taking a few extra weeks, as long as the insurance and the heat stay on.