Affidavit of Heirship in 7 States (2026): Does It Pass Title?

What an affidavit of heirship does, and what it does not

An affidavit of heirship is a sworn statement by a person who knew the family: when the owner died, who the spouse and children were, whether there was a will, what real property the owner held. You sign it before a notary and record it with the county. The people who search for it are usually heirs of a house or a rental whose owner died without a will and without probate, and the question behind the search is whether the document puts the house in their names.

On the statutes we read, it does not. Texas Estates Code section 203.001 says what a court will do with the statement: “receive” it as “prima facie evidence” in a proceeding to declare heirship or a suit involving title, but only if the affidavit “has been of record for five years or more” in the deed records of the county where the property is or where the decedent lived. Three limits follow from the same section: anyone interested “may prove the true facts” if the affidavit has an error (203.001(b)); the affidavit “does not affect the rights of an omitted heir or creditor” (203.001(d)); and nothing in Chapter 203 moves title (our reading). The Texas small estate chapter confirms the point from the other side: it “does not transfer title to real property,” with one exception for a homestead (205.008(b), 205.006(a)).

So the practical question is not “does the affidavit pass the house” but “what does the next buyer, lender or title company need to see”. We did not obtain a title insurer’s bulletin, an underwriting manual or a state title standard for any of the seven states, so we make no statement about what a title company will accept. Ask the title company, before anything is recorded, which instrument it wants.

The statutes in seven states

We read the statute that lets a person record an affidavit about family history, death or heirship against real property, in each state in the table. Texas was read on the legislature’s own host (tcss.legis.texas.gov); Oklahoma from the legislature’s PDF of Title 16; Connecticut and Minnesota from the legislatures’ sites; Pennsylvania from the General Assembly’s unconsolidated-statutes page; and Michigan (capture of January 23, 2026) and Ohio (capture of April 22, 2026) from Internet Archive copies of the legislatures’ pages, because those sites did not load from our machine. A change enacted after those dates would not be in them. The table covers 7 jurisdictions; the other 43 states and the District of Columbia are not listed because we did not read their statutes, and a state not listed may have a similar or a different rule.

Recorded affidavit statutes in 7 states, as of November 13, 2026

Three patterns in the seven:

• Evidence, never conveyance. Each statute is about proving facts. None says the affidavit puts title in the heirs.
• The effect depends on time or on a lawyer. Texas waits five years of record; Pennsylvania requires a lawyer’s certification; Connecticut applies only if the affiant is dead or unavailable. Oklahoma and Ohio apply on recording, as a presumption and as evidence.
• The long clock in Oklahoma is for minerals. Section 16-67 lets a person who claims a severed mineral interest through a recorded affidavit of death and heirship acquire “a valid and marketable title” after ten years of record with no inconsistent instrument. It is not a rule for a house or land.

Texas: three instruments, three different jobs

Texas is the state behind most of the searches, so this is the part of the page that goes into detail. The statutes saved for this page are Estates Code Chapters 202, 203 and 205 from the legislature’s host. The sibling page on the Texas transfer on death deed covers the deed that avoids all three when it was recorded before the owner died.

The Texas heirship affidavit, small estate affidavit and court heirship compared, as of November 13, 2026

The heirship affidavit’s own text asks the affiant for facts only a relative or close friend would know, in sixteen numbered items: dates and places, marital history, each child with birth date and other parent, whether any other child was adopted or raised, whether there is a will, whether there has been administration, unpaid debts, unpaid estate or inheritance taxes and the real property the decedent owned (section 203.002). Item 10 says the decedent “died without leaving a written will” unless modified, so if a will exists the form has to be changed. For the small estate affidavit’s dollar cap and its counterparts in 21 other states, see small estate affidavit limits by state.

What it costs in Texas: recording and the court route

Local Government Code 118.011 sets a base county clerk fee of $5 for the first page of a real property record and $4 for each additional page, and counties add records fees that bring the first page to the figures below. A court heirship adds a filing fee and the costs the court schedules attach.

Recording fee for a land record and heirship court fees in five Texas counties, 2026

The table covers 5 counties for recording and 4 for heirship court fees. The county is the one where the property is for recording the affidavit, and the county where the heirship case is filed for the court fee. A fee on a schedule dated 2022 or 2024 can have changed since, so confirm with the clerk.

Worked example (our arithmetic): a $350,000 house, two children, Texas

A Texas resident dies without a will and without a spouse. The house, in the decedent’s name alone, is worth $350,000 and nothing else of value is in the estate that needs probate. The two adult children are the only heirs. There are no debts. We assume a four-page affidavit and use the clerk fees above only; notary, drafting and lawyer fees are not in these figures.

If the court finds two equal heirs, each child’s half is $175,000 (our arithmetic). The court route costs about $1,080 more in Harris County than recording an affidavit ($1,118 minus $37, our arithmetic), and the difference is what the document is worth: a judgment or an approved affidavit instead of a statement that a court will weigh as evidence. A house that is a rental, or the second home of someone who lived elsewhere, would also have to be sorted out in the other state; see ancillary probate and the state matrix.

What a reader can do with this

These are decision points the documents raise, not instructions.

• Ask the title company which instrument it wants before recording anything. The statutes we read make the affidavit evidence; whether a buyer’s title insurer accepts it for a sale next month is a question we could not answer from a primary document.
• Count the heirs before anyone signs. The Texas affidavit does not affect an omitted heir or a creditor (203.001(d)), and a signer who leaves out a child or a prior marriage creates the title problem the document was meant to prevent.
• Match the instrument to the asset. A house that is the decedent’s homestead and the only real property may pass by small estate affidavit under 205.006; a rental, land or a second property in another county or state does not. A house with a transfer on death deed recorded before death needs none of these.
• Check whether a will exists. A will that is later found changes the answer, and the statutory form says the decedent died without leaving one. See probate for real estate and letters testamentary, court fees and timeline by state.
• If several heirs disagree about keeping or selling the house, the heirship paper does not settle that; see partition actions and heirs’ property.
• Know the tax side. An affidavit settles who the heirs are, not the tax on a later sale; see step-up in basis for inherited real estate.
• A Texas attorney or title company decides which instrument a given title needs. A fee-based financial adviser can look at the money side: the sale proceeds, the tax basis and the cash needed while the title is settled.

A recorded heirship affidavit is evidence about who the heirs were; it is not a deed. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.

FAQ

Sources, read and saved on November 13, 2026: Texas Estates Code Chapters 202, 203 and 205 and Local Government Code Chapter 118 (tcss.legis.texas.gov); Oklahoma Statutes Title 16, sections 67 and 82 to 85 (oklegislature.gov, complete Title 16 PDF); Michigan Compiled Laws 565.451a (legislature.mi.gov, Internet Archive capture of January 23, 2026); Ohio Revised Code 5301.252 (codes.ohio.gov, Internet Archive capture of April 22, 2026); Pennsylvania Act of November 5, 1981, P.L. 328, No. 118 (palegis.us); Connecticut General Statutes chapter 821, section 47-12a (cga.ct.gov); Minnesota Statutes 507.29 (revisor.mn.gov); the Harris County Clerk real property and probate courts pages; the Dallas County Clerk probate fee schedule effective January 1, 2022 (amended September 14, 2023) and recording FAQ (Internet Archive capture of May 14, 2026); the Tarrant County Clerk price list effective January 1, 2024 and probate cost list effective January 1, 2026; the Bexar County Clerk real property recording fees page; and the Travis County Clerk real property page and probate e-filing fees effective January 1, 2024. The other 43 states and the District of Columbia are not covered. Counts and classifications are ours. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.