Notice in a Florida probate file is not a courtesy the clerk extends to the person who shared the house. It is a statute and a set of rules about who is an interested person, who must be served, and who may file a paper that forces the court to pause. An unmarried partner can use some of those tools if the facts actually put them in the definition. None of the tools makes them an heir.
"Interested person" is section 731.201(23): any person who may reasonably be expected to be affected by the outcome of the particular proceeding involved. The meaning "may vary from time to time and must be determined according to the particular purpose of, and matter involved in, any proceedings." That last sentence is the analysis for a surviving partner. A partner who is a devisee under a will offered for probate is affected by admission of that will. A partner who is a creditor is affected by the claims process. A partner who occupies a house whose protected-homestead status will be determined in the file may be affected by that determination. A partner who has no claim, no instrument, and no title is not interested merely because they are grieving. The definition is not a cohabitation statute.
A caveat is how an interested person who is afraid of being left out of the opening of the estate gets in front of it. Section 731.110(1) lets any interested person who is apprehensive that an estate will be administered, or that a will may be admitted, without that person's knowledge file a caveat with the court. An interested person other than a creditor may file before or after death. A creditor may file only after death. A caveat filed before death expires two years after filing (section 731.110(4)). If the caveator is a nonresident and is not represented by a Florida attorney who has signed the caveat, the caveator must designate a resident of the county as agent for service (section 731.110(2)). If a non-creditor interested person has filed, the court may not admit a will or appoint a personal representative until formal notice of the petition for administration has been served on the caveator or the designated agent and the caveator has had the opportunity to participate, as the Florida Probate Rules provide (section 731.110(3)). Formal notice, as the Code uses the term, is the method described in Florida Probate Rule 5.040(a) (section 731.201(18)).
Rule 5.260 is the procedural companion, opened for this draft. After a non-creditor caveat filed before commencement, the court must not admit a will or appoint a personal representative without formal notice on the caveator. A creditor caveat is different: letters may issue first; the clerk then notifies the creditor.
That statement of the caveator's interest is where a partner who is not an heir has to be honest. Sharing a house is not, by itself, an interest the Code names. Being a devisee, a nominated personal representative, a joint owner, a creditor, or a person whose occupancy will be affected by a homestead order may be. Filing a caveat that recites only "we lived together" asks the court to treat cohabitation as a status Florida has not enacted. A local domestic-partnership card does not fill that blank.
Once a file is open, an interested person who wants the rest of the paper may file a written request for notice of further proceedings under Rule 5.060, designating a residence and post office address, and serving the personal representative's attorney. Thereafter the moving party must serve that person with notice of further proceedings and copies of subsequent pleadings, as long as the person remains an interested person. The request does not replace formal notice where the rules require it. It ends when the person is no longer interested.
The required notice of administration is not addressed to partners as partners. Section 733.212(1) requires prompt service on the surviving spouse, beneficiaries, certain trustees and qualified beneficiaries, and persons who may be entitled to exempt property. The personal representative may also serve devisees under a known prior will, or heirs or others who claim or may claim an interest. "May" is not "must." Service "shall not be construed as conferring any right" (section 733.212(5)). Objections to the will, venue, or jurisdiction are generally due three months after service of the notice of administration (section 733.212(3)).
Homestead occupancy during administration is the other place partners get surprised. The personal representative has a right to, and shall take possession of, the decedent's property except the protected homestead (section 733.607(1)). Protected homestead is the Article X, section 4(a)(1) property on which, at death, the exemption inures to the surviving spouse or heirs under Article X, section 4(b) (section 731.201(33)). Those exemptions inure to the surviving spouse or heirs of the owner -- not to a partner. Section 733.608(1) likewise puts the decedent's property, except the protected homestead, in the personal representative's hands as assets for devises, family allowance, elective share, taxes, claims, and distribution.
If property that reasonably appears to be protected homestead is not occupied by a person who appears to have an interest in the property, the personal representative is authorized, but not required, to take possession for the limited purpose of preserving, insuring, and protecting it pending a homestead determination (section 733.608(2)). The personal representative is not liable for failing to take possession of protected homestead or to expend funds on it (section 733.608(11)). Whether a surviving partner who is sleeping in the house "appears to have an interest in the property" is a facts-and-construction question. Occupancy is not title. An unmarried partner is not the spouse to whom the exemption inures, and is not an heir under sections 732.102 and 732.103. An earlier post in this series covers homestead devise and descent; this post does not rewrite it.
An interested person may file a verified petition to determine protected homestead status under Rule 5.405, including for property in a section 733.707(3) trust. The order must describe the property, determine whether any of it was protected homestead, and if so identify by name the person or persons entitled and define each interest. Winning that determination does not, for a non-heir non-devisee, award the house.
What a surviving unmarried partner cannot do with any of this is take as an heir, elect a homestead life estate or one-half, claim exempt property or family allowance, or convert a caveat into a devise. What they may be able to do, if they are in fact an interested person for the proceeding, is file a caveat, request copies, participate before letters issue, and be heard on homestead status. The documents that make them a taker are still a will, a funded trust, or title that already names them. Notice is not that title.
This article is general information, not advice about a particular estate. The Law Office of Shawn C. Newman, P.A. offers a free consultation in person or by Zoom. Call (954) 563-9160 or visit www.shawnnewman.com. The office is at 710 NE 26th Street, Wilton Manors, Florida 33305, and serves Broward, Palm Beach, and Miami-Dade Counties.
