How long do creditors have to make a claim against an estate?

Four months from the issue of letters, and the representative has to allow or reject each claim in writing rather than ignore it.

Four months from the date the court issues letters to the personal representative. That is the general rule, and it is one of the reasons a California probate cannot be finished quickly however organized everyone is.

The four months is not the court thinking. It is a window that exists so that someone who is owed money, and does not yet know the debtor has died, can find out in time to say so.

The representative's own duties

Two of them, and both are frequently missed by families administering an estate themselves.

Give notice to known creditors. Publication in a newspaper handles the world at large. Anyone the representative knows about, or should reasonably have found out about from the deceased's own papers, is entitled to actual notice. A creditor who should have been notified and was not may get more time.

Allow or reject each claim, in writing. A claim that is simply ignored is not thereby dealt with. The representative has to make a decision on it and file that decision with the court.

Rejecting a claim starts a second clock

Once a claim is rejected, the creditor has a limited period to sue on it, and that period is short. Handled properly, a rejection is how a doubtful debt is finally closed out. Handled carelessly — rejected late, or served on the wrong address — it is how an estate stays open for another year.

Debts of the person against debts of the estate

These are treated differently and the distinction matters for priority. Debts the deceased owed at death go through the claims process. Costs of administration — the funeral, the appraisal, the attorney, keeping the house insured while it sells — are expenses of the estate itself and sit ahead of most of the rest.

What this means for the timetable

If someone has told you a probate should take four months, they have described the creditor window and stopped. Nothing can be distributed until it closes, and the petition for final distribution comes after that. A year is normal. Longer is common where a claim is contested or a house is being sold.