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Selling Inherited Property in Massachusetts
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Selling Inherited Property in Massachusetts

Selling an inherited Massachusetts house: who signs the deed, the chapter 202 license to sell, the 10-year estate tax lien, and the deeds excise.

By Settled Editorial

In Massachusetts, an inherited house in the deceased owner's sole name sells once two questions are answered. Who holds authority to sign the deed, and has the estate tax lien been released? Authority comes from a power of sale in the probated will or from a license to sell issued by the Probate and Family Court.

Those two items stall more Massachusetts closings than anything else, and neither one is obvious from a general probate article. This guide walks through both, then covers the registry of deeds paperwork, the deeds excise the seller pays, and the capital gains math after the basis step-up. For the wider court process behind all of it, read the Massachusetts probate guide.

Do You Need Probate to Sell?

M.G.L. c. 190B § 3-101 says a decedent's real and personal property devolves at death to the people named in the will, or to the heirs when there is no will. That devolution is subject to allowances and exempt property, to the rights of creditors, to the surviving spouse's elective share, and to administration. The heirs hold the house, and the estate can still reach it.

So the answer turns on the recorded deed, not on the will:

How the deceased held titleCourt file needed to sell?Who signs the deed
Sole name, with or without a willYesPersonal representative under a power of sale or a chapter 202 license, or the heirs after a deed of distribution
Joint tenancy with right of survivorshipNoThe surviving co-owner
Tenancy by the entiretyNoThe surviving spouse
Funded revocable trustNoThe successor trustee
A share held as tenants in commonYes, for the deceased owner's shareThe estate for that share, plus every other co-owner

Massachusetts offers no transfer-on-death deed for real estate, so there is no recorded beneficiary designation that moves a house here the way one moves a brokerage account. The Massachusetts probate avoidance guide covers what does work instead. Pull the recorded deed and read the survivorship wording before you assume anything.

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Who Has Authority to Sign the Deed

This is the Massachusetts rule that trips up out-of-state agents and title reviewers.

M.G.L. c. 190B § 3-715(a)(23 1/2) lets a personal representative sell, lease, or encumber estate real estate to an arm's length third party, whether the appointment was formal or informal, and it makes that sale conclusive despite section 3-302 or any contest of the informal probate. The statute then attaches a condition, and the condition has three branches:

  • The decedent died without a will. A license issued under chapter 202 is required. Informal appointment alone does not carry the power to convey.
  • The decedent died with a will that empowers a sale. If the will, probated formally or informally, empowers the personal representative to sell, lease, or encumber that real estate or an interest in it, no license is needed. Lawyers call that clause a power of sale, and it decides whether a Massachusetts estate sale moves in weeks or in months.
  • The decedent died with a will that says nothing about selling. A license under chapter 202 is required, same as an intestate estate.

One more limit hides in subsection (b). A special personal representative may exercise only the numbered powers listed there, and paragraph 23 1/2 is not among them. A special personal representative appointed to hold things together during a dispute cannot sell the house.

Read the will first, then the letters. The Massachusetts executor duties guide covers the rest of the job, and the Massachusetts will requirements guide covers what makes the document that grants the power valid in the first place.

Getting a License to Sell From the Probate and Family Court

Chapter 202 is titled "Sales, Mortgages and Leases of Real Estate by Executors, Administrators, Guardians and Conservators," and it still uses those older role names. Two routes lead to a license.

A sale to pay what the estate owes. M.G.L. c. 202 § 1 says that when the personal property is not enough to pay debts, legacies, and charges of administration, the fiduciary shall sell the real estate, and the proceeds become assets in their hands as though the money had been personal property all along. Sale money that lands in the estate this way is still reachable by the people the estate owes, so read the Massachusetts creditor claims guide before you hand anyone a check.

A sale for distribution. M.G.L. c. 202 § 19 is the one most families use. The court may license a sale of all or part of the real estate on a petition filed within one year after the bond was given, with the consent of everyone interested or after notice. Net proceeds, after sale expenses and whatever the estate needs for debts, legacies, and charges of administration, are paid to the people who would have taken the real estate had it not been sold. Before the license issues, the petitioner files an affidavit naming anyone claiming an interest through a deed or mortgage from an heir or devisee, and those people become parties.

The mechanics sit in the sections around it. Section 6 says the license comes from the probate court that made the appointment. Section 7 lists what the petition has to state: the value of the personal property on hand, the charges of administration, the debts owed as nearly as they can be figured, and any legacies if there was a will. Section 14 lets the court authorize a public auction, or approve a private sale after a hearing where the court finds an advantageous offer is already on the table.

The court form is Petition for Sale of Real Estate, MPC 210, which the Trial Court publishes for a sale of real estate by the personal representative under chapter 202 § 19. The same page points to a Checklist for Petition for Sale of Real Estate listing the other forms the filing needs, and an incomplete package is the usual reason a license sits. Use the checklist, then ask your Register of Probate what the division wants on top of it. The Massachusetts probate timeline shows where this step lands against the rest of the estate calendar.

The Estate Tax Lien Every Buyer's Attorney Asks About

Here is the blocker that surprises families with modest estates.

M.G.L. c. 65C § 14 makes the Massachusetts estate tax a lien on the decedent's Massachusetts gross estate for ten years from the date of death, unless the tax is paid in full sooner. The part of the estate used to pay charges against the estate and administration expenses allowed by the probate court is divested of the lien. Nothing in that section waits to see whether tax is owed, so the lien sits on the title of a $400,000 house in a $600,000 estate that will never write the Commonwealth a check.

Estates of people dying on or after January 1, 2023 owe no Massachusetts estate tax when the federal taxable estate is not more than $2,000,000, under M.G.L. c. 65C § 2A(g). Being under that line clears the tax. It does not clear the lien. The Massachusetts estate tax guide covers how the $2,000,000 threshold and the capped credit are figured, and how the Massachusetts tax sits next to the federal one.

Three routes take the lien off:

  1. No Massachusetts filing required. For deaths on or after January 1, 1997, section 14(a) releases the gross estate when the executor records an affidavit in the appropriate registry of deeds, signed under the pains and penalties of perjury, stating that the gross estate does not necessitate a federal estate tax filing. The Department of Revenue's own estate tax guide describes the same affidavit as stating that the gross estate does not necessitate a Massachusetts estate tax filing, and it notes that DOR publishes no blank form for it. Have a Massachusetts attorney draft the affidavit to match both the statute and the title insurer's requirements.
  2. A return is being filed. DOR issues a Certificate Releasing Massachusetts Estate Lien, formerly Form M-792, once Form M-706 is filed with page 5, part 7 completed. Filing through MassTaxConnect produces the certificate faster.
  3. A sale is closing before the return goes in. File an Application for Certificate Releasing Massachusetts Estate Tax Lien, Form M-4422, with an attested copy of the deed, the executed purchase and sale agreement or mortgage commitment, the letters of authority or trust document, a death certificate, and payment of the estimated tax. Form M-706 is still due within nine months of death.

Section 14(d) also lets the Commissioner of Revenue release or partially discharge the lien where collection is not jeopardized, and section 14(e) requires any license or decree authorizing a sale of a resident decedent's real estate subject to the lien to state affirmatively that the Commissioner released or discharged it. So the lien work and the chapter 202 license work run together, not one after the other. Start the release paperwork the day you list.

Clearing Title at the Registry of Deeds

Massachusetts keeps two separate offices, and confusing them costs time. The Register of Probate holds the estate file and issues the letters. The Registry of Deeds records the deed that moves title, and it is where the lien-release affidavit gets recorded.

Gather these before the closing date:

  • A certified copy of the death certificate
  • Letters showing the personal representative's authority, plus the will if there is one
  • The recorded chapter 202 license or the decree allowing the sale, where a license was needed
  • The recorded lien-release affidavit or the DOR certificate
  • The deed of distribution, when the estate deeded the property out before the sale

That last item has its own statute. M.G.L. c. 190B § 3-907 says that on a distribution in kind, the personal representative executes an instrument or deed of distribution assigning, transferring, or releasing the assets to the distributee as evidence of that person's title.

Buyers who purchase in good faith get a time-based shield too. M.G.L. c. 202 § 20 protects an interest conveyed absolutely or in mortgage for value and in good faith by a duly recorded instrument from being taken for the decedent's debts after one year from the date the first personal representative gave bond. The section carves out taxes, municipal assessments, succession taxes, legacies or charges created by the will, and administration expenses, and it does not apply where a license petition or a claim notice was filed in the registry of probate inside that year. The carve-out for administration expenses is not open-ended either: c. 202 § 20A puts a six-year outer limit on taking such an interest for those expenses.

The Deeds Excise You Pay at Closing

Massachusetts charges an excise on the deed itself. M.G.L. c. 64D § 1 taxes a deed conveying realty sold, measured on the consideration above $100 and excluding any lien or encumbrance that stays on the property. M.G.L. c. 64D, § 1 sets the base at $2.00 for each $500 or fraction. A 14 percent surcharge is collected on top of that base but is imposed outside § 1, which is why the Department of Revenue publishes the collected rate as $2.28 for each $500 of sales price, or $4.56 per $1,000. Barnstable County runs on its own statutory figure, so confirm the number with the Barnstable County Registry of Deeds before you budget a Cape sale.

Sale priceDeeds excise at $2.28 per $500
$400,000$1,824
$600,000$2,736
$850,000$3,876

Massachusetts does not split this the way some neighboring states do. DOR Directive 95-4 states that the excise is self-assessed and paid by the person who makes or signs the deed, which on an estate sale means the seller.

Two transfers escape it. The excise applies only where realty is sold, so a deed given without consideration is outside it. DOR Directive 89-16 says a bona fide gift deed owes no excise even when the deed recites a token dollar amount as consideration. A deed of distribution from the estate to the heirs falls in the same category. The later sale to an outside buyer is the taxable event.

Capital Gains After the Step-Up

The tax rule that saves inheriting families the most money is federal. Under 26 U.S. Code § 1014, property acquired from a decedent takes a basis equal to its fair market value on the date of death. Decades of appreciation during the owner's life disappear from the calculation. The Massachusetts step-up in basis guide works through the rule in full.

Take a three-family in Worcester bought in 1991:

ItemAmount
What the parent paid (1991)$92,000
Fair market value on the date of death$520,000
Your stepped-up basis$520,000
Sale price$545,000
Selling costs, commission, and deeds excise-$36,000
Net proceeds$509,000
Taxable gain$0, a small loss

Without the step-up, the gain would have run past $400,000. A few points to keep straight:

  • Inherited property counts as long-term no matter how briefly you held it.
  • Federal long-term rates run 0, 15, or 20 percent depending on your income.
  • Massachusetts taxes long-term capital gain at 5.00 percent, and adds a 4 percent surtax on income above $1,107,750 for tax year 2026. The surtax threshold is adjusted each year.
  • The home sale exclusion of $250,000 single or $500,000 married needs two of the five years before the sale as your main residence, so an heir who never lived there rarely qualifies. The step-up usually leaves little gain anyway.

Order a date-of-death appraisal and keep it. The estate inventory filed with the Probate and Family Court may already carry that value, and a written appraisal is what supports the number years later.

When Nobody Opened Probate for Years

Massachusetts puts a hard outer limit on starting an estate. M.G.L. c. 190B § 3-108 bars any informal or formal probate or appointment proceeding commenced more than three years after the death, subject to listed exceptions. Clause (4) is the one that matters for an old house: where no proceeding relating to the succession happened inside the three years, an appointment may still be made afterward, but the personal representative has no right to possess estate assets beyond what confirming title in the successors requires, and claims other than administration expenses cannot be presented.

Read that as a narrow repair, not a full administration. A family that sat on a house for a decade usually needs a late appointment aimed only at confirming title, plus the lien release from the section above. Title insurers set the practical bar, so ask the title company what it wants before you spend money at the courthouse. If nobody left a will, the Massachusetts intestate succession guide shows who the successors are.

When More Than One Heir Owns the House

Once the estate deeds the property out, every co-owner has to sign. Agreement is the whole game.

  • Everyone wants to sell. List it, split the net by each share, and put the split in writing before the sign goes up.
  • One heir wants to keep it. That heir buys out the others at appraised value, often with a refinance.
  • Nobody will move. M.G.L. c. 241 § 1 entitles any person owning a present undivided legal estate in land, except a tenant by the entirety, to partition. Section 2 gives the probate courts and the Land Court concurrent jurisdiction over partition petitions.

Partition is slow and it spends estate money on lawyers, so treat it as the last option. Share the appraisal with everyone early, use one agent nobody is related to, and write down how proceeds and carrying costs get divided before the first showing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need probate to sell an inherited house in Massachusetts?

It depends on how the deceased owner held title. A house in the owner's sole name has to go through the Probate and Family Court before anyone can convey it. A house held in joint tenancy with survivorship, as tenants by the entirety, or in a funded revocable trust passes outside probate, and the surviving owner or successor trustee can sell it.

Does a Massachusetts personal representative need a license to sell real estate?

Under M.G.L. c. 190B § 3-715(a)(23 1/2), yes in two of three situations. If the decedent died without a will, a license under chapter 202 is required. If the decedent died with a will, the personal representative may sell only when the probated will empowers a sale of that real estate, or when the court issues a chapter 202 license.

What is the Massachusetts estate tax lien on inherited property?

M.G.L. c. 65C § 14 makes the estate tax a lien on the Massachusetts gross estate for 10 years from the date of death unless the tax is paid in full sooner. It attaches whether or not any tax is owed, so a closing attorney asks for a release even on a small estate.

Who pays the deeds excise when an inherited Massachusetts house sells?

The person who makes and signs the deed pays it, which on an estate sale is the seller. The Department of Revenue publishes the rate as $2.28 for each $500 of consideration outside Barnstable County. A deed given without consideration, such as a deed of distribution from the estate to the heirs, carries no excise.

Will I owe capital gains tax on an inherited Massachusetts house?

Usually far less than people expect. Under 26 U.S. Code § 1014 your basis becomes the fair market value on the date of death, so only the gain above that value is taxable. Massachusetts taxes long-term capital gain at 5.00 percent, with an added 4 percent surtax on income above $1,107,750 for tax year 2026.

Related Guides

This page is general information about selling inherited real estate in Massachusetts. A sale mixes probate procedure, tax, and title questions that turn on your own deed and your own family, so confirm anything that affects you with the Register of Probate for your county, the Registry of Deeds where the property sits, or a licensed Massachusetts attorney and tax professional.

Sources:

It is not legal advice.

Information current as of July 29, 2026

Settled Estate is not a law firm, and this content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Probate laws and procedures in Massachusetts can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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