Probate has tons of weird rules. In Arizona, Rule 51 is one of the ones that catches people by surprise. Arizona Rule of Probate procedure Rule 51 says, you have two years to get this project done, or the court’s gonna kick you out. It’s the administrative closure rule. How does that apply?
Most probate cases are gonna take about a year to get done. A person passes away, gets started with the probate process, might take a month or so, and then it’s gonna be about a year before you can actually say you’re done.
We see a lot of people get into the process, and if they’re not working with a firm that does a lot of these, they’ll stumble. They’ll get tripped up. Documents get rejected by the court, they gotta do it again. Rejected, do it again. Rejected. It’s a mess. It’s frustrating.
You’re trying to go to work, you’re trying to take your kids to basketball and you’re dealing with the court bureaucracy. I get it. If you’re going through the process correctly, it should take about a year. We see most people who are doing it themselves end up going a lot longer than that. The other heirs, the other beneficiaries are getting a little grumbly and unhappy. Then the suspicions start, “What are they doing? Are they hiding something?”
So the court has a process in Rule 51 to say, if at two years you’re not done, we’re gonna send a notice out that says, you better tell us what’s going on, or we’re closing this thing and we’re dismissing you.
So, at that point, if they do that, the executor loses all authority and you’ve gotta go back into court and restart stuff. It’s a nightmare. Don’t do that. Get your plan in place so you don’t have to deal with probate.
Summary
Probate in Arizona, governed by Rule 51, has a crucial time frame of two years for completion. Typically, probate cases take about a year to finalize. However, individuals without experienced guidance may encounter delays. If it exceeds the deadline, the court issues a notice. Failure to provide an explanation can result in the dismissal of the executor’s authority.
