Tex. Est. Code § 205.007 · Chapter 205. SMALL ESTATE AFFIDAVIT
LIABILITY OF CERTAIN PERSONS.
Text — Current through the 89th 2nd Called Legislative Session, 2025
(a) A person making a payment, delivery, transfer, or issuance under an affidavit described by this chapter is released to the same extent as if made to a personal representative of the decedent. The person may not be required to:
(1) see to the application of the affidavit; or
(2) inquire into the truth of any statement in the affidavit.
(b) The distributees to whom payment, delivery, transfer, or issuance is made are:
(1) answerable for the payment, delivery, transfer, or issuance to any person having a prior right; and
(2) accountable to any personal representative appointed after the payment, delivery, transfer, or issuance.
(c) Each person who executed the affidavit is liable for any damage or loss to any person that arises from a payment, delivery, transfer, or issuance made in reliance on the affidavit.
(d) If a person to whom the affidavit is delivered refuses to pay, deliver, transfer, or issue property as provided by this section, the property may be recovered in an action brought for that purpose by or on behalf of the distributees entitled to the property on proof of the facts required to be stated in the affidavit.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Added by Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 680 (H.B. 2502), Sec. 1, eff. January 1, 2014.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Current through the 89th 2nd Called Legislative Session, 2025
- Official file
- https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/ES/htm/ES.205.htm
- Text hash
- sha256 72eb68c0b2710e32ae7681023a534e47f69d6212de1298e7b909bfafc8cc0c31
- Composed by
- compose_tx.py 2026-10-05: the Legislative Council's chapter files read in document order; verify_tx.py's independent reading (lxml DOM walk) agrees character for character
BenchPath cards that rely on this text
- Administrative Order 2019-02 on the Form for Small Estate Affidavits — Bexar County's required Small Estate Affidavit and order (Bexar County Probate Courts; effective September 1, 2019)
- Denton County Probate Courts — Small Estate Affidavit Instructions and Court Form (revised Sept. 1, 2017): court form required; posted citation and approval no earlier than the first Monday after ten days' posting; original certified death certificate with redacted SSN; not within 30 days of death; assets, liabilities, solvency, Medicaid and family-history content; all distributees and two disinterested witnesses sworn; § 205.007(c) liability statement)
- Guadalupe County Probate Court — Administrative Order Requiring Use of the Court's Approved Form for Small Estate Affidavits
- Small Estate Affidavit Checklist with Texas descent-and-distribution charts (Bexar County Probate Court No. 2; updated January 18, 2019; duplicate registration 443; Spanish edition 450)
Cited by 1 provision
Provisions in this library whose text cites Tex. Est. Code § 205.007. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.