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Home >> Special Situations >> Deceased Individuals
How to Cash Refund Check without Probate
My brother passed away, and his landlord refunded his prepaid rent as a check payable to the estate of Sean T., in care of Mike T. The landlord told me this has never posed any problem for a person to cash, but the bank it is drawn on refused to cash it, as I am not a customer and my bank will not cash it without letters of testamentary. What can I do? His estate consists of $2000 in a checking account and a $4000 rent refund, and it is not worth probate. My bank is WaMu in CA. Nice customer service.
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 The landlord, the bank the check is drawn on, and your bank are following the law. If you were dealing with a $50 refund check, it's more likely that one of the banks would have accommodated you, but when $4,000 is involved, each bank is correctly concerned that it not get into a situation in which someone with an interest in your brother's estate could pursue the bank for funds.
Find out if the state in which your bother last resided has a lower-cost procedure for managing small estates. You may be able to be appointed administrator of the estate for a relatively small fee, deposit the check to your brother's account, which now belongs to his estate, address any other small claims on the estate, and close out the account and estate in a few simple steps.
Published on BankingQuestions.com 12/16/08
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