Alabama probate leads and inheritance data, by county.
If you are researching Alabama probate leads, the public court file is only one part of the inherited-property market. USLeadList starts with death and property records, typically about five weeks after death, and generates an average of 2059 records a month across Alabama.
Alabama counties
Browse 67 counties.Every Alabama county has its own page. Highlighted counties currently generate the largest monthly record volume.
How inherited property moves in Alabama
Verified state rules behind the county data.Probate rules matter because they determine when a public court record appears and which inherited properties never appear in an ordinary probate case.
What changes for an heir
Alabama levies no estate or inheritance tax for deaths after December 31, 2004 (Alabama Department of Revenue) and does not reassess property on transfer. It has no transfer-on-death deed for real estate; its only transfer-on-death statute registers securities in beneficiary form (Ala. Code 8-6-140 to 8-6-151). What keeps Alabama houses out of the courthouse is Ala. Code 43-2-830(a): a decedent's real property devolves at death straight to the devisees or heirs, subject to allowances, creditors and administration. Families frequently never open an estate at all, and the house is then held as undivided interests among heirs. That is the heirs property pattern the Alabama Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (Ala. Code 35-6A-1 and following, Act 2014-299) governs, and it means a probate filing list misses a large share of inherited Alabama real estate.
Where probate records appear
Probate Court no statewide probate case search. Alacourt.com and its per case service at pa.alacourt.com cover trial court criminal, civil, small claims, traffic, domestic relations and child support records for a fee and do not list probate among the available record types. Estate files are searched at the county probate court, several of which publish their own online index.
Ways property can avoid ordinary probate
Devolution by operation of law is the main route: real property passes to heirs or devisees at the moment of death under Ala. Code 43-2-830(a), so no filing is needed to move title, though title stays unmarketable until an estate or a quiet title action clears it. Joint tenancy with right of survivorship and revocable living trusts cover the rest. Alabama has no transfer-on-death deed for real estate, and summary distribution reaches personal property only.
Small-estate route
summary distribution under the Revised Alabama Small Estates Act, Ala. Code 43-2-690 to 43-2-698, rewritten by Act 2025-431 effective October 1, 2025. Available only where the decedent owned no real property at death, since the Act defines the estate as the personal property of a decedent who owns no real property at the time of death (43-2-691). The ceiling is the combined homestead allowance, exempt property and family allowance under 43-8-110 to 43-8-113 as adjusted by the State Treasurer under 43-8-116: $47,000 for exemptions claimed on or after April 1, 2024, being an $18,800 homestead allowance, an $18,800 family allowance and a $9,400 personal property exemption, rising to $51,175 for exemptions claimed on or after April 1, 2027.
Timing investors should understand
Claims must be presented within six months after the grant of letters or within five months from the date of first publication of notice, whichever is later, and a creditor entitled to actual notice gets 30 days after that notice (Ala. Code 43-2-350). The personal representative publishes notice once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where letters were granted and mails notice to creditors who are known or reasonably ascertainable within six months of the grant of letters (43-2-60, 43-2-61). On a summary distribution petition the probate court may not order distribution until at least 30 days after publication of the notice and at least 30 days after the Alabama Medicaid Agency receives notice (43-2-692, as rewritten by Act 2025-431). A will is not effective unless filed for probate within five years of the testator's death (43-8-161).
Alabama inheritance volume
Updated monthly · September 2026 edition.Newly inherited residential properties recorded in Alabama, from the same database that builds the lists. Published nationally in the Inheritance Property Index.
Biggest Alabama counties by volume
Free to cite with attribution: USLeadList Inheritance Property Index, September 2026 edition. See every state and download the data.
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