New Jersey probate leads and inheritance data, by county.
If you are researching New Jersey 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 1886 records a month across New Jersey.
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New Jersey counties
Browse 21 counties.Every New Jersey county has its own page. Highlighted counties currently generate the largest monthly record volume.
How inherited property moves in New Jersey
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
New Jersey attaches no recurring cost to holding an inherited house. There is no reassessment on transfer and the estate tax is not imposed for anyone who died on or after January 1, 2018. The transfer inheritance tax survives but exempts Class A beneficiaries entirely, covering a spouse, civil union or domestic partner, parent, grandparent, child, stepchild, grandchild and great-grandchild, so the ordinary case of a child inheriting the family home is untaxed. Class C, meaning siblings and a child's spouse or surviving spouse, pays 11 to 16 percent above a $25,000 exemption, and Class D pays 15 to 16 percent. The tax is a lien on everything the decedent owned for 15 years unless paid or secured, so a waiver must issue before New Jersey real property is transferred; real property is released on Form L-9, the Resident Decedent Affidavit Requesting Real Property Tax Waiver, with L-9(A) for deaths before January 1, 2018, the parallel form for non-real-estate assets of a Class A resident decedent being L-8. That delays a sale rather than forcing one.
Where probate records appear
Surrogate's Court No statewide probate search. The judiciary's public tools cover civil and foreclosure, criminal, criminal judgments, judgment liens, Tax Court, municipal and Supreme Court matters; Surrogate records are held and searched at each county Surrogate's office
Ways property can avoid ordinary probate
New Jersey has no transfer on death deed for real property. The transfer on death chapter of Title 3B is the Uniform TOD Security Registration Act (N.J.S.A. 3B:30-1 et seq.), which reaches securities only; the state's other transfer on death designation, on a motor vehicle title under N.J.S.A. 39:3-30.1b (P.L.2022, c.13), sits outside Title 3B and does not reach real property. Real property stays out of probate through a revocable living trust, tenancy by the entirety between spouses, or joint tenancy with right of survivorship, and small intestate estates pass on the Surrogate's affidavit under N.J.S.A. 3B:10-3 and 3B:10-4.
Small-estate route
Where a person dies intestate and the total value of the real and personal assets does not exceed $50,000, the surviving spouse, partner in a civil union or domestic partner takes all of it on affidavit before the Surrogate without administration, and $10,000 of the estate is free from the intestate's debts (N.J.S.A. 3B:10-3). Where there is no surviving spouse or partner and the total does not exceed $20,000, one heir may take on affidavit with the written consent of the remaining heirs (N.J.S.A. 3B:10-4). Both figures were set by P.L. 2015, c. 232, approved January 19, 2016 and applying to decedents dying on or after that date. Neither procedure is available where the decedent left a will.
Timing investors should understand
No will may be admitted to probate until 10 days after the death of the testator, although the papers may be filed and the executor qualified before then (N.J.S.A. 3B:3-22). Creditors must present their claims in writing and under oath to the personal representative within nine months of the date of death; after that the representative is not liable to a late creditor for assets already paid out in satisfaction of lawful claims, devises or distributive shares (N.J.S.A. 3B:22-4). No New Jersey judiciary source publishes a typical duration.
New Jersey inheritance volume
Updated monthly · September 2026 edition.Newly inherited residential properties recorded in New Jersey, from the same database that builds the lists. Published nationally in the Inheritance Property Index.
Biggest New Jersey counties by volume
- Ocean 2,999
- Monmouth 2,273
- Bergen 2,251
- Middlesex 2,176
- Burlington 1,726
- Camden 1,626
- Union 1,320
- Essex 1,287
Free to cite with attribution: USLeadList Inheritance Property Index, September 2026 edition. See every state and download the data.
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