Death/Probate and Eviction Records

[James H.]

I am interested in contacting estates about abandoned homes and am also interested in contacting landlords who have just had to evict tenants.

I went to the JP court of a judge who presided over an eviction that we had to do last year.  I spoke to the staff and even to the judge.  Both told me that there are no records of court cases that the JP has presided over.  Does anyone find this odd?  I would have thought that the office would at least keep a calendar for the judge so that cases are not double booked.  And I would have thought that such information would be available either online or with a FOIA request. 

The second question is about death and probate records.  I notice that many abandoned homes are owned by people who have passed away and that many of them have no relatives listed on their obituaries.  Without that information, how can I find out who the administrator of an estate is?  

Jim

[Bruce Lynn]

James....there are a couple of providers of Probates that I know about.  FLS has done it for years.  Might be called foreclosure listing service or the Roddy report.   They provide some great information on various types of public records.  I'd say a strong contender to them or is the MLSDealFinder people.  They provide several different lead lists each day including evictions and probates.   They're now even skip tracing some of the people.   

Now if you have more time than money....there are court records for both probates and evictions.  It may not be free for all counties.  I've noticed some of the bigger counties, like maybe Dallas county charge for online access to the database.   Some counties may not offer it online, but you can go in person and access it for free at the courthouse.  Every county seems to have a different level of access.  Some might just put the parties online, but not give you access to the documents.  Even with the filings you may not get complete info and have to skip trace the parties.   What I've found is every county is a little different.  Different filing codes...maybe different formats, but with a little sleuthing it is something you can figure it out.

Your second qq is a whole other animal.  Not everyone who passes has a will.  Never seen a stat on this, but probably lots of people don't have wills.  Supposedly Prince and Aretha Franklin both did not have wills.  So not all estates are probated....even estates with wills are not necessarily probated ...so no probate...no court records and maybe no publicly known administrator.   Not sure which way is the best way to go with these.  The ones with names in the probate records are probably the easiest to work, but you'll have more competition.  The ones where you have to work for the info, probably have less competition due to the amount of work involved.   You can subscribe to databases that will have possible relatives and you have to skip trace them.  You can also start with neighbors and cards in the mail or left on the door.

Hope that helps some.