I often get asked about transferring a car title after someone dies. An estate planning attorney or a probate attorney can help you with that. But depending on your specific situation, you may even be able to do it yourself.
If the person who died had a will, then a probate attorney can help the named executor probate the will. And the will likely dictates how the car should be handled. Perhaps it is supposed to go to someone in particular. Or perhaps the car is part of the residuary estate that gets divided up between a certain set of people. Whether the car title needs to be assigned to a particular beneficiary or whether it needs to be titled to someone who wants to buy the car from the estate, the executor will need to use Form 130-U “Application for Texas Title and/or Registration” from the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles along one of their Letters Testamentary that they received from the probate court to make the transfer.
If there isn’t a will or if there is a will, but there isn’t a need to go through the time and expense of probating the will, then the heirs or heirs of the person who died can get the title transferred by using Form 130-U along with Form VTR-262 “Affidavit of Heirship for a Motor Vehicle”.
Once the paperwork is filled out just go to the county tax assessor’s office in the county where the person who died was living at the time of their death. You will need to bring the car title, proof that the car passed inspection, proof of liability insurance, and the registration fee. Depending on how busy or backed up the county tax assessor’s office it, it could take around 20 business days for the paperwork to be processed.
