Someone died and left a house in Georgia. Here is what to do about the house in the first two weeks.

The week after a death is full of the funeral and the relatives. The house sits there, and it feels like it can wait. The court filing can. The house cannot, because three things keep moving whether anyone files or not: the insurance policy, the tax bill and the loan.

Nothing on this page needs a court order. These are the things any family member can do, and should, before anyone is named to handle the estate.

Start with the building itself.

This is the call families skip most often. Many homeowner policies change what they cover once a house sits empty for 30 to 60 days. Some stop covering water damage or vandalism. Some cancel. The insurer will not tell you unless you call.

Call the company, not the agent's voicemail. Say the owner has died and the house is empty. Ask what the policy covers now, how long it stays in force, and what it costs to keep it or to switch to a policy for an empty house. Keep paying it. If the payment came out of your parent's bank account, that account may freeze, so move the payment to a card you control.

Four accounts keep running after a death. Each one needs a phone call.

You are looking for five things: the will, the deed, the last tax bill, the insurance policy and the latest loan statement. People keep them in the same few places. A desk drawer, a fireproof box, a safe deposit box at the bank, or with the lawyer who wrote the will.

If there is a will, do not sign it, write on it or lose it. Georgia law says the person holding a will must file it with the probate court after the death, even if the family never opens an estate. If you cannot find a will, the house passes under Georgia's rules for who inherits, and the court names an administrator instead of an executor.

If you cannot find the deed, the county has it. The clerk of superior court in the county where the house is keeps every recorded deed, and the tax assessor's site will show who is on it.

By the second week you know what you have. Now find the probate court for the county where your parent lived, not the county where the house is, if they differ. Call the clerk. Clerks in Georgia cannot give legal advice, but they will tell you which petition fits, what it costs, and how they take filings.

Decide who will handle the estate. With a will, it is the person the will names. Without one, the family picks and the court agrees, or the court picks. Agreeing on one person before anyone files saves months of notice and waiting.

Decide whether you want a lawyer. Many Georgia estates are filed by the family with the free state forms. A lawyer earns the fee when heirs disagree, when someone cannot be found, or when the estate has to sell under a court order.

Some families strip the house the first weekend. Some will not touch a cup. The job in these two weeks is to protect what is there.

Every step above can be done by phone except the walk-through and the photos. Pick one person near the house for those. If there is nobody, we can go. Our page for an executor who lives out of state covers the oath, the filing and the closing from a distance.

The tax clock. Property tax in Georgia does not pause for a death. A bill that goes unpaid becomes a lien, and after enough time the county can sell the house at a tax sale. The family can buy it back for at least a year after, at a 20 percent premium, plus 10 percent for each year after that, until the buyer cuts off the right. By then the house has changed hands once already.

The heirs clock. Without a will, the house passes to the heirs under Georgia law the day of the death. Every year it sits in a dead person's name, an heir can die too, and their share splits again. A house that needed three signatures in year one can need nine in year five.

We work with Georgia families in exactly these two weeks. Send us the address and we will tell you, in a day, what the county shows: who is on the deed, what is owed in taxes, whether a sale date exists, and whether anyone has opened an estate. That is the list you would spend the second week building. If the family later decides to sell, we can be the buyer, and we help with the cost of opening the estate when the family picks an option that involves us.