What an affidavit of heirship actually is
An affidavit of heirship is the sworn sheet heirs use to retitle a vehicle when the estate is not going through probate. It is not the title. It is not Letters Testamentary.
Is an affidavit of heirship the title? No. People also treat it like Letters Testamentary. Those are different papers.
An affidavit of heirship is the sworn sheet heirs use to move a VIN when the estate is not going through probate. It names the decedent, the surviving heirs, and who the vehicle is going to. It is not the new title. The county still titles it. It is not a court appointment. Letters Testamentary and Letters of Administration come from a probate that was opened.
Texas prints that job on Affidavit of Heirship for a Motor Vehicle, VTR-262. Heirs sign. A notary stamps. The odometer block is on the same page. The clerk still wants Application for Texas Title, Form 130-U, and a death certificate. If a court already said no administration is necessary, that order rides along. Photocopies of a half-signed sheet usually fail.
California does the same transfer without opening an estate, and it does not use the heirship name. It prints Affidavit for Transfer Without Probate, REG 5 — California titled vehicle or vessel only. Forty days after death. A copy of the death certificate. Estate under the probate-code cap. Successor, trustee, or conservator. CVC 5910 and 9916. It is not probate. It is the affidavit that lets the clerk retitle without opening one.
