Pennsylvania Affidavit of Heirship for Real Property Checklist: How to File, Step by Step

Pennsylvania does not publish a fill-in form for Affidavit of Heirship for Real Property — 21 P.S. §§ 451-453 instead sets out what a compliant filing must contain. Here is the full sequence, with the statutory fact behind each step.

1. 1

   Confirm this is actually the right instrument

   This affidavit establishes facts affecting title to real estate — including heirship and family history — for a decedent who died owning real property. It's separate from, and fills a gap left by, Pennsylvania's small-estate mechanisms, since neither the § 3101 affidavit nor the § 3102 petition can reach real estate at all.

2. 2

   Identify someone with genuine personal knowledge of the family history

   The affiant must have personal knowledge of the facts being sworn to — the decedent's marital history, children, and other potential heirs — and be competent to testify to them in open court. This can be a family member, but doesn't have to be; a longtime neighbor or family friend with direct knowledge can also serve.

3. 3

   Draft the affidavit covering everything the statute requires

   The statute requires the affiant's name, age, and residence; a description of the real estate; facts showing the affiant's personal knowledge; and the name of the current record owner. The statute's broader list of facts an affidavit like this can cover includes age, relationship, family history, heirship, marital status, and similar title-affecting facts.

4. 4

   Have it notarized, or confirm it meets the statute's alternate standard

   The statute unusually allows recording 'even though not acknowledged,' but in practice notarization is the standard, expected approach — the official taking the affidavit must certify that the affiant is personally known to them, or satisfactorily proven, to be who they claim to be.

5. 5

   Record it with the Recorder of Deeds in the county where the real estate is located

   This is a Recorder of Deeds filing, not a court filing and not a Register of Wills filing — a genuinely different office than either of Pennsylvania's small-estate mechanisms use. The recorder indexes the affidavit under the record owner's name in both the grantor and grantee indexes.

6. 6

   Understand that recording alone isn't the finish line

   This is the step every other source skips: recording the affidavit is not the same as making it legally effective for title purposes. It becomes 'admissible evidence of the facts therein stated' only once a Pennsylvania-licensed attorney signs a certification, appended to it, that they relied on it in passing on the title. Until that happens, the affidavit is on the public record but hasn't yet done the legal work the statute designed it to do.

7. 7

   Arrange the attorney certification when a sale, refinance, or title examination actually happens

   This step most naturally happens at the point of an actual transaction — when a title company or attorney is examining the chain of title for a sale or refinance anyway — rather than immediately after recording. This is a real, necessary, attorney-performed step; a self-help kit can walk you through everything up to this point, but cannot complete this specific step for you, since the statute reserves it to a licensed member of the Pennsylvania bar.

8. 8

   Complete the actual transfer with a deed once heirship is established

   Like every other state's version of this instrument, the affidavit is evidence of who the heirs are — it does not itself transfer title. The heirs still need to execute a deed or other conveyance instrument to complete an actual sale or transfer.

What Pennsylvania requires instead of a fill-in form

Pennsylvania does not publish a fill-in affidavit of heirship for real property form. That means the requirements above — read directly against 21 P.S. §§ 451-453 — are what a compliant filing has to satisfy, whether you prepare it yourself where permitted or bring it to an attorney to draft.

Recording it is only step one

A recorded filing doesn't always finish the job on its own — some mechanisms still need a follow-up step before a sale or transfer can actually close. Free one-pager: the real scenarios that come up after recording and what resolves each, emailed now. Then a few short follow-ups over the next few weeks — then we stop. No ongoing newsletter.

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