If you have been named executor of an estate with a house in Calgary, most of what you will read online is about probate. That part belongs to your lawyer. This is about the house: who can sign for it, what it needs while it sits empty, what you still have to tell a buyer, and whether empty houses sold further under asking over the last year.
Alberta’s legislation calls an executor a personal representative. I’ll say executor here, because that’s the word people use.
None of this is legal, tax or insurance advice. It is what I’d want you to know before we talk about a price.
The short version
- Call the insurer first. An empty house is insured differently from a lived-in one, and winter makes it urgent.
- Read the title. A surviving joint tenant takes over the title without going through the estate.
- The sale cannot close without the grant. Land Titles needs it to put the house in your name.
- The court fee is $525 at most. It is a set fee, not a percentage of the estate.
- You will be asked for three different values. I can give you one of them.
- Tell your agent and lawyer what you know about the house, even if you plan to sell it as is.
- Find the Real Property Report, or sort out the alternative before you list.
Who can sign for the house
Alberta’s Estate Administration Act treats the person named in the will as the personal representative “whether or not a grant is issued.” The Act calls a grant “the Court’s grant of the authority to administer an estate.” It lets a personal representative do anything with the estate’s property that the person who died could have done, subject to the will and to other legislation.
For a house, what the grant changes is the title. Under the Land Titles Act, a personal representative has to be registered as owner before dealing with the land, and has to produce the grant to get registered. Land Titles asks for the grant itself or a court-certified copy. That registration is called a transmission, and it costs $25 per title.
So a sale cannot close until you have the grant. Whether to list the house or accept an offer before then is a question for your lawyer, because the answer decides how the contract is written. Ask before you sign a listing agreement with me or anyone else.
If there is more than one executor, you all sign. The Act says personal representatives “must act unanimously unless the will directs otherwise or the Court orders otherwise,” and Land Titles wants every signature on the documents.
A power of attorney ended at the death. If you were handling your mother’s affairs under an enduring power of attorney, the Powers of Attorney Act ends it on her death. (The Act’s one exception is an irrevocable power of attorney.) It cannot be used to list or sell her house.
If there was no will, the Act sets the order of who can apply to administer the estate. The surviving spouse or adult interdependent partner comes first, then a child, and on from there.
If a minor is a beneficiary, Land Titles will not register the transfer to a buyer without the Public Trustee’s consent or a court order. Where no minors are involved, the executor swears an affidavit that no minors are, or were at the death, interested in the estate.
If the house was owned jointly
Read the title early. If it says the owners held as joint tenants and one of them has died, the survivor does not go through the estate to get the title. They file a statutory declaration with proof of death at Land Titles, and the fee is $25 per title. Land Titles then issues a new title in the survivor’s name, and the survivor sells the house the way any owner would.
The title has to say joint tenants. Owners who held as tenants in common each own a share, and the share of the one who died is part of their estate. And joint ownership does not always settle who is entitled. The court’s own inventory form says jointly owned assets “may either form part of the Deceased’s estate or they may pass outside the Deceased’s estate by right of survivorship,” and that it depends on the facts. If someone else is on the title with the person who died, raise it with the lawyer.
If there is a surviving spouse or partner
Two Alberta laws protect a surviving spouse’s place in the home, and both can affect a sale.
Under the Dower Act, when a married person dies owning the home in their own name, the surviving spouse has an estate in it for life. Before Land Titles registers a sale by the executor, it requires the spouse’s consent, a court order dispensing with it, or an affidavit in the prescribed form.
Under the Wills and Succession Act, a surviving spouse or adult interdependent partner who is not on the title but was living in the family home is entitled to stay for 90 days from the date of death. That right holds against a buyer who signs a contract during those 90 days. A court can shorten or extend it.
If either one applies, tell your lawyer and your agent before the house goes on the market.
What the grant costs, and what the wait depends on
The court fee for a grant is set by the net value of the property in Alberta.
| Net value of property in Alberta | Court fee |
|---|---|
| $10,000 or under | $35 |
| Over $10,000 to $25,000 | $135 |
| Over $25,000 to $125,000 | $275 |
| Over $125,000 to $250,000 | $400 |
| Over $250,000 | $525 |
That is the Court’s fee only. Your lawyer’s fee is separate.
How long it takes is harder to pin down. The figures quoted online run from four weeks to a year. Alberta’s guide for applicants describes three stages once the application is filed: a clerk reviews it, notices are served on the beneficiaries, and then a justice reviews it. If a minor is a beneficiary, the Public Trustee has to be served too, and the guide says that “may add some time to the overall process.”
Ask your lawyer what they are seeing this month.
Three values, and which one I can give you
An executor gets asked what the house is worth three times, and they are three different questions.
The value on the court’s inventory. The application comes with an inventory of the estate, and its values “are as at the date of the Deceased’s death.” For a house it asks for an estimated gross value, the mortgages against it, and an estimated net value. The form lets you mark a value “to be determined” and serve an amended inventory once you have it.
The value for the tax return. The Canada Revenue Agency treats a person who dies as having “sold all their property just prior to death,” at fair market value, unless the property passes to a spouse or common-law partner or another exception applies. If the house was their principal residence, some or all of that gain may be exempt, and the executor still has to designate it on the final return. In the CRA’s words, the designation “only applies until the date of death.” If the estate later sells the house for more than it was worth at death, the difference is generally a capital gain of the estate, and half of a capital gain is taxable.
Ask your accountant how they want the value at the date of death documented.
The value for selling. This is the one I do. I look at what comparable homes have sold for and give you a range to price from. If you want a rough range first, the home valuation page gives you one on the spot. It is a starting point for pricing, not a date-of-death value.
The Real Estate Council of Alberta, which regulates agents here, says an agent’s estimate is a range of value prepared to help someone decide whether to list or sell. It is not an appraisal, and RECA requires the report to say it “must not be used for financing, civil proceedings, income tax purposes, or financial reporting purposes.” My number is for the pricing decision. For the tax return, and for anything going in front of a court, ask your lawyer and accountant what they want. If that is an appraisal, it comes from an appraiser. In Alberta that means a member of the Appraisal Institute of Canada, the Alberta Assessors’ Association or the Canadian National Association of Real Estate Appraisers.
The City’s property assessment is a fourth number, and it is not a date-of-death value either. The 2026 assessment estimated what the home was worth on July 1, 2025. I’ve written about why the assessment and the market value don’t match.
Before any money goes to the beneficiaries, ask your accountant about a clearance certificate. If tax turns out to be owing and the estate was paid out without one, the CRA says the legal representative is “personally liable for unpaid amounts, up to the value of the amount of assets distributed.”
An empty house in a Calgary winter
Insurance. The Insurance Bureau of Canada defines a vacant building as one where “all occupants have moved out with no intention to return,” furnished or not. If nobody is living in the house, that describes it. Intact’s advice is, “Always tell your insurance when your home’s occupancy changes.” It says that if a home is vacant for more than 30 days, “insurance coverage usually stops.” Wawanesa says most policies have a time limit, “often around 30 days.” Square One says its coverage “excludes water damage after a home has been vacant for 30 days.”
For a lived-in home whose owner is away, the Insurance Bureau’s description of standard home coverage says that after “more than four days during the normal heating season, you must drain the plumbing or have your home checked regularly or daily to ensure that heat is maintained.” In a separate note on extreme cold, it says most policies “exclude frozen pipes/water damage if your home is vacant, even if you have permission for vacancy.”
Those are general descriptions. The policy on this house is the one that counts. Call the insurer or the broker, tell them the owner has died and the house is empty, and ask what the policy requires and whether it needs a vacancy permit. Get the answer in writing.
The City of Calgary’s advice for preventing frozen water lines is to keep the thermostat set to at least 15°C. The City also says the owner is responsible for protecting the meter, valves and pipes on the property from freezing.
Property tax. The City sends tax documents to the name and address on the title, and it takes changes to them from Alberta Land Titles. If the taxes were coming out of the owner’s bank account each month through the City’s instalment plan (TIPP), watch what happens when that account closes. The City does not try a failed withdrawal a second time. It charges $35, and it can cancel the plan, which makes all the unpaid tax due at once with penalties. The City says it will review the charge where the account closed because the holder died, so ask. Someone who is not the owner can set up the plan from their own account.
Unpaid current-year tax draws a 7 per cent penalty on July 1 and again on October 1. After December 31, arrears draw 1 per cent on the first of every month.
A tax deferral loan. If the owner was deferring property tax through Alberta’s Seniors Property Tax Deferral Program, the loan and its interest come due at death, unless a surviving spouse or partner qualifies to keep it. The programme registers a caveat on the title, so the title will show it.
Does an empty house sell for less?
A little further under asking, going by the last year of sales.
MLS listings do not say whether a sale is an estate. They do say whether the home was owner-occupied, tenanted or vacant. So I compared vacant and owner-occupied detached houses, built before 2000, that sold in Calgary in the twelve months to September 2026.
| Owner-occupied | Vacant | |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | 3,404 | 2,170 |
| Half sold within | 18 days | 23 days |
| Typical sale price | 98.35% of asking | 97.75% of asking |
| Sold at or above asking | 28.6% | 21.9% |
| Sold more than 5% under asking | 8.8% | 15.5% |
Asking is the final list price. Days are counted from the start of the listing that sold.
More than a third of these houses were listed as vacant when they sold. The typical vacant one took five days longer and sold 0.6 points further under asking. The gap was there in every price range and every age of house.
The last row is the one I’d look at. Of the vacant houses, 15.5 per cent sold more than 5 per cent under asking, against 8.8 per cent of the owner-occupied ones. The typical result is close. The gap is in how many sold well under.
Vacant is not the same as estate. That group includes sellers who had already moved and renovated houses being resold. And the numbers do not say why the gap is there. What I take from it is that selling a house empty is common, and that the typical vacant house sold close to where the typical occupied one did.
Selling “as is”, and what a seller still discloses
It’s fair to want to sell an inherited house as is. You may never have lived in it.
RECA’s guidance for sellers is that they “must also disclose material latent defects in their property that they know about” and “must honestly answer questions they are asked.” A material latent defect is one a reasonable inspection would not find. It includes a defect that makes the home dangerous, potentially dangerous or unfit to live in. It can include a defect that would be very expensive to fix, a notice from the municipality that something has to be remedied, or missing building permits.
As the listing agent I have the same duty. I have to tell buyers about any material latent defect I know of.
So tell your agent and your lawyer what you know: the basement that took water, the addition nobody is sure had a permit. What you don’t know, you don’t guess at. What an “as is” clause changes, and what an executor can and cannot promise in the contract, is your lawyer’s job.
A death in the house is a different category. RECA files it under stigmas, not defects, and says, “Sellers do not have to answer stigma questions.” A seller who chooses to answer has to answer honestly.
The Real Property Report
A Real Property Report is a survey document. RECA describes it as “a legal document prepared by an Alberta Land Surveyor that illustrates property boundaries and improvements (structures) relative to the boundaries.” My guide to Real Property Reports covers what the standard contract asks a seller to provide.
In a house someone owned for decades, the report in the filing cabinet may be decades old, if there is one. RECA says a seller with an existing report “may sign a Statutory Declaration or Affidavit stating the existing RPR is accurate and the property is in the same state as the date of the original RPR.” An executor who did not live there may not be able to swear to that.
The alternatives are an updated or new report, or title insurance if the buyer agrees to it. RECA says title insurance “facilitates transactions when a current RPR is unavailable,” and also that “title insurance and an RPR are not the same thing.” Which one fits is a conversation with your lawyer, and it is better to have it before the house is listed.
Before you list
- Call the insurer, tell them the house is empty, and get the policy’s requirements in writing.
- Keep the heat on and have someone check the house on the schedule the insurer gives you.
- Order a copy of the title. Check how it was held, whether a married owner held it alone, and whether a deferral loan caveat is on it.
- Check how the property tax is being paid and keep it current.
- Ask your lawyer when the grant is likely, and whether they want the house listed before or after it.
- Ask your accountant how they want the value at the date of death documented.
- Gather what the house came with: the Real Property Report, permits, receipts for the roof and the furnace.
- Write down what you know about the house’s condition, and what you don’t.
Common questions
Can an executor sell a house before probate in Alberta?
The sale cannot close before the grant. Alberta’s Estate Administration Act treats the person named in the will as the personal representative whether or not a grant is issued, but the Land Titles Act requires the personal representative to be registered as owner before dealing with the land, and Land Titles asks for the original or a court-certified copy of the grant to do that. Whether to list the house or accept an offer before the grant arrives is a question for the estate’s lawyer, because the answer decides how the contract is written.
How much does probate cost in Alberta?
The court fee for a grant is set by the net value of the property in Alberta: $35 for $10,000 or under, $135 over $10,000 to $25,000, $275 over $25,000 to $125,000, $400 over $125,000 to $250,000, and $525 over $250,000. That is the Court’s fee only. The lawyer’s fee is separate. Registering the house in the executor’s name at Land Titles costs $25 per title.
Do you need probate if the house was owned jointly in Alberta?
Where the title says the owners held as joint tenants, the survivor files a statutory declaration with proof of death at Land Titles, and the fee is $25 per title. Land Titles then issues a new title in the survivor’s name. The title has to say joint tenants. Owners who held as tenants in common each own a share, and the share of the one who died is part of their estate.
Do you pay capital gains tax on an inherited house in Alberta?
The Canada Revenue Agency treats a person who dies as having sold their property just before death at fair market value, unless it passes to a spouse or common-law partner or another exception applies. If the house was their principal residence, some or all of that gain may be exempt, and the executor still designates it on the final return. That designation applies only until the date of death. If the estate later sells for more than the value at death, the difference is generally a capital gain of the estate, and half of a capital gain is taxable. Ask the estate’s accountant how it applies to your situation.
Does a power of attorney still work after someone dies?
Not an ordinary one. Alberta’s Powers of Attorney Act ends an enduring power of attorney on the death of the person who gave it, with an exception for an irrevocable power of attorney. An adult child who was managing a parent’s affairs under an enduring power of attorney cannot use it to list or sell the house after the death. That authority passes to the personal representative.
Does an executor have to disclose defects when selling a house as is?
The Real Estate Council of Alberta’s guidance for sellers is that they must disclose material latent defects in their property that they know about and must honestly answer questions they are asked. A material latent defect is one a reasonable inspection would not find. It includes a defect that makes the home dangerous, potentially dangerous or unfit to live in, and it can include a defect that would be very expensive to fix or missing building permits. Tell your agent and the estate’s lawyer what you know about the house, and ask the lawyer what an as-is clause changes.
Can a REALTOR® value a house for probate or for the tax return?
A REALTOR® can give you a range of value to help you decide whether and at what price to list. The Real Estate Council of Alberta says that estimate is not an appraisal and must not be used for financing, civil proceedings, income tax purposes or financial reporting purposes. For the value at the date of death, ask the estate’s lawyer and accountant what they want. In Alberta an appraiser has to be a member of the Appraisal Institute of Canada, the Alberta Assessors’ Association or the Canadian National Association of Real Estate Appraisers.
Handling an estate and not sure what the house needs first?
Tell me where it is and where things stand. I'll give you a range to price from and tell you what I'd sort out before it's listed. You don't have to list with me to ask, and there's no rush.
