Good Faith Buyers Are Protected
Buying property from an estate can feel uncertain. Is the personal representative really authorized? Was the probate filed correctly? Could a beneficiary come back later and challenge the sale? This statute directly addresses those concerns by protecting people who deal with a personal representative in good faith.
A person who in good faith either assists or deals with another person acting as a personal representative, on the basis of a copy of letters certified by or under the direction of the court or an officer thereof within sixty days of the transaction, is protected as if the personal representative properly exercised his power and even though the authority of that person as personal representative has been terminated.
A.R.S. § 14-3714The protection is broad. As long as the buyer relied on certified letters issued within the past sixty days and acted in good faith, the transaction holds. This is true even if the personal representative's authority had already been terminated or if there were procedural problems in the underlying probate case.
No Duty to Investigate
Arizona law does not require a buyer or business partner to dig into the probate file and verify every detail. Knowing that someone claims to be a personal representative does not create an obligation to confirm their powers or question how the estate is being managed.
There is one exception worth noting. If the court has placed specific restrictions on the personal representative's authority and those restrictions are endorsed on the letters themselves, as allowed for supervised personal representatives under A.R.S. 14-3504, then third parties with those letters are on notice of the limitation. Otherwise, even restrictions in the will or a court order are only effective against people who have actual knowledge of them.
The statute also protects subsequent good-faith purchasers. If property was wrongfully transferred to someone who was not acting in good faith, a later buyer who purchases it without knowledge of the problem is still protected.