5. Get the certificate and fill out the Estate Information Return

After you give the court all the information they need, they process your probate application. If court staff have questions about your application, they'll contact you for more information or missing or incomplete documents.

Once you get the certificate, you can distribute the property in the estate based on the intestacy rules. Under the intestacy rules, who gets the property depends on whether the person was married or not married.

There's more information in My loved one died without a will. Can I apply to be their estate trustee?

Small estate court process

Applications are usually processed within 5 business days. It will take longer if:

• you don't file all the documents or provide all necessary evidence and information
• the information you send in raises an issue that a judge needs to decide

If you filed your application by email, court staff will contact you by email. And they'll send the Small Estate Certificate by email as well.

If you filed by mail, court staff will mail you the certificate.

Regular court process

Your application may take several months to process depending on which court office you file it with.

Your application goes to a judge, who signs your Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee. The court will send you the certificate by email.

Estate Administration Return

Within 180 days of getting the certificate, you must fill out and send an Estate Information Return to the Ontario Ministry of Finance.

The return asks for a lot of information about the person and their assets. The Ministry uses this to make sure that you paid the right amount of estate administration tax.

If more estate tax has to be paid, you have to pay it before you send the return. This might happen if:

• you're selling the person's house and it sells for more than you thought it would when you filed the probate application, or
• you find more assets that you didn't know about.

If these things happen, you must file an affidavit explaining what happened and pay the additional estate tax. An affidavit is a sworn statement in writing. This means you swear an oath or promise that what you've written is true. It's against the law to lie when swearing or affirming an affidavit.