A Washington Nonprobate Estate - Statute of Limitations for Creditor's Claims

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Washington Nonprobate

Statute of Limitations for Creditor's Claims

Actual Notice Sent to Claimant		Applicable Statute of Limitations
Yes		The later of: 4 months from date of first publication of Nonprobate Notice to Creditors, or 30 days from date of mailing of actual notice.
No
	Claimant was not there to be, or not expected to have been, found in your reasonable review	4 months from date of first publication of Nonprobate Notice to Creditors
	Claimant was there to be, and should have been, found in your reasonable review	24 months from Decedent's date of death

Washington law does not require a Notice Agent to give actual notice to known creditors --- the legislature has just made it highly advantageous to do so in most circumstances:

Giving actual notice (within the first 3 months after first publication) allows you to reduce
the Statute to 4 months after the date of first publication additionally for all those claims
that would have been expected to have been found in such a review.

A legal technicality: In an action by a creditor asserting a dilatory claim against you as Notice Agent, you will be presumed to have exercised reasonable diligence in your review. And in order to prevail, the creditor will have to show by "clear, cogent, and convincing evidence" that his/her claim was there and would have been reasonably expected to have been found in such a review, and that you failed to use reasonable diligence to find it. RCW 11.42.040(2)