Short answer. Yes. Rule 74, Section 1 lets the heirs divide the estate among themselves without letters of administration, by a public instrument filed with the register of deeds, when the decedent left no will and no debts and the heirs are all of age or the minors are duly represented.
What the law says
If the decedent left no will and no debts and the heirs are all of age, or the minors are represented by their judicial or legal representatives duly authorized for the purpose, the parties may, without securing letters of administration, divide the estate among themselves as they see fit by means of a public instrument filed in the office of the register of deeds
Rule 74, Section 1 — Extrajudicial settlement by agreement between heirs. Read the full provision →
What the law says
It shall be presumed that the decedent left no debts if no creditor files a petition for letters of administration within two years after the death of the decedent.
Rule 74, Section 1 — Extrajudicial settlement by agreement between heirs. Read the full provision →
What the law says
no extrajudicial settlement shall be binding upon any person who has not participated therein or had no notice thereof
Rule 74, Section 1 — Extrajudicial settlement by agreement between heirs. Read the full provision →
The conditions, in the rule's own words
Rule 74, Section 1 opens with the whole test: If the decedent left no will and no debts and the heirs are all of age, or the minors are represented by their judicial or legal representatives duly authorized for the purpose, the parties may, without securing letters of administration, divide the estate among themselves as they see fit by means of a public instrument filed in the office of the register of deeds. If the heirs disagree, the route is an ordinary action for partition. And where there is only one heir, the same section lets him adjudicate the entire estate to himself by an affidavit filed with the register of deeds.
How 'no debts' is established
You do not have to prove a negative forever. The rule supplies a presumption: It shall be presumed that the decedent left no debts if no creditor files a petition for letters of administration within two years after the death of the decedent. The two-year mark after death is therefore a meaningful date for heirs weighing this route. But a presumption is not immunity — the settlement is conditioned on a bond, filed with the register of deeds in an amount equivalent to the value of the personal property, precisely to answer any just claim that surfaces later under the same rule.
The formalities are not optional
Three mechanics attend the shortcut. The division must be in a public instrument — a notarised deed, not a private family paper — filed with the register of deeds. The bond, certified against the sworn value of the personal property involved, must be filed simultaneously with and as a condition precedent to that filing. And the fact of the settlement must be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the manner the next section of the rule provides. Skipping any of these does not merely create paperwork problems later; it undermines the very mechanism that lets you bypass the court.
Who the settlement does not bind
The sentence heirs most often overlook is the last one: no extrajudicial settlement shall be binding upon any person who has not participated therein or had no notice thereof. A deed signed by four of five siblings does not bind the fifth, and publication does not cure the omission of an heir who never took part. This is where extrajudicial settlements come apart years later — an excluded heir surfaces and the division cannot be enforced against him. Before signing, make sure every heir is identified and included; that single precaution protects the settlement more than anything else in the rule.