Austin County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Bellville, know what is in the estate and what it owes. Which Texas route fits, and whether an administration is needed at all, turns on whether there is a will, who the distributees are, what the assets are worth, and whether there are unpaid debts. Those routes are set by state statute and work the same way in all 254 Texas counties; they are explained on the Texas state page. Getting the answer before the first filing matters in Austin County for a practical reason: the county's probate fee schedule prices each application type differently, so an application for letters testamentary, an application to determine heirship and a small estate affidavit are three different filings at three different prices, and filing the wrong one means starting over.

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle and parcel of Austin County or out-of-county real property, along with every debt, before you apply. How each asset is titled decides whether it passes through the estate at all: survivorship accounts, accounts with a named beneficiary and land covered by a recorded transfer on death deed pass outside the estate and never reach the court. Sunset's asset-discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for exactly this step, so that the application filed with the Austin County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.

The Austin County Clerk's office at 265 N. Chesley Street, Suite 7, in Bellville is the single probate filing counter for the whole county. There is no branch or satellite counter for estates. The county's courts serve every part of Austin County, including Bellville, Sealy, Wallis, Industry, New Ulm, Cat Spring, Nelsonville, Milheim, San Felipe and the rural areas between them. Because attorneys file electronically through eFileTexas.gov and the clerk dockets the case after the filing is accepted, much of an uncontested estate can be handled without a trip to Bellville; the two things that pull you toward the county seat are the original will, which has to reach the clerk in paper, and the hearing.

Venue is straightforward for an Austin County resident: you file in the county where the decedent lived, if the decedent had a domicile or fixed place of residence in Texas (Estates Code § 33.001(a)(1)). If the person lived in Austin County, the case belongs here, even if they died in a hospital in Houston, Brenham or Columbus. For a decedent with no Texas domicile or fixed residence, venue depends on where the death happened and where the estate or the nearest of kin are (§ 33.001(a)(2)). One more point specific to this county: Austin County and the city of Austin are different places. A decedent who lived in the city of Austin was a Travis County resident, and that estate is filed in Travis County, not in Bellville.

Which court hears the case is the fact a generic page gets wrong in a county like this one. Austin County has one statutory county court, the County Court at Law of Austin County (Government Code § 25.0101), and no statutory probate court. In that situation the county court at law exercising original probate jurisdiction and the county court have concurrent original jurisdiction of probate proceedings (Estates Code § 32.002(b)), because a statutory county court has, concurrent with the county court, the probate jurisdiction provided by general law for county courts (Government Code § 25.0003(d)). So both the County Court at Law of Austin County and the Austin County Court can hear an estate, and neither is a statutory probate court. Austin County's own County Court at Law page resolves what happens in practice: it lists probate among the court's subject matters and says those cases are filed with the County Clerk, citing Government Code § 25.0003(d). Read that page's citations with care, though, because it still cites the repealed Texas Probate Code alongside the Government Code; the governing probate provisions today are Estates Code § 32.002(b) and Government Code § 25.0003(d).

If a matter in the proceeding becomes contested, the route in a county court at law county is a transfer inside the county, not an assignment from outside it. Under Estates Code § 32.004(a), in a county with no statutory probate court but with a county court at law exercising original probate jurisdiction, when a matter in a probate proceeding is contested the judge of the county court may, on the judge's own motion, or shall, on the motion of any party to the proceeding, transfer the contested matter to the county court at law, and the county judge may also transfer the entire proceeding to the county court at law. The county court at law may then hear what is transferred as if it had been originally filed there, and if only the contested matter was transferred, the matter returns to the county court once it is resolved (§ 32.004(b)). Two things follow that matter for Austin County. Because the county has a county court at law, the transfer under § 32.004 is the route here, and not the different mechanism that applies in counties without a county court at law, where a contested matter goes to an assigned statutory probate court judge or to a district court. And because the county has no statutory probate court, no court in Austin County holds the exclusive probate jurisdiction that a statutory probate court has.

Two courts can hear your estate, and the county publishes which one it puts estates on. Austin County has one county court at law and no statutory probate court, so the County Court at Law of Austin County and the Austin County Court have concurrent original jurisdiction of probate proceedings (Estates Code § 32.002(b); Government Code §§ 25.0003(d), 25.0101). The county's own County Court at Law page lists probate among that court's subject matters and says those cases are filed with the County Clerk, which is as close to a published local practice statement as a county this size gets. It is still concurrent jurisdiction as a matter of law, so do not assume the County Judge cannot hear an estate.

The clerkship is split, and probate is always on the county clerk side. For the County Court at Law of Austin County, the district clerk serves as clerk in family law cases and proceedings and the county clerk serves as clerk in all other cases (Government Code § 25.0102(g)). A decedent's estate is one of the other cases, so it goes to the Austin County Clerk in Suite 7, and the county's own court page says exactly that. The District Clerk is in Suite 1 of the same building and handles family law, felony criminal, civil cases over $200,000 and passports.

The county's published citations are older than the law in one place. The County Court at Law page footnotes its probate jurisdiction to Government Code § 25.0003(d) and to "Tex. Prob. Code § 4C". The Probate Code was replaced by the Estates Code, and the provisions that govern today are Estates Code § 32.002(b) for concurrent original jurisdiction and § 32.004 for a contested matter. The same page states that the court "was established January 1, 1986", while Government Code Chapter 25's own credit for § 25.0101 reads that it was added by Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 148, effective September 1, 1987. Neither point changes where you file; both are reasons to verify anything load-bearing with the clerk or the court rather than with a web page.

Austin County runs its own probate case search, which most counties this size do not. The County Clerk links a Tyler Technologies public access portal from its page twice, under "COURT RECORDS" and under "PROBATE", and the portal's own menu offers Probate Case Records for Austin County and a court calendar. The portal publishes no coverage dates, and its search screens sit behind a human verification step, so treat it as a real lookup tool whose depth you should confirm with the clerk. Do not mistake the clerk's other search tools for a case search: the free AVA search, Laredo Anywhere and the birth, death, marriage and military discharge index cover official public records and vital records, not estates.

If the estate's real property route runs through the deed records, the clerk added an identification requirement in December 2025. The Austin County Clerk publishes, in its own capitals, a new recording procedure effective December 4, 2025 under Local Government Code § 191.010: all persons presenting a document in person for filing into the real property records of Austin County are required to provide a photo identification to the clerk. That reaches an estate whenever something has to be recorded rather than filed in the case, which includes the affidavit used to transfer a homestead under the small estate route (Estates Code § 205.006(a) requires it to be recorded in the deed records) and a certified copy of an order admitting a will as a muniment of title (chapter 257). The clerk also accepts electronic recording, and copy requests for recorded documents go to its public records mailbox.

Budget from the county's schedule, not from a single figure. Austin County prices each probate application separately, so the cost of opening an estate depends on which application you file: $402.00 for letters testamentary, for administration or for muniment of title, $505.00 for an heirship determination, $362.00 for a small estate affidavit. All of those sit above the $360.00 statutory base (Local Government Code §§ 135.102(a)(1) and 133.151(a)(1)), and the schedule does not itemize the difference. Card payments carry a 2.85 percent convenience fee with a $2 minimum.

Many uncontested Austin County estates are handled without a lawyer, and the County Clerk's counter will tell you what it needs procedurally, though it publishes plainly that a County Clerk cannot render legal advice or services and that you should contact an attorney if you need legal advice. Counsel earns its keep when a will or an appointment is likely to be challenged, when there is no will and the heirs have to be determined, when real property has to be sold or divided, when the estate is insolvent or a creditor is pressing, when a business or out-of-state property is involved, or when a guardianship has to run alongside the estate. Three local factors tilt the balance. Austin County publishes no probate forms for a decedent's estate, so every document is drafted from scratch. The county's own fee schedule shows that an heirship determination is priced above a straightforward application, which reflects the extra work an intestate estate takes, including the attorney ad litem the court appoints from its published list. And the contested-matter route runs inside the county: if a matter becomes contested, the county judge may on the judge's own motion, and shall on the motion of any party, transfer the contested matter to the County Court at Law of Austin County, and may transfer the entire proceeding (Estates Code § 32.004). Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Austin County and the surrounding area.

Find the accounts and assets. Sunset searches more than 2,300 financial institutions and public records to surface bank and credit union accounts, retirement plans, brokerage holdings, life insurance, Austin County real property and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which estate settlement application fits before anything is filed in Bellville.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, drafted for the Austin County filing and captioned for the court that hears it, ready to e-file through eFileTexas.gov and to file with the Austin County Clerk.

Find a local probate attorney. When a matter is contested, when heirship has to be determined, or when the estate otherwise calls for counsel, Sunset connects families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Austin County.

Sunset is free for families. Revenue comes from bank partners that pay Sunset while estate funds sit in an FDIC-insured estate account ($3M coverage).