What we move · Estate & Probate Contents
Securing Estate Contents During Probate
An empty house full of a lifetime's possessions, several relatives with keys, and a probate process that may run for a year. This is the single most common way valuable property quietly disappears, and almost none of it involves a burglar.
Tell us what, from where, and roughly when. No obligation, and no inventory list needed to start the conversation.
Unmarked
No livery, no logo, nothing that names the cargo
Two-person
Every movement. One never leaves the property
Signed
Chain of custody at every handoff, timestamped
1983
Operating the destination vault since
Why this is different
The problem worth solving
Without an inventory made early, nobody can prove anything went missing and nobody can prove it did not. That is corrosive for a family and dangerous for a personal representative, who is personally accountable for the estate's property. The point of moving valuables out early is not just security — it is that the argument becomes impossible to have.
Procedure
How it is handled
- 01Itemised and photographed in the house, room by room, with the personal representative present.
- 02Two attendants, so no single person is ever alone with the property.
- 03Sealed on site, seal numbers onto the representative's copy.
- 04Held in the vault under the estate's name, with access limited to named individuals.
- 05Nothing released without the documented authority of whoever the court has appointed.
- 06Full movement record available to counsel and to the court if it is ever asked for.
What to expect on the day
The time to do this is early — ideally before the extended family has had a weekend in the house. Personal representatives sometimes hesitate because moving things out feels like an accusation. It is the opposite: an inventory and a sealed container protect the representative from an accusation, and protect the family from a suspicion that never quite goes away.
The limit
Where we stop
We will not remove property from a house on the instruction of someone who cannot show authority over the estate. If entitlement is contested, that gets resolved before we arrive, not by us.
Common questions
- Who is allowed to instruct a collection?
- The personal representative, executor, or someone with documented authority from the court. We will ask to see it and we will not proceed without it.
- What if the beneficiaries disagree?
- Then the property sits in a vault, itemised and untouched, until the dispute is resolved. That is usually the outcome everyone wants once tempers cool.
- Can counsel be copied on the record?
- Yes, and it is usually a good idea. The inventory and movement log go to whoever the representative names.
- How long can it stay?
- As long as probate takes. Storage is a separate arrangement and can run month to month.
Statewide
Routes we run
45–75 min
Brickell & Downtown Miami
High-rise collections, which means the loading dock and the service elevator decide the schedule rather than the traffic. Most Brickell towers require a certificate of insurance filed with building management days in advance and will only release the service lift in a booked window — we handle that paperwork, but it is why a Brickell collection is booked a week out and a house is not.
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50–80 min
Coral Gables
Older single-family houses on narrow, banyan-shaded streets with strict tree and parking rules. A vehicle cannot always get close to the door, so a Gables collection is planned around where we can legally stand, and that is worth a phone call before the day rather than a surprise on it.
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50–80 min
Coconut Grove
A mix of waterfront estates and 1920s houses, several of them with art collections that have never been condition-reported. The Grove sits low, and clients here move things out ahead of the season more often than anywhere else in Miami-Dade.
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60–90 min
Key Biscayne
One causeway on and off the island, with a toll and a single point of failure. When a storm is forecast the Rickenbacker is exactly where everyone is at once, so Key Biscayne is the one market where we insist on booking well ahead of a cone rather than during it.
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45–75 min
Miami Beach & Surfside
Causeway-dependent and, from Surfside north, largely mid-rise condominium. Since 2021 the building-access rules here have tightened considerably, and management offices are noticeably more careful about who is allowed a service lift — expect to be asked for documentation that a house never requires.
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30–50 min
Aventura
Dense high-rise on the Dade line and the shortest big-building run we make. Loading docks here are generally well organised and bookable, which makes Aventura one of the few tower markets where a same-week collection is realistic.
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Tell us what needs to move.
What, from where, and roughly when. You do not need an inventory to start the conversation, and if the job belongs with an armored carrier we will say so on the call.