There is no single “New York probate court” — New York settles estates county by county through 62 separate Surrogate’s Courts, and your estate belongs to the court of the county where you were domiciled at death (SCPA 205-206). The law is uniform statewide: the EPTL supplies the substantive rules of wills, trusts, and inheritance, and the SCPA supplies the procedure. But the courthouse, the calendar speed, the e-filing setup, and the kinds of assets you’ll deal with shift the moment you cross a county line. This guide explains how the statewide system fits together and what changes from one part of the state to another.
If you take one thing from this page: find the domicile county first. Everything else — which court, which fee window, which clerk’s office — follows from that single fact.
The court structure: 62 counties, two statutes
| Element | Statewide rule |
|---|---|
| Courts | 62 Surrogate’s Courts — one per county, sitting at each county seat |
| Venue | County of the decedent’s domicile (SCPA 205-206) |
| Substantive law | EPTL — Estate, Powers and Trusts Law |
| Procedure | SCPA — Surrogate’s Court Procedure Act |
| Filing fee | Graduated by estate value (SCPA 2402), $45 to $1,250 |
| Intestacy | EPTL 4-1.1 |
| Small estate | SCPA Article 13 voluntary administration (under $50,000) |
| Estate tax | NY Tax Law Art. 26, with the 105% cliff |
A few county seats and addresses, to make the geography concrete (always verify the current address for the specific court): New York County (Manhattan) at 31 Chambers Street; Kings County (Brooklyn) at 2 Johnson Street; Nassau County at 262 Old Country Road, Mineola; Suffolk County at 320 Center Drive, Riverhead. Every other county — Erie (Buffalo), Monroe (Rochester), Onondaga (Syracuse), Albany, Westchester (White Plains), and the rest — has its own Surrogate’s Court at its county seat.
Property and asset realities across New York
New York’s geography drives the asset mix, and the asset mix drives the work:
- Downstate / NYC counties: co-op apartments (the decedent owns shares and a proprietary lease, not real property), high-value condos, and securities. Co-op transfers require board involvement, which complicates an executor’s job. High values frequently trigger the estate-tax cliff.
- Suburban counties (Westchester, Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland): single-family homes — real property that passes through the estate — plus vehicles, boats, and small businesses. Appreciated homes can push estates over the cliff.
- Upstate counties: more modest home values in many areas, farmland and family businesses in rural counties, and lake or seasonal property that may sit in a different county than the domicile.
Domicile. Your true, permanent home — where you intend to remain or return. A New York snowbird who winters in Florida but keeps a New York home and intent remains a New York domiciliary, probated in their New York county.
Filing realities, statewide
E-filing: most counties use NYSCEF, but whether it is mandatory or consensual varies by county and case type — verify the current NYSCEF status for your court. Fees: the SCPA 2402 schedule is identical everywhere, scaling from $45 for estates under $10,000 to $1,250 for estates of $500,000 and up. Help Centers: every Surrogate’s Court runs one for self-represented filers, but clerks cannot give legal advice. Timelines: this is where counties diverge most — a small upstate county may move an uncontested estate in months, while a high-volume downstate court runs significantly slower.
County-specific quirks that trip people up
- You can’t pick a faster court. Venue is fixed by domicile (SCPA 205). A family hoping to file in a quicker neighboring county cannot — the estate goes where the decedent lived.
- Out-of-county property is handled through the domicile estate. A Saratoga resident’s cabin in Hamilton County is administered through the Saratoga estate, not a second Hamilton filing.
- Out-of-state property may need an ancillary proceeding. A New York domiciliary who owned a condo in Florida needs an ancillary proceeding there, coordinated with the New York estate.
Neighborhoods and regions, grounded
New York is not abstract. An executor’s reality looks like a brownstone in Park Slope or a co-op on the Upper West Side downstate; a colonial in Garden City or Huntington on Long Island; a Cape in Irondequoit near Rochester; a farmhouse in the Finger Lakes; a camp in the Adirondacks. The Surrogate’s Court that handles each is the one for that property owner’s home county — Kings, New York, Nassau, Suffolk, Monroe, an upstate county — set by domicile, not by where the prettiest asset sits.
A worked statewide scenario
Consider Eleanor, a lifelong resident of Tompkins County (Ithaca) who also owned a small lakefront cottage in Cayuga County and a brokerage account. She left a valid will naming her daughter executor.
- Venue: Tompkins County Surrogate’s Court — her domicile (SCPA 205) — even though the cottage sits in Cayuga County.
- Filing: her daughter files the original will and petition (SCPA 1402) in Tompkins, gives notice to distributees, and receives letters testamentary.
- The Cayuga cottage: administered through the Tompkins estate — no separate Cayuga filing.
- Fee: set by the estate’s total value under SCPA 2402.
- Tax: if the estate’s value (home + cottage + accounts) lands near 105% of the NY exemption, a charitable or marital adjustment may be used to stay under the cliff.
Change Eleanor’s domicile to Brooklyn and the same estate would file in Kings County at 2 Johnson Street, likely involve a co-op instead of two houses, and move on a slower downstate calendar — same statutes, different court and rhythm.
Mini-FAQ: New York statewide
Is there one probate court for all of New York? No. There are 62 Surrogate’s Courts, one per county. You file in the decedent’s domicile county (SCPA 205-206).
My parent owned homes in two New York counties — where do I file? In the county of their domicile (their permanent home). The other county’s property is handled through that single estate.
Does upstate probate differ from downstate? The EPTL and SCPA are identical statewide. What differs is caseload, e-filing setup, and the asset mix (co-ops downstate, single-family homes and land elsewhere).
What if my relative was a New York domiciliary but died in Florida? They are still probated in their New York domicile county; out-of-state real property may need an ancillary proceeding there.
Get local help anywhere in New York
Whichever of the 62 counties your estate belongs to, book a 30-minute consultation with Russel Morgan of Morgan Legal Group. Start with the probate process, the Surrogate’s Court overview, or the executor duties page. This guide is informational and does not create an attorney-client relationship.