Updated September 7, 2026. Quick answer: In Washington, once the personal representative publishes notice to creditors, a creditor has 4 months to file a claim; and if notice is never published, the absolute deadline is 2 years from the date of death; and a creditor who is personally mailed notice gets 30 days.
What is the creditor-claim deadline in Washington?
| Once notice to creditors is published | 4 months |
| If notice is never published (absolute deadline) | 2 years from the date of death |
| Creditor personally mailed notice | 30 days |
“the creditor must present the claim within the later of: (i) Thirty days after the personal representative’s service or mailing of notice to the creditor; and (ii) four months after the date of first publication of the notice. … the creditor must present the claim within twenty-four months after the decedent’s date of death.”
Source: RCW 11.40.051
What makes Washington different
Washington layers a 30-day mailed-notice deadline, a 4-month publication deadline, and a 24-month absolute bar from death that applies whenever notice was never given.
Does this deadline apply the same way if the estate never opens probate?
These deadlines are creatures of the probate process itself; they run once an estate is opened (by publication, mailing, appointment, or the grant of letters, depending on Washington’s own rule above). A creditor of a decedent whose estate never enters probate at all is not cut off by this particular statute, though the underlying debt’s own ordinary statute of limitations still applies.
Sources
| Statute | RCW 11.40.051 |
| Washington courts (general reference) | Washington judicial branch |
| Confidence | High |
Every statute quoted on this page was read directly from the state’s own legislature/code site this session, or, where that site blocked automated access, from a reputable legal-citation mirror quoting the same official text with its official citation (disclosed below). General information, not legal advice; the exact deadline in a given estate can turn on facts (whether a personal representative was appointed, whether notice was ever published or mailed) that only your own probate court file can confirm.