1. If title or an interest in real or personal property is affected by the death of any person, any other person who claims any interest in the real or personal property, if the other person’s interest is affected by the death of the deceased person, or the State of Nevada, may file in the district court of any county in which any part of the real or personal property is situated a verified petition setting forth those facts and particularly describing the real or personal property, the interest of the petitioner and the interest of the deceased person therein.

2. The clerk shall set the petition for hearing by the court. Notice of hearing of the petition must be mailed, by certified mail, return receipt requested, postage prepaid, to the heirs at law of the deceased person at their places of business or residences, if known, and if not, by publication for at least 3 successive weeks in such newspaper as the court orders. The clerk shall send a copy of the notice of hearing or of the affidavit to the Department of Health and Human Services by certified mail, return receipt requested, postage prepaid, if the State is not the petitioner, at the time notice is mailed to the heirs at law or the notice is published. Failure on the part of any such heir at law to contest the petition precludes any such heir at law from thereafter contesting the validity of the joint interest or its creation or termination.

3. The court shall take evidence for or against the petition, and may render judgment thereon establishing the fact of the death and the termination of the interest of the deceased person in the real or personal property described in the petition.

4. A certified copy of the decree may be recorded in the office of the recorder of each county in which any part of the real or personal property is situated.

5. As an alternative method of terminating the interest of the deceased person, if title or an interest in real or personal property held in joint tenancy or as community property with right of survivorship is affected by the death of a joint tenant or spouse, any person who has knowledge of the facts may record in the office of the county recorder in the county where the property is situated an affidavit meeting the requirements of NRS 111.365, accompanied by a certified copy of the death certificate of the deceased person.

[1:18:1939; A 1951, 172] — (NRS A 1963, 802; 1965, 665, 1004; 1983, 666; 1991, 457; 1995, 2569; 2001, 1750; 2003, 876)