Porbate or not?

What is the name of your state? Mi and TN
I live in Michigan and my Dad recently passed away in TN. The deed to his house lists "Mr. XXX and his heirs" as the owners of the property. The house is only worth about $30,000. Can I just file to make a formal determination of heirs and transfer the property over or do I still have to go through probate? In MI they do not use they type of wording on deeds so I am confused.

Also, after we left Tn and came home to MI we found out that several of the relatives (not heirs) emptied the house completely and destroyed various areas of the home. Do we have any recourse for this? Apparently he gave out several keys to neices while he was alive and they cleaned out the entire house. We did not know they had access to the home.

Thank You

Seems that the deed is listed somewhat incorrectly--I guess it's okay that the phrase "and his heirs" appears on it, but now the house will need to be probated to get an official determination of who the legal heirs exactly are and the heir/heirs names officially added to the deed. You didn't mention who the surviving heirs are (whether or not your mother is still living), but you will need to hire a probate attorney in Tennessee to handle this for you. The attorney can also advise you how to proceed with recourse on the stolen items from the home, although it will be a bit difficult if you have no video or listed inventory of what was in the home. The executor/administrator is the only person with legal authority to claim and dispose of this man's property and the nieces are guilty of theft if you can prove it.