New York Consolidated Laws, Surrogate's Court Procedure Act - SCP § 1118. Powers before issuance of letters

1. Take possession of, collect and secure the personal property within his county of any person who shall die intestate or testate within this state or elsewhere or whose property shall arrive with   1 the county after his death whenever there is no person eligible to act as fiduciary of an intestate or of a testator, if the executor named in the will refuses or neglects to act or is dead or his whereabouts are unknown or if he is not eligible to receive letters.

2. Take possession of, manage and collect the rents of the real property of an intestate whose distributees are unknown or, whose distributees if known, are non-domiciliaries or of a testator if the executor named in the will refuses or neglects to act or is dead or his whereabouts are unknown or if he is not eligible to receive letters.

3. Pay the funeral expenses of the decedent.

4. Sell as and when authorized by the court perishable property or such other property of the decedent as the preservation of the estate requires.

5. Sell at public auction all property delivered to him as the effects of persons whose deaths have been reported to him by the department of hospitals, the police department or any other department or person.

6. Defray the expenses of the foregoing activities and the expenses incidental to his application for letters.