My sister (who has two children) suddenly died in August after a two week stay in the hospital. Her son, the older of her two children) was estranged from his mother and the younger could not be located to arrange for the funeral. Her daughter, the youngest child was finally located the night before the funeral. She claimed she didn't have money to pay for the funeral so I laid out the total amount of $10,000 hoping to be reinbursed as soon as her daughter obtained a Letter of Administration authorizing her to handle her mother's affairs. My sister had very little money and was living off an inheritance which my mother left. She had approx. $60,000 left in a checking account.
Well it has been over three months since my sister's funeral and my niece claims that the surrogate court will not give her a Letter of Administration (there was no will) until she receives a signed waiver from her brother (who cannot be located) giving her permission to oversee their mother's estate.
In the meantime, mail is piling up because it was redirected when we knew my sister would not be returning to her apartment and someone had to take care of her bills. Most of this mail is from the hospital my sister was in and I'm afraid if my niece does set up an estate bank account soon, the hospital will get there first and I will never get the funeral expenses reimbursed. Is there any way I, without an attorney, can put a lien on her bank account? I live in New York.

First its not a good idea to piggyback your question on someone else's. This can lead to confusion. You should start a new thread. So I've moved your question to its own thread.

What I suggest is that you get the daughter to sign a note acknowledging the loan. Then go to the surrogate court and have the note entered as a debt against the estate.

No, you can't put a lien on her bank account.

Actually you may never get your money back, this was not a bill to her estate, the funeral home could have placed charges against it, but you just paid it, it could be considered a gift unless you had some agreement signed with the estate.

You should not have paid for it, until that was agreed.

Your state will have a list for probate as to who will have the first claims.

Part of the issue was you had no legal obligation to pay for the funeral, you had no legal agreement to be paid back for it.

The daughter needs a probate attorney who can help things proceed and you need one to try and help you get your money back

I agree with Chuck, which is why I suggested that you get a note signed by the daughter. It is possible to get the note signed after the fact. But your only claim against the estate will be if you can get an acknowledgement that it was a loan. Otherwise you will have to sue the estate and may not win.