No, you can't deduct those items if you are not the owner. All the bills should be paid by the estate, not by you or any other person personally, until the estate is settled. If you have been approved by the probate court to be the administrator of the estate, then you should be allowed to reimburse yourselves from the proceeds of the estate before the balance of the estate is distributed to the heirs. You may want an attorney to help you with the estate at this point. If you have not been approved as the administrator, then nothing should be paid until someone volunteers to be administrator (or an executor is named in a Will) and that person is approved by the court.
