What happens when someone dies and there is no will and nobody hires a probate attorney?

My business partners dad died in Wisconsin and he had a small business and a house but they think his medical bills are going to be far more than his estate is worth so nobody is paying a lawyer, they are just taking all his tools and stuff and selling them and keeping the money and letting everything else sit and not planning to hire an attorney or pay the hospital or any creditors. What will happen? Will the state eventually take the house and sell it and do their own probate or what?