Probate Code Section 850 Petition: Definition and How It Works in California

By Eric Ridley, attorney, Ridley Law. Updated September 2026.

A Probate Code section 850 petition asks the probate court to decide who actually owns an asset that an estate or trust claims, or that someone else claims against an estate or trust. It is the standard tool for pulling a missing asset into a trust or estate without a separate civil lawsuit.

How it works in California

Ridley Law’s full breakdown of the scope of a section 850 petition covers who can file and what the court can order. The statute lets a trustee, personal representative, or other interested person petition the court whenever property is claimed to belong to a decedent or the decedent’s estate, or to a trust, but title or possession sits somewhere else (Prob. Code, § 850).

One common use confirms that an asset the settlor never formally deeded still belongs to the trust, based on the settlor’s own signed written declaration that the property was already trust property. California courts have allowed this since Estate of Heggstad (1993) 16 Cal.App.4th 943, which is why this specific use has its own name.

Why it matters

A section 850 petition can save an estate the cost and delay of a full civil title lawsuit. For example, a house a settlor listed as trust property on a schedule but never deeded to the trust can come in through this petition, heard on the probate court’s own calendar, rather than through a separate quiet title action in civil court.

Common mistakes

Some families treat a section 850 petition as a routine substitute for retitling assets properly in the first place, when careful trust funding while the settlor is alive avoids the need for one entirely. Others wait until well after the settlor’s death to notice the gap, when a simple deed signed during life would have solved the problem for free.

Related terms

• Heggstad Petition: a specific kind of section 850 petition built on the settlor’s own signed declaration.
• Small Estate Affidavit: a different shortcut around full probate, for personal property under a dollar limit instead of a title dispute.
• Trustee: usually the one who files when trust property is at issue.

Part of the California estate planning glossary. For the full treatment, see Probate Code § 850 Petition: Full Scope in California.