# Putting Your House in a Living Trust in California: Deed, Taxes, Mortgage and Insurance

> How a California house gets into a living trust: the deed, transfer tax, PCOR, Prop 13, your mortgage and insurance, and what skipping the deed costs.

Source: https://ridleylawoffices.com/putting-house-in-living-trust-california/

**Short answer –**A house gets into a living trust by a recorded deed from you to yourself as trustee, filed with a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report (PCOR). For a home you own and live in, that deed owes no county documentary transfer tax, doesn’t reassess the property for tax (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 62(d)), and, while you remain the beneficiary and occupant, can’t make your lender call the loan (12 U.S.C. § 1701j-3(d)(8); 12 C.F.R. § 191.5(b)(1)(vi)). The one outside party to contact is your homeowners insurer.

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

Will this cost me money, and who do I have to tell? The house goes in by a separate paper from the trust, and that paper is where the tax, mortgage and insurance answers live. For the whole job of retitling assets, see [trust funding in California](https://ridleylawoffices.com/trust-funding/).

## What moving the house changes, and what it leaves alone

A couple bought their home in 1998. The county carries it at an assessed value of $400,000, and it would sell for $1.4 million today. The numbers are invented. If a deed into the trust counted as a change in ownership, the county would reappraise the house to market value, and the value the tax is figured on would go from $400,000 to $1.4 million, 3.5 times as much.

The deed doesn’t do that. It changes who holds title on the record, from you to you as trustee, and it leaves who owns the house for tax and loan purposes alone, because you are still the beneficiary and you still live there. While you’re alive, those rules leave your taxes and your loan alone. The costly ones come due when the trust becomes irrevocable at your death, and the later sections say where.

| What you're asking about | What the deed does | Where this page covers it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Property tax assessed value | Stays where it is while the trust is revocable (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 62(d)) | Why the property tax base doesn't move |
| Mortgage | A lender can't call the loan on a home you live in because of the transfer (12 U.S.C. § 1701j-3(d)(8)) | The mortgage stays put |
| County documentary transfer tax | None. The deed isn't a sale | The paperwork the county wants |
| Recording fees | A recording fee, $20 more with no PCOR, and probably no $75 SB 2 fee on a home you occupy | The paperwork the county wants |
| Title insurance | Depends on the policy form and its date | Title insurance and homeowners insurance |
| Homeowners insurance | Policy and record owner should match. Ask the insurer to add the trustee | Title insurance and homeowners insurance |
| Probate at death | The house skips it | What the deed saves at death |

## The deed that moves the house into the living trust

The deed moves the house, and a signed writing is the legal minimum for an owner to transfer a house (Civ. Code, § 1091). A trust of real property is likewise not valid unless it’s evidenced by a signed writing or by operation of law (Prob. Code, § 15206). A schedule in the trust that lists your house is evidence, and after your death a petition under Prob. Code, § 850, subd. (a)(3)(B) can ask a court to confirm that the house belongs to the trust. It still leaves the county records, your insurer and the next buyer looking at your old name. The recorded deed fixes the record.

Use a grant deed from the owner to the owner as trustee in most cases, because the word “grant” carries two implied promises: the owner hasn’t conveyed the same estate to someone else, and the estate is free of encumbrances the owner caused (Civ. Code, § 1113). Think twice before swapping in a quitclaim to save a few minutes, and run it past the title insurer first. See [California quitclaim deeds](https://ridleylawoffices.com/quitclaim-deed/) for how those go wrong.

The recorder won’t take a deed without an acknowledgment, and a grant or quitclaim deed can’t be proved by a subscribing witness instead (Gov. Code, § 27287). Sign it before a notary. A signed grant is presumed delivered at its date (Civ. Code, § 1055), and recording gives constructive notice of what the deed says to later buyers and lenders from the time it’s filed for record (Civ. Code, § 1213).

Don’t count on the recorder to catch a mistake. A county recorder has to accept an instrument that meets the recording requirements and can’t refuse it for lack of legal sufficiency (Gov. Code, § 27201). A deed with a wrong legal description or the wrong trust date records without complaint and then fails you years later. Copy the legal description from the current vesting deed and check the trust’s name and date against the signed trust. If a bank or title company wants proof the trust exists, a certification of trust gives it without handing over the dispositive terms (Prob. Code, § 18100.5). See [what a bank can ask for from a certification of trust](https://ridleylawoffices.com/certification-of-trust-california/). When the recorded deed comes back, keep it with the trust documents.

## The paperwork the county wants with the deed

The deed travels with a transfer tax statement, the Preliminary Change of Ownership Report and the recording fees.

You owe no county documentary transfer tax on a deed to your own trust. A county’s documentary transfer tax reaches deeds conveying realty “sold” when the consideration or value is over $100, at $0.55 per $500 (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 11911, subd. (a)), and a deed from you to you as trustee has no purchaser and no price. Section 11930 separately exempts a conveyance made by inter vivos gift or by reason of death, including one in trust for someone’s benefit. In practice, recorders such as Los Angeles County’s want the exemption stated on the face of the deed. Its notice sets the wording for a transfer into or out of a living trust and cites § 11930. Check your county recorder’s wording before the deed goes in, and ask whether your city has its own transfer tax, which a city within a taxing county may impose at half the county rate (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 11911, subd. (b)).

File the Preliminary Change of Ownership Report, form BOE-502-A, with the deed, because it’s how the county assessor learns what kind of transfer this was. The recorder may charge an extra $20 when a deed arrives without one (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 480.3, subd. (b)). The report is completed by the transferee, which here is you as trustee, and it can’t be signed by an agent (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 480.3, subd. (a)). On the current form, the exclusions section has a box for a transfer to or from a revocable trust that may be revoked by the transferor and is for the transferor’s benefit. Check it. Filing the report creates no tax, and it tells the assessor not to reappraise.

If you skip the report, answer the letter that follows. When a deed is recorded without one, the assessor usually sends a Change in Ownership Statement, and if you don’t return it within 90 days of the assessor’s written request, a penalty of $100 or 10 percent of the taxes on the new base year value, whichever is greater, is added to the tax roll. That applies even when the assessor decides no change in ownership happened. The penalty is capped at $5,000 for a property eligible for the homeowners’ exemption and $20,000 for one that isn’t, if the failure wasn’t willful (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 482, subd. (a)(1)).

Expect the recorder’s base recording fee, which varies by county, and, on a home you live in, probably no $75 SB 2 housing fee. That separate SB 2 housing fee, $75 per transaction per parcel up to a $225 cap, is not imposed on a recorded document connected with a transfer of a residential dwelling to an owner-occupier (Gov. Code, § 27388.1, subd. (a)(2)(B)). Counties apply this exemption, and whether a given county treats a deed from a homeowner to their own revocable trust as exempt is a question for the county recorder, so ask how the recorder wants the exemption claimed before you count on it. For a rental deeded into the same trust, no owner-occupier is receiving the property, so expect the $75 fee.

## Why the property tax base doesn’t move, and when it does

Your assessed value stays put because the deed gives no one else a present interest in the house. A change in ownership is a transfer of a present interest in real property, including its beneficial use, with a value substantially equal to the fee interest (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 60), and § 62(d) carves out “any transfer by the trustor, or by the trustor’s spouse or registered domestic partner, or by both, into a trust for so long as” the transferor is the present beneficiary or the trust is revocable, and a transfer back to the trustor. The Board of Equalization’s trust rule says the same thing about revocable trusts, with a warning: a change in ownership does occur at the time the revocable trust becomes irrevocable, unless the transferor remains or becomes the sole present beneficiary or another exclusion applies (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 18, § 462.160, subd. (b)(2)).

The Board’s own example shows how a trust ends up reappraised at your death. An owner puts income-producing property into a revocable trust with the owner as sole present beneficiary. The trust says that at the owner’s death, a brother becomes a present beneficiary entitled to the income for life. At the owner’s death, 100 percent of the property in the trust has a change in ownership, because the brother’s present interest is the interest that changed hands. For a family home, the question at your death is whether a spouse or child qualifies for an exclusion. Transfers that take effect at a spouse’s death are excluded (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 63). A transfer to a child can be excluded in whole or in part under § 63.2, but only if the home was the parent’s principal residence, becomes the child’s principal residence within one year, the child files for the homeowners’ or disabled veterans’ exemption within a year, and a claim is filed (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 63.2, subd. (a)(1)). See [the two Prop 19 requirements](https://ridleylawoffices.com/prop-19-parent-child-exclusion-california/) and [whether property gets reassessed when it goes into a trust](https://ridleylawoffices.com/does-my-property-get-reassessed-when-i-put-it-into-trust/).

Your successor trustee will face two deadlines after you die, so make sure the trustee knows about them. The trustee serves a notification on beneficiaries and heirs within 60 days after the trust becomes irrevocable because of a death (Prob. Code, § 16061.7). For a transfer by reason of death through a trust, the trustee files the change in ownership statement within 150 days after the date of death (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 480, subd. (b)).

## The mortgage stays put on a home you live in

Your mortgage stays in place because federal and California law both bar the lender from acting on the transfer. Most California mortgages carry a due-on-sale clause, and federal law says that on a loan secured by residential property with fewer than five dwelling units, a lender may not exercise it upon a transfer into an inter vivos trust in which the borrower is and remains a beneficiary and which doesn’t relate to a transfer of rights of occupancy (12 U.S.C. § 1701j-3(d)(8)). California’s statute separately bars a lender from accelerating the loan solely by reason of a transfer by the obligor into an inter vivos trust in which the obligors are beneficiaries. It covers one to four housing units and loans executed or refinanced on or after January 1, 1976, and a waiver in your loan papers is void (Civ. Code, § 2924.6).

Answer your lender if it asks how it’ll learn of later changes, and don’t assume a rental gets the same protection, because the federal regulation adds a condition and a limit. The protection covers a trust in which the borrower is and remains the beneficiary and occupant, and it holds unless, as a condition precedent to the transfer, the borrower refuses to give the lender reasonable means, acceptable to the lender, of timely notice of a later transfer of the beneficial interest or a change in occupancy. The regulation also speaks of a loan on a home occupied or to be occupied by the borrower (12 C.F.R. § 191.5(b)(1)(vi)). The rule doesn’t specify what those means must be. If the lender asks how it’ll hear about changes, give it an answer. A rental is a less settled question, so read the loan and ask the lender before deeding one. See [whether you have to tell your lender and insurer](https://ridleylawoffices.com/homeowners-insurance-house-in-trust/) and [refinancing a house in a living trust](https://ridleylawoffices.com/refinancing-a-house-in-a-living-trust-california/).

## Title insurance and homeowners insurance

The deed touches your title insurance and your homeowners insurance, and each policy defines who is covered.

Read the “Insured” definition in your owner’s title policy first, because the form and its date decide whether the trustee is covered. The policy’s protection runs to the “Insured” as the policy defines it, and the definition depends on the form and its date. The 2021 ALTA owner’s policy treats as an Insured a trustee or beneficiary of a trust created by a written instrument established for estate planning purposes by an Insured, to whom the Insured transfers title, and ALTA’s comparison chart says the 2021 form doesn’t require that the deed be delivered without payment of valuable consideration. A policy written on the 2006 form or an older form may read differently. Ask the title company that issued yours, or read the definition of “Insured” in your own policy, before you sign.

Nobody records anything to tell your homeowners insurer. The California standard form fire policy covers loss “nor in any event for more than the interest of the insured” (Ins. Code, § 2071), and it has the insured state the interest of the insured and any changes in title in a proof of loss. An interest in property insured must exist when the insurance takes effect and when the loss occurs (Ins. Code, § 286), and any interest a peril might directly damage is an insurable interest (Ins. Code, § 281). After the deed, record title is in your name as trustee and the policy names you. None of the insurance statutes cited here says a deed to your own revocable trust voids a policy. It’s better to have the match on paper before a claim. Ask the insurer to add the trust, or you as trustee, as an insured, and get that in writing.

## What the deed saves your family at death

A house left out of the trust goes to probate unless a shortcut fits. A primary residence worth not more than $750,000 can pass by a court petition without full probate (Prob. Code, § 13151), and the Judicial Council’s schedule lists $750,000 as the figure for that petition for deaths on or after April 1, 2025. Above that figure, or for a rental, the house generally goes through probate. A married couple’s first death often has a shortcut of its own: property that passes to the surviving spouse by will or intestacy needs no administration (Prob. Code, § 13500), and a surviving spouse can petition for an order saying so (Prob. Code, § 13650). The numbers below are for the second death, or for a single owner. The attorney’s statutory fee is 4 percent of the first $100,000, 3 percent of the next $100,000, 2 percent of the next $800,000 and 1 percent of the next $9,000,000, computed on the value of the estate accounted for without reference to encumbrances (Prob. Code, § 10810). The mortgage doesn’t lower the number. The personal representative’s compensation follows the same schedule (Prob. Code, § 10800).

| House value | Attorney's statutory fee | Executor's fee, same schedule if taken | Both |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| $800,000 | $19,000 | $19,000 | $38,000 |
| $1,100,000 | $24,000 | $24,000 | $48,000 |
| $1,500,000 | $28,000 | $28,000 | $56,000 |

Next to those fees the deed is cheap. It costs a recording fee and some attention, and it replaces a process priced in the tens of thousands. A $1.1 million house, with the mortgage ignored, carries $24,000 for the attorney alone.

A house that missed the deed isn’t lost, but the repair is a court petition. A petition under Prob. Code, § 850, subd. (a)(3)(B) can ask the court to confirm that property belongs to the trust. See [the Heggstad petition for a house that never made it into the trust](https://ridleylawoffices.com/house-not-in-trust-california-heggstad/).

## Where house deeds go wrong

Deed problems are missed steps after the signing. A deed gets signed and never recorded, so the public record, the assessor, the insurer and the next buyer are all still looking at the old name. A refinance pulls the house out of the trust and nobody deeds it back. A second property bought later is titled in the owner’s own name, because the trust was funded once and nobody went back. A deed is typed from memory with the wrong legal description, and the recorder accepts it anyway. The insurer isn’t told. The cure for all of them is a short checklist at the end of the signing and a calendar reminder after any refinance or purchase. Use [the trust funding checklist](https://ridleylawoffices.com/guides/trust-funding-checklist/) or [the funded-trust test](https://ridleylawoffices.com/is-my-living-trust-funded-california/) to find out where an existing trust stands. For a sale, see [selling a house held in a living trust](https://ridleylawoffices.com/selling-a-house-in-a-living-trust-california/).

## Working with Ridley Law

My revocable living trust plan is a flat $4,900 as of October 2026, and it includes up to two deeds transferring California real estate into the trust, signing at home with a notary, and help retitling accounts. [The fees page](https://ridleylawoffices.com/fees/) lists the full plan. If the trust itself is still ahead of you, [how to set up a living trust in California](https://ridleylawoffices.com/how-to-set-up-a-living-trust-california/) covers the order of steps.

[Book my 30-minute call](https://ridley.click/eric-30) or call 805-244-5291.

## Frequently asked questions

### Will my property taxes go up if I put my house in a living trust?

No. A transfer by the owner into a trust is not a change in ownership for as long as the transferor is the present beneficiary or the trust is revocable (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 62(d)). Your assessed value carries over. The reassessment question comes later, when the trust becomes irrevocable at your death.

### Do I have to tell my mortgage lender that my house is in a trust?

Neither 12 U.S.C. § 1701j-3(d)(8) nor Civ. Code, § 2924.6 requires you to notify the lender. The federal regulation protects the transfer for a trust in which you remain the beneficiary and occupant, unless, as a condition precedent to the transfer, you refuse to give the lender reasonable means, acceptable to the lender, of timely notice of later changes in ownership or occupancy (12 C.F.R. § 191.5(b)(1)(vi)). If the lender asks, answer. A rental needs more care than a home you live in.

### Do I owe transfer tax when I deed my house to my trust?

No county documentary transfer tax is due. The tax applies to realty sold for more than $100 (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 11911), and § 11930 exempts conveyances by gift or by reason of death, including in trust. Recorders such as Los Angeles County’s want the exemption cited on the face of the deed. Ask whether your city adds its own tax.

### What is a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report?

It’s form BOE-502-A, the questionnaire the transferee files with a deed so the assessor can see what kind of transfer it was. For a deed into your revocable trust you check the revocable-trust exclusion. Without it the recorder may add a $20 fee (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 480.3), and the assessor may send a statement request that carries a penalty if ignored.

### Do I need to tell my homeowners insurance company?

Yes. The standard fire policy covers no more than the interest of the insured (Ins. Code, § 2071), and after the deed the record owner is you as trustee. Ask the insurer to add the trustee as an insured and get the change confirmed in writing.

### What kind of deed puts a house in a living trust?

Usually a grant deed from you as owner to you as trustee of your trust, signed before a notary and recorded in the county where the house sits. The word “grant” carries two implied covenants (Civ. Code, § 1113). A trust of real property needs a signed writing (Prob. Code, § 15206), and the deed is the transfer.

### What happens if my house isn’t in the trust when I die?

It’s a probate asset unless a shortcut fits. A single owner’s primary residence worth $750,000 or less can pass by court petition (Prob. Code, § 13151). Above that figure, or for a rental, the house generally goes through probate, where the attorney’s statutory fee on a $1.1 million house is $24,000 (Prob. Code, § 10810). A petition under Prob. Code, § 850, subd. (a)(3)(B) can ask the court to confirm that the house belongs to the trust.

This page is general information about California law as of its update date. It isn’t legal, tax or insurance advice for your situation, and reading it doesn’t create an attorney-client relationship.

**Related reading:** [the trust funding checklist](https://ridleylawoffices.com/guides/trust-funding-checklist/) and [California probate costs and timeline](https://ridleylawoffices.com/probate/).

Sources

- California Revenue and Taxation Code: [§ 60](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=RTC&sectionNum=60), [§ 62](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=RTC&sectionNum=62), [§ 63.2](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=RTC&sectionNum=63.2), [§ 480](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=RTC&sectionNum=480), [§ 480.3](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=RTC&sectionNum=480.3), [§ 482](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=RTC&sectionNum=482), [§ 11911](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=RTC&sectionNum=11911), [§ 11930](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=RTC&sectionNum=11930) (current, accessed October 2026)
- California Civil, Government, Insurance and Probate Codes: [Civ. Code § 1055](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&sectionNum=1055), [§ 1091](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&sectionNum=1091), [§ 1113](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&sectionNum=1113), [§ 1213](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&sectionNum=1213), [§ 2924.6](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&sectionNum=2924.6); [Gov. Code § 27201](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV&sectionNum=27201), [§ 27287](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV&sectionNum=27287), [§ 27388.1](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV&sectionNum=27388.1); [Ins. Code § 281](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=INS&sectionNum=281), [§ 286](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=INS&sectionNum=286), [§ 2071](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=INS&sectionNum=2071); [Prob. Code § 850](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PROB&sectionNum=850), [§ 10800](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PROB&sectionNum=10800), [§ 10810](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PROB&sectionNum=10810), [§ 13151](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PROB&sectionNum=13151), [§ 13500](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PROB&sectionNum=13500), [§ 13650](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PROB&sectionNum=13650), [§ 15206](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PROB&sectionNum=15206), [§ 16061.7](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PROB&sectionNum=16061.7), [§ 18100.5](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PROB&sectionNum=18100.5) (current, accessed October 2026)
- [12 U.S.C. § 1701j-3](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/12/1701j-3) (Garn-St Germain Depository Institutions Act, subsection (d)(8))
- [12 C.F.R. § 191.5](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-12/chapter-I/part-191/section-191.5)
- [California State Board of Equalization, Cal. Code Regs., tit. 18, § 462.160, Change in Ownership, Trusts](https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/california/18-CCR-462.160)
- [BOE-502-A Preliminary Change of Ownership Report (REV. 19, 05-25)](https://www.boe.ca.gov/proptaxes/pdf/sample-boe502a.pdf)
- [BOE change in ownership FAQ](https://www.boe.ca.gov/proptaxes/faqs/changeinownership.htm)
- [Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, Notice of Exempt Transactions Under the Documentary Transfer Tax](https://www.lavote.gov/docs/rrcc/documents/documentary-transfer-tax-statutes.pdf?v=2)
- [American Land Title Association, 2021 Owner’s Policy of Title Insurance, definition of Insured](https://www.alta.org/policies-and-standards/policy-forms/downloadSub?formSubID=2154&type=pdf)
- [American Land Title Association, Owner’s Policy Comparison Chart (2006 and 2021 forms)](https://www.alta.org/policies-and-standards/policy-forms/downloadSub?formSubID=2157&type=pdf)
- [Judicial Council of California, Probate Code Section 890 Adjusted Amounts](https://courts.ca.gov/system/files/file/probate-code-890-adjusted-amounts.pdf)