CA Probate: Real Estate Guide 2026

Short answer: A house does not skip probate just because California added a faster path in 2025. If the home was the decedent’s primary residence and its gross value is $750,000 or less, a surviving spouse, domestic partner, or child can petition the court under Probate Code § 13151 to transfer it without full probate. Everything else, including homes worth more than that or homes with no qualifying heir to petition, goes through the standard process, which usually takes twelve to eighteen months.

Does my house have to go through full probate?

California requires formal probate for an estate with assets subject to probate above $208,850 in gross value, for deaths on or after April 1, 2025 (Probate Code § 13100). Real property is different from most other assets in a small estate: the personal property affidavit that lets heirs collect bank accounts and other personal property without probate does not reach real estate. Separate procedures apply to the house itself.

Some assets skip probate no matter what the house is worth. Property held in joint tenancy, payable-on-death or transfer-on-death accounts, and accounts or policies with a named beneficiary are excluded from the small estate calculation entirely (Probate Code § 13050). Real estate titled that way passes directly to the surviving owner or named beneficiary.

A funded revocable living trust is the only tool that keeps real estate out of probate as a general matter, and only if the deed was actually retitled into the trust before death. A will does not avoid probate. It only controls how assets are distributed once a court validates it through the probate process.

What is the $750,000 shortcut, and does my family qualify?

Under Assembly Bill 2016, a surviving spouse, domestic partner, or child can petition the court to transfer a decedent’s primary residence valued up to $750,000 without full probate, for deaths on or after April 1, 2025 (Probate Code § 13151). This only covers the residence the decedent actually lived in. A rental house, a vacation property, or land does not qualify for this particular procedure.

Real property that was not the decedent’s primary residence has its own, separate path: an affidavit procedure for property valued up to $69,625, which requires a six-month wait after death and is recorded directly with the county recorder rather than filed with the probate court (Probate Code § 13150).

Both thresholds measure gross value, meaning the number on the appraisal before any mortgage is subtracted. A house with a large loan balance and modest equity still counts at its full appraised value for eligibility purposes.

How long does probate take when a house is involved, and what does it cost?

Most California probate cases run twelve to eighteen months from the date the court appoints a personal representative. The personal representative must file an Inventory and Appraisal within 4 months of receiving Letters, using Judicial Council Form DE-160, and a probate referee formally values the real estate as part of that filing.

California sets probate fees by statute, not by negotiation. The executor’s fee is 4% of the first $100,000 of the estate’s gross value, 3% of the next $100,000, and 2% of the next $800,000, with lower percentages above that (Probate Code § 10800). The estate’s attorney is entitled to an identical fee, calculated the same way (Probate Code § 10810). On a $1,000,000 estate, that schedule produces $23,000 for the executor and $23,000 for the attorney, or $46,000 in ordinary statutory fees before court costs or bond. Because the fee runs on gross value “without reference to encumbrances,” the mortgage on the house does not reduce it (Probate Code § 10800(b)). You can run your own numbers with our probate fee calculator.

Before the estate can close, the personal representative must publish notice to creditors once a week for four consecutive weeks and mail direct notice to known creditors within 30 days of learning of them. Creditors then have until the later of four months after Letters issue or 60 days after that mailed notice to file a claim, with a hard one-year outer limit from the date of death (Probate Code §§ 9001, 9051, and 9100).

Does inheriting the house change the property taxes?

Moving a home into a revocable living trust does not disturb the owner’s Proposition 13 base year value, but it also does not protect the property from Proposition 19 reassessment after death. Reassessment turns on the parent-child exclusion rules, not on how title happens to be held (California Constitution article XIII A, § 2.1). Families weighing a living trust for other reasons should not assume the trust itself solves the property tax question.

To keep a parent’s low property tax base after inheriting the home, a child must make it their principal residence within one year of the transfer and file for the homeowners’ exemption. The exclusion is capped at the home’s factored base year value plus $1,044,586 for transfers occurring February 16, 2025 through February 15, 2027 (Revenue and Taxation Code § 63.2).

Separately, inherited property generally receives a step up in income tax basis to fair market value as of the date of death. For community property, both halves of the asset step up when the first spouse dies, not just the deceased spouse’s half, which is a meaningfully better result than the same asset held in joint tenancy (IRC § 1014(b)(6)).

Figures verified July 2026.

What to do next

Before you assume a house qualifies for the faster path, get the property appraised and confirm whether it was the decedent’s actual primary residence, since that distinction decides which procedure applies. If the estate includes real property and you are not sure whether full probate is required, talk to an estate planning and probate attorney before filing anything with the court.