Simplified Probate for a California Primary Residence (Prob. Code § 13151)
Quick answer: A primary residence worth up to $750,000 can pass without full probate through the Petition to Determine Succession to Primary Residence, Prob. Code § 13151. It covers only the decedent’s main home, not a rental or vacation property, and the $750,000 figure is the gross value of the house before any mortgage is subtracted. A separate small-estate affidavit clears personal property up to $208,850, and because the house is excluded from that calculation, the two shortcuts can run together. A funded living trust still avoids probate entirely on whatever it holds, at any value.
- Covers only the decedent’s principal residence, not rentals
- $750,000 gross value cap (before mortgage)
- Small-estate affidavit ($208,850 limit) runs in parallel for personal property
- Typical timeline: weeks, not the 12 to 18 months of full probate
- A funded living trust avoids probate at any value
If a parent just died in California and someone told you the house has to go through probate, that may not be true anymore. Probate is the court process that moves a deceased person’s property to their heirs when nothing was titled in a living trust. For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, a primary residence worth up to $750,000 can skip full probate and move through a single, shorter court petition instead.
Full probate on a house typically runs twelve to eighteen months, with attorney and personal representative fees set by statute on the estate’s gross value. The § 13151 petition is a different track: one filing, one referee appraisal, one noticed hearing, and an order. It is still a court process, but it is a fraction of the time and a fraction of the paperwork.
How the § 13151 petition works, step by step
- Let 40 days pass since the death. The petition cannot be filed until 40 days have elapsed since the decedent died (§ 13151(a)). Filing early gets the petition rejected.
- Get the house appraised by a probate referee. The court-appointed referee values the property on the Judicial Council Inventory and Appraisal forms, DE-160 and DE-161, under the procedure incorporated by § 13152 (referencing § 8802). This appraisal is what proves the home is at or under $750,000.
- File the petition on form DE-310. The Petition to Determine Succession to Primary Residence is filed on Judicial Council form DE-310 (retitled in the revision of April 28, 2025) with the superior court for the county where the property, or the decedent, is located.
- Notify every heir and devisee within 5 business days of filing. The petitioner must deliver notice of the petition to each heir and devisee named in it within 5 business days after filing (§ 13151(b)). This is a short window, and it runs from the filing date, not the death date.
- Attend one noticed hearing. The court sets a single hearing on the petition. Unlike full probate, there is no separate letters-testamentary step, no ongoing creditor claim period administered by an executor, and no formal accounting filed with the court.
- Receive the order and record it. If the court is satisfied the requirements are met, it issues the order on form DE-315, confirming the property passed to the person or people named. Recording that order with the county recorder clears title.
The $750,000 threshold, and why it is not permanent
The dollar limit is tied to a date-of-death window, not fixed forever. Here is where it stands and where it is headed:
| Date of death | Primary-residence value limit | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| On or after April 1, 2025, through March 31, 2028 | $750,000 | Prob. Code § 13151 |
| Next scheduled adjustment | Recalculated April 1, 2028 (CPI-based, rounded to the nearest $25) | Prob. Code § 890 |
Do not treat $750,000 as a number that will sit still. It adjusts on the same three-year CPI schedule as the small-estate affidavit figure, next in April 2028. A house that qualifies today at $740,000 in appraised value is not guaranteed to qualify after the next adjustment if the cap moves the wrong direction relative to the home’s appreciation, and it is certainly not guaranteed to qualify next year if the house is renovated or the market moves.
Here is the rule of thumb worth remembering: the $750,000 test is the gross value of the house. The mortgage does not help you. The referee appraises what the house is worth on the open market, full stop. A $900,000 home with a $400,000 mortgage and $500,000 in equity is still a $900,000 home for this petition, and it does not qualify. The loan balance is irrelevant to the threshold.
The tradeoff: personal liability for the decedent’s debts
The speed of this petition comes with a cost that people gloss over. Whoever ends up with the house under a § 13151 order does not take it free and clear of the decedent’s debts. Successors who receive property through this streamlined petition take it subject to the decedent’s outstanding obligations, up to the value of the property received, under the same statutory scheme that authorizes the petition (Prob. Code §§ 13150 to 13158).
Full probate has a formal creditor claim period, administered by the executor, that gives the estate a defined window to resolve debts before assets are distributed. The § 13151 petition does not replace that process with the same level of court oversight. If the decedent had a large unpaid medical bill, a judgment, or other debt that surfaces after the house passes to the heirs, the person who received the house can be on the hook for it, up to what the house was worth. For a family confident there is no meaningful creditor exposure, that tradeoff is usually an easy one. For an estate with known or uncertain debts, it is worth a conversation before filing, not after.
Using this petition together with the small-estate affidavit
There is a second shortcut that runs alongside this one. The small-estate affidavit lets heirs collect personal property, meaning bank accounts, vehicles, and similar assets, without opening probate at all, for estates at or under $208,850 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025 (Prob. Code § 13100). Critically, property that goes through a § 13151 petition is excluded from that $208,850 computation under the Judicial Council’s maximum-values chart, form DE-300. That is what lets the two procedures stack.
A family with, say, a $700,000 primary residence and $150,000 in bank accounts can typically use both: the § 13151 petition clears the house, and the § 13100 affidavit clears the accounts, without either figure counting against the other. Read the full mechanics on the small-estate affidavit page.
How the § 13151 petition compares to full probate
| § 13151 primary residence petition | Full probate | |
|---|---|---|
| Value limit | $750,000 (deaths 4/1/2025 through 3/31/2028) | None |
| Timeline | A few months: 40-day wait, referee appraisal, one hearing | Twelve to eighteen months |
| Court costs | Filing fee ($435) plus the referee’s fee (0.1% of appraised value, $75 minimum, $10,000 maximum, Prob. Code § 8961) | Statutory attorney AND personal representative fees under Prob. Code §§ 10810 and 10800, each calculated on gross estate value |
| Creditor exposure | Successor personally liable for debts, up to value received | Formal creditor claim period administered by the estate |
| Public record | Yes, but a single short petition | Yes, and a fuller record over the life of the case |
The statutory fee schedule in full probate is worth seeing in dollars. On a $1,000,000 estate, Prob. Code §§ 10810 and 10800 pay the attorney roughly $23,000 and the personal representative another $23,000, about $46,000 combined before court costs, calculated on the gross value with no reduction for a mortgage. A $1,000,000 house would exceed the § 13151 cap on its own, which is exactly the point: staying under $750,000 is what keeps a family out of that fee schedule for the house.
When you still need full probate
This petition has hard edges. It does not cover a rental or a vacation property, only the decedent’s primary residence. It does not cover a home appraised above $750,000, no matter how close. If the estate includes more than one piece of qualifying real property, or the value tips over the cap after the referee’s appraisal, the house goes back into full probate, even if the rest of the estate is modest.
None of this applies if the house was already titled in a revocable living trust before death. A trust avoids probate for whatever is actually funded into it, regardless of value, and the § 13151 petition and the small-estate affidavit both exist for the common situation where there was no trust, or the house never got moved into one.
Prop 19 and the inherited home
Getting the house through court is one problem. Keeping the low property-tax bill is a separate one, and Prop 19 controls it. A child who inherits the family home keeps the parent’s low assessed value only if the child makes that home their own primary residence: moving in within one year of the death and filing the homeowners’ exemption. There is also a cap on top of that: the parent’s factored base value plus $1,044,586 for transfers between February 16, 2025 and February 15, 2027 (the cap adjusts every two years). If the child does not move in, or the value runs past the cap, the county reassesses the home to current market value.
The move-in clock and the § 13151 petition run on two different timelines at once. Handling the court petition correctly does not help if the Prop 19 window quietly closes in the background.
Trust, TOD deed, or the § 13151 petition: which one fits
Everything above is about cleaning up after a death. The better question, if you still have the choice, is what to set up now so your family never touches the courthouse.
| Option | Best when | Avoids probate? | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Funded living trust | Any home value, more than one asset, kids, a blended family, or you want privacy and control | Yes, on everything actually titled into it | Costs more up front, and only works if the house is actually moved in |
| Transfer-on-death (TOD) deed | One home, one or two straightforward heirs, little else to plan for | Yes, for that one house | Does nothing for accounts or other property; messy with multiple heirs |
| Rely on the § 13151 petition after death | A primary residence at or under $750,000, nothing set up in advance | No, a shorter court process, not a way to skip court | Still a filing, still subject to creditor liability, useless once the home exceeds $750,000 |
| Do nothing | Almost never, for a homeowner | No | Full probate, twelve to eighteen months, statutory fees on the gross value |
If the house is worth $700,000 today, the § 13151 petition is a genuine backstop. But home values move, and the day the house crosses $750,000, that backstop disappears and the family is back in full probate for the house. A funded trust does not care what the house is worth later. Run your own numbers with the probate fee calculator, or check whether probate applies at all with the probate screener.
If someone died recently and you are not sure what to do first, start with what to do when someone dies in California.
Eric D. Ridley has practiced California estate planning, trust administration, and probate since 2010, out of Port Hueneme, serving Ventura and Los Angeles Counties, plus the rest of the state by phone or Zoom. The first call is free, it is 30 minutes, and it is with Eric.
Free guide
The Small Estate Playbook
Under $208,850, California lets you skip probate with an affidavit. The forms, the waiting periods, the steps.
California primary residence probate FAQs
What is the $750,000 probate shortcut?
It is the Petition to Determine Succession to Primary Residence, Prob. Code § 13151. A deceased person’s primary residence worth up to $750,000, for deaths on or after April 1, 2025, can pass to the heirs through a shorter court petition instead of full probate. It applies to the main home only, not rentals or vacation homes, and it still requires a probate referee’s appraisal, a filed petition, and one hearing.
Does a mortgage count against the $750,000 limit?
No, and this is where people get tripped up. The $750,000 test is the gross value of the house. The mortgage does not help you. The probate referee appraises the property’s fair market value without subtracting any loan balance, so a $900,000 house with a $400,000 mortgage is still a $900,000 house for this petition, and it does not qualify.
How long does a § 13151 petition take?
Filing cannot happen until 40 days after the death (§ 13151(a)). After that, the timeline covers the referee’s appraisal, the petition filing on form DE-310, notice to each heir and devisee within 5 business days of filing (§ 13151(b)), one noticed hearing, and the order on form DE-315. That is a matter of months, not the twelve to eighteen months typical of full probate.
Can this petition be used for a rental or vacation home?
No. It applies only to the decedent’s primary residence. A rental or vacation property does not qualify regardless of value and generally still goes through full probate.
What happens to debts when the house passes through this petition?
The person who receives the house takes it subject to the decedent’s outstanding debts, up to the value of the property received. Full probate’s formal creditor claim period does not apply the same way here, so an estate with significant known debts deserves a closer look before filing.
Related reading: probate in California, the small-estate affidavit, Prop 19 planning, the probate screener, the probate calculator, and what to do when someone dies in California.
Written by Eric D. Ridley. Estate Planning Attorney at Ridley Law, serving Ventura County since 2010. Learn more about Eric →
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