Simplified Probate for a California Primary Residence (AB 2016)

If you just buried a parent in California and someone told you the house has to go through probate, that may no longer be true. Probate is the court process that moves a deceased person’s property to the people who inherit it when there is no living trust holding the asset. As of April 1, 2025, a primary home worth up to $750,000 can skip full probate and pass through a much shorter court petition instead. That is new law, and most people, plus a fair number of law firms, have not caught up to it (current as of 2026).

Here is what that means for a family. Instead of twelve to eighteen months in open court with attorney and executor fees set by statute on the home’s gross value, you may be looking at a single simplified petition to confirm the house passes to the heirs. The path itself changes how long this takes and how much of the estate the court process eats.

What AB 2016 actually changed

AB 2016 took effect April 1, 2025. It created a simplified court petition for a deceased person’s primary residence worth up to $750,000 (Prob. Code §§13150 to 13152). Before this, almost any California home meant full probate, because the old real-property shortcuts were capped far too low to cover a house. The new $750,000 figure is set to adjust over time.

The qualifying rules are narrow, so read them closely:

• Primary residence only. The home has to have been the deceased person’s main home. A vacation house or a rental does not qualify, no matter what it is worth.
• Up to $750,000 in value. If the home is worth more than $750,000, this petition is off the table and you are back to full probate for the house.
• It still goes through court. This is a simplified petition, not a way to avoid the courthouse entirely. It is shorter and lighter, but a judge still signs off.

How it compares to full probate

Full probate in California is public, meaning the filings and the estate’s value end up in the court record where anyone can read them. It usually runs about twelve to eighteen months. The attorney and the executor (the person the will names to handle the estate) are each paid on a fee schedule set by statute, calculated on the gross value of the estate, not the equity (Prob. Code §§10800, 10810). On a $1,000,000 estate, the statutory schedule pays roughly $23,000 to the attorney and another $23,000 to the executor, $46,000 before court costs. A mortgage on that home does not lower the fee. The fee is figured on the full value.

The $750,000 home petition skips that statutory fee structure and the long timeline. For a family whose main asset is the house, that is the difference that matters.

The updated small-estate affidavit for personal property

There is a second, older shortcut that runs alongside it. The small-estate affidavit lets heirs collect personal property, meaning bank accounts, cars, and the like, but no real estate, without opening probate at all. For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, the limit is $208,850, and it holds at that figure until the next scheduled adjustment on April 1, 2028 (Prob. Code §13100; the amount adjusts every three years). The house is not counted in that $208,850, which is what lets the two shortcuts stack.

The two shortcuts work together. The $208,850 affidavit clears the accounts and personal property, and the AB 2016 petition clears the primary residence up to $750,000. Because the home is excluded from the affidavit’s dollar count, a family with, say, a $700,000 house and $150,000 in bank accounts can often use both and stay out of full probate entirely. This is the combination most people, and a fair number of law firms, do not know exists.

This one is paperwork, not a court petition. If a parent left modest accounts and no real estate, the affidavit can settle things in weeks. It does nothing for the house, which is where the AB 2016 petition comes in.

What these paths compare against

	Full probate	$750k home petition (AB 2016)	Small-estate affidavit
What it covers	Any assets, any size	The primary residence	Personal property only
Value limit	None	Home up to $750,000	$208,850 (deaths on/after 4/1/2025)
Real estate?	Yes	Yes, primary home only	No
Rough timeline	About twelve to eighteen months	Much shorter petition	Weeks
Court involved?	Yes, public	Yes, simplified	No

When you still need full probate

These shortcuts have hard edges, and you have to know where they stop. The home petition does not cover a rental or a vacation property, and it does not cover a primary home worth more than $750,000. The small-estate affidavit does not touch real estate of any kind, and it stops at the dollar limit for the year of death. If the estate has more than one piece of real estate, or a home over the cap, or assets past the affidavit limit, you are likely back in full probate for at least part of it.

There is also the obvious case: if the home was already titled in a revocable living trust (a trust the person could change during their life), none of this applies, because a trust avoids probate for the assets actually titled in it. The shortcuts above are for the common situation where there was no trust, or the house never got moved into it.

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 property-tax basis only if the child makes that home their own primary residence. That means moving in within one year of the death and filing the homeowners’ exemption. There is also a cap: the parent’s assessed 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, and the tax bill can jump hard.

So the move-in clock and the probate path are two different deadlines running at the same time. Handling the court petition well does not help if the Prop 19 window quietly closes in the background.

Trust, TOD deed, or the $750,000 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. For a home, there are three real options plus the do-nothing default, and the right one turns on the home’s value and how complicated the family is.

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 it only works if the house is actually moved in
Transfer-on-death (TOD) deed	One home, one or two straightforward heirs, and little else to plan for	Yes, for that one house	Does nothing for accounts or other property; messy with multiple heirs or if a beneficiary dies first
Rely on the AB 2016 petition after death	A primary residence at or under $750,000 and you set nothing up in advance	No. It is a shorter court process, not a way to skip court	Still a petition, still a filing, and useless if the home is over $750,000
Do nothing	Almost never, for a homeowner	No	Full probate, twelve to eighteen months, statutory fees on the gross value

Here is the line that catches people. If mom’s house is worth $700,000 today, the AB 2016 petition is a genuine backstop, so a simple TOD deed or even doing nothing is less of a problem than it used to be. But home values move, and the day the house crosses $750,000, that backstop disappears and the family is back in full probate. A funded trust does not care what the house is worth. That is why, for most California homeowners, the trust is still the answer, and the shortcuts are the safety net for when there was no trust. To see the exact dollar amount, use our California probate fee calculator.

A clear next step

If you are settling a parent’s estate right now, the first thing worth knowing is which path you are actually on, because the answer changes the timeline, the cost, and the Prop 19 clock. That is a short conversation, not a research project.

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. You’ll know which path you’re on before you hang up. Call (805) 244-5291 or book a time online. This is general information, not legal advice, and your situation may turn on facts this page does not cover.

California probate shortcut FAQs

Can I avoid probate on a house in California?

Sometimes, yes. If the home was a primary residence worth up to $750,000, AB 2016 lets it pass through a simplified court petition instead of full probate (current as of 2026). If the home was already in a living trust, it avoids probate that way. A home over the cap, or a rental, generally still goes through full probate.

What is the $750,000 probate exemption in California?

It is the AB 2016 petition that took effect April 1, 2025. A deceased person’s primary residence worth up to $750,000 can move to the heirs through a shorter court petition rather than full probate (Prob. Code §§13150 to 13152). It applies to the main home only, not vacation homes or rentals, and the figure is set to adjust over time.

How much is the small estate limit in California in 2026?

For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, the small-estate affidavit limit is $208,850, and it stays there until the next adjustment on April 1, 2028 (Prob. Code §13100). It covers personal property only, no real estate, and the figure adjusts every three years.

Does the simplified petition work for a rental property?

No. The AB 2016 petition is for the deceased person’s primary residence only. A rental or a vacation home does not qualify, regardless of its value, and would generally still go through full probate.

Will my kids keep the low property taxes under Prop 19?

Only if the child inherits the family home and makes it their own primary residence: move in within one year and file the homeowners’ exemption. Even then it is capped at the parent’s assessed value plus $1,044,586 for transfers between February 16, 2025 and February 15, 2027 (the cap adjusts every two years). Otherwise the home is reassessed to market value.

Related reading: probate in California, the California small estates law guide, Prop 19 planning, spousal property petitions, Heggstad petitions, and California probate costs in 2026, and Do You Need Probate?.

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Written by Eric D. Ridley. Estate Planning Attorney at Ridley Law, serving Ventura County since 2010. Learn more about Eric →