Most people searching for this are standing in a parent's kitchen or a late spouse's office, holding a deed they have never read closely, while brothers, sisters or a stepparent ask what happens to the house. You may have been named executor, you may have become successor trustee overnight, or you may simply be an heir who now owns part of a home and part of a lifetime of belongings. None of it comes with instructions. This page lays out how inherited property in California usually moves from the person who died to the people who inherit it, in the order it tends to happen, so the next step is clear.
The First Decisions After Inheriting Property in California
Two facts shape everything that follows: what kind of property it is, and how it was owned at death.
Real property is land and what is built on it, such as a house or a condominium. Personal property is everything else, including bank accounts, vehicles, furniture and personal effects. California treats them differently, and the court's self-help guide asks for each item's description, "including if its real or personal property."
How title was held matters just as much. Under Probate Code section 7000, title passes at death to the person named in the will or, if there is no will, to the heirs under California's intestate succession laws. Probate Code section 7001 adds that the property is generally subject to court administration and to the rights of beneficiaries and creditors. Ownership by a trust, in joint tenancy, as community property, or in an account with a named payee can move the property along a different path.
In practice there are four paths: probate, trust administration, a simplified procedure, and transfer by operation of law to a surviving co-owner. Your role on each path carries its own duties. An executor is the person a will names to carry it out. An administrator is appointed by the court when there is no executor. A successor trustee takes over a trust. An heir or beneficiary is someone who inherits.
When Probate Is Required — and When It Can Be Avoided
Probate is the court-supervised process of collecting a person's property, paying debts and passing what remains to the people entitled to it. It applies when nothing else, such as a trust, a co-owner's survivorship or a named account beneficiary, controls the property.
If there is no will, Probate Code section 8461 sets who has priority to serve as administrator. The list begins with the surviving spouse or domestic partner, then children, grandchildren and other issue, then parents and siblings, and it continues through more distant relatives to the public administrator, creditors and any other person.
California also has simplified procedures, which the Judicial Council names this way: the affidavit for collection or transfer of personal property, the petition to determine succession to the decedent's primary residence, the affidavit for real property of small value, and the spousal or domestic partner property petition. Under Probate Code section 13100, the affidavit for personal property is available only after 40 days have passed since the death and only when the estate is under a dollar limit that is adjusted periodically. The current limits are published on the California Courts self-help site. Probate Code section 13650 lets a surviving spouse ask the court for an order that administration is not needed for property passing to that spouse.
Some property is left out when the estate is measured for these procedures. Under Probate Code section 13050, the excluded property includes joint tenancy property, property in a trust the decedent could revoke, and multiple-party accounts that belong to a survivor. A living trust generally keeps a house out of probate because the trust holds title, and the successor trustee administers it without court supervision. Under Probate Code section 5302, money in a joint account generally belongs to the surviving party, and money in a payable-on-death account generally belongs to the named payee. The California estate settlement guide sets out these paths side by side.
Transferring Title: How Inherited Property Gets Into Your Name
The county recorder's office in the county where the house sits is where title changes become public. The California Courts self-help guide notes that deeds are public records available at the County Recorder's Office. Each county sets its own recording requirements.
On each path, the document that moves title comes from a different source:
- Probate: The court's order directing distribution, or a deed signed by the executor or administrator under the court's authority, is recorded with the county recorder.
- Trust administration: The successor trustee records a document showing the trustee's authority, or a deed from the trust to the beneficiaries.
- Simplified procedures: The court order or the affidavit that covers real property is recorded in the county where the property is located.
- Joint tenancy: The survivor records proof of the co-owner's death so that the record matches what the self-help guide describes: "If one dies, the property passes to the other."
Two filings come early. Under Probate Code section 8200, whoever holds the original will must, within 30 days of learning of the death, deliver it to the superior court clerk and deliver a copy to the named executor or, if the custodian does not know where the executor is, to a named beneficiary, unless a probate petition was filed earlier. Under Probate Code section 16061.7, when a revocable trust becomes irrevocable because of a death, the successor trustee must serve a notification on the beneficiaries and heirs. The deadline is 60 days after the death, or 60 days after the trustee learns of a person entitled to notice. If the trustee's office was vacant, the 60 days run from when the new trustee begins to serve.
Property Tax Reassessment and Proposition 19
In California, a change in ownership generally lets the county assessor reset the property's taxable value to market value. For a home a parent bought decades ago, that can raise the tax bill sharply.
The first filing is a change in ownership statement. Under Rev. & Tax. Code section 480, it is due within 150 days after the date of death. If the estate is in probate, the personal representative files it before or at the time the inventory and appraisal is filed with the court. If the statement is not filed within 90 days of a written request from the assessor, the law sets a penalty.
For deaths on or after February 16, 2021, the parent-child exclusion is in Rev. & Tax. Code section 63.2. To qualify, the home must have been the parent's principal residence. It must also become the child's principal residence within one year, and the child must file for the homeowners' or disabled veterans' exemption within one year of the transfer. The exclusion is capped. The State Board of Equalization's Proposition 19 Fact Sheet says the limit is the taxable value plus $1,044,586 for transfers from February 16, 2025, through February 15, 2027. Any market value above that limit is added to the taxable value.
The claim is filed with the county assessor. It is due within three years of the transfer, or before a transfer to a third party, whichever is earlier. It is also timely if filed within six months after the assessor mails a supplemental or escape assessment notice. The Board of Equalization's Proposition 19 page says a rental home transferred between parents and children does not qualify. A grandchild qualifies only if the grandchild's parents who were the grandparents' children have died. The county assessor's office reviews any exclusion claim.