Most people facing this question are standing in a house full of someone else's life: an adult child holding a parent's keys, a surviving spouse unsure whose name is on title now, a sibling just named executor while brothers and sisters wait to hear what happens next. The questions come all at once, about court, the mortgage, the property tax bill. This page walks through them in the order a family usually meets them, starting with the one fact that shapes every answer.
The Short Answer: How Title Was Held Decides What Happens Next
The deed as it read on the day of death is the starting point. A house is real property, which the California Courts' self-help guide describes as land and buildings; everything else, from furniture to bank accounts, is personal property, and the law often treats the two differently.
From there, a California house usually follows one of four paths:
- Passes automatically. Joint tenancy, community property with right of survivorship, a living trust or a revocable transfer on death deed can move the house without probate.
- Goes through full probate. A house held in the decedent's name alone, with no automatic mechanism, generally passes under court supervision.
- Qualifies for a simplified procedure. California offers shorter court processes for some homes and smaller estates.
- Passes by intestate succession. With no will, state law names the heirs, though a court process is still generally needed.
Many families do not know how title is held. The California Courts' guide to Inventory and estimate property value notes that deeds are public records available at the County Recorder's Office in the county where the property is located.
When the House Passes Without Probate
Each of these four arrangements works differently, and they are easy to confuse.
Joint tenancy. Civil Code section 683 describes a joint interest as one owned by two or more people in equal shares, created when the deed expressly declares a joint tenancy. The courts' guide explains that if one owner dies, the property passes to the other. The surviving joint tenant generally records an affidavit of the death, with a certified death certificate, at the county recorder's office.
Community property with right of survivorship. This is a form of co-ownership available to married couples and registered domestic partners in California. The survivor's share and the decedent's share pass to the survivor, and the recording step is similar.
Living trust. When the house is titled in a trust's name, the successor trustee, the person the trust names to take over after the original trustee dies, manages and transfers it under the trust's terms without a probate case. Probate Code section 16061.7 requires the trustee to serve a notification on beneficiaries and heirs when a revocable trust becomes irrevocable because of a death, no later than 60 days after that event, or 60 days after learning of a person entitled to notice who was unknown at the time; if the trustee's office is vacant, the period starts when the new trustee begins serving.
Revocable transfer on death deed. A TOD deed is recorded during the owner's lifetime and names a beneficiary to receive the house at death. Probate Code section 5600 applies these rules to transferors who die on or after January 1, 2016, and keeps them in effect until January 1, 2032 unless a later statute extends that date. The beneficiary generally records the death certificate with an affidavit.
Avoiding probate does not settle property tax or mortgage questions, which come later on this page.
When Probate Is Required
Probate is the court-supervised process for transferring a deceased person's property, handled by the superior court. Probate Code section 7000 provides that title passes at death to the person named in the will or, without a will, to the heirs under intestate succession, and section 7001 makes that property generally subject to administration and to the rights of beneficiaries, creditors and others.
For a house, probate is generally needed when it was held in the decedent's name alone, or as a tenant in common, and no automatic-transfer arrangement or simplified procedure applies. The case is opened in the superior court of the county where the estate may be administered. The Judicial Council's DE-310 petition, for example, asks whether the decedent lived in that county or, if not a California resident, owned property there.
The person in charge is an executor, someone the will names to carry out its terms, or an administrator, someone the court appoints when there is no will or no executor serves. Either one is a personal representative. Until the court appoints that person, nobody has authority to sell or transfer the house for the estate. Whether a later sale needs court confirmation or a notice of proposed action depends on the authority the court grants, which a probate attorney can explain.
The California Courts' Check if you can use a simple process to transfer property page explains when formal probate applies. For a step-by-step view of the whole process, the California estate settlement guide walks through it in order.
California's Simplified Procedures for Smaller Estates
Not every estate needs full probate. These procedures differ by property type and value, and the Judicial Council page above lists dollar limits that depend on the date of death, updated every three years.
The petition to determine succession to the decedent's primary residence covers real property only. Under Probate Code section 13151, a successor may petition the superior court once 40 days have passed since the death, if the home was the decedent's primary residence in California and its gross value does not exceed $750,000, as adjusted periodically; the petitioner must deliver notice to each named heir and devisee within five business days of filing. The courts' page lists $750,000 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025. The petition uses form DE-310, which requires an appraisal by a probate referee.
The affidavit for real property of small value also covers real property. The courts' page lists a limit of $69,625 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025.
The affidavit for collection or transfer of personal property covers personal property, not the house. Under Probate Code section 13100, a successor may use it once 40 days have passed since the death, if the gross value of the decedent's California real and personal property does not exceed $166,250, as adjusted periodically, not counting excluded property or property in a primary-residence petition. The courts' page lists $208,850 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025. Section 13050 excludes property including joint tenancy property, trust property and registered vehicles from that total.
The spousal or domestic partner property petition lets a surviving spouse ask the court, under Probate Code section 13650, for an order that administration is not needed for property passing to the survivor, and to confirm the survivor's own share. It has no value limit in that text.
What Happens When There Is No Will
Intestate succession is the California law that decides who inherits when someone dies without a valid will. The house still passes, but to the people the law names.
California is a community property state. Community property is generally what a married couple or registered domestic partners acquired during the marriage or partnership. A surviving spouse or partner generally receives the decedent's share of community property. Separate property, such as a house owned before marriage, follows a different order that starts with the spouse or partner and children and reaches other relatives depending on who survives. As the courts' inventory guide notes, a surviving spouse may own part of a property even when not named on the deed.
Without a will there is no executor, so someone asks the court to be appointed administrator. Probate Code section 8461 sets the order of priority, starting with the surviving spouse or domestic partner, then children, grandchildren, other issue, parents, and siblings, and the list continues through more distant relatives, the public administrator, creditors and any other person. A house with no will still goes through probate or, if it qualifies, a simplified procedure.
Grief can pull families in different directions. If heirs disagree about who should serve or what the deed means, that is a contested matter handled by an attorney who litigates probate cases.
The Mortgage After the Owner Dies
A mortgage does not end at death. The lender's lien stays on the house, and the loan still has to be paid or paid off.
Federal law gives inheriting families some protection. For residential property with fewer than five dwelling units, 12 U.S.C. § 1701j-3(d) says a lender may not exercise a due-on-sale clause upon transfers including "a transfer by devise, descent, or operation of law on the death of a joint tenant," "a transfer to a relative resulting from the death of a borrower," and "a transfer where the spouse or children of the borrower become an owner of the property." In plain words, the lender generally cannot demand the full balance just because the house passed to a relative at death.
An heir who intends to keep the house usually contacts the loan servicer early, provides the death certificate and asks how to be recognized as the person now responsible for the property. If no one keeps up the payments, the lender can eventually pursue foreclosure under the loan terms. Selling the house and paying off the loan from the proceeds is another path. Which one fits depends on the family's plans, which the guide to keeping, renting or selling an inherited house compares.
Property Tax Reassessment and the Parent-Child Exclusion
California generally reassesses real property to current market value when it changes ownership. The State Board of Equalization's Change in Ownership - Frequently Asked Questions states that a change in ownership can occur through inheritance, devise or trust, and that transfers upon the death of a spouse are automatically excluded.
For children and, in some cases, grandchildren, Rev. & Tax. Code section 63.2 provides an exclusion for transfers on or after February 16, 2021, if a claim is filed. The house must have been the parent's principal residence and must become the child's principal residence within one year, and the child must file for the homeowners' or disabled veterans' exemption within a year. Grandchildren qualify only if all their parents who are children of the grandparents have died. The exclusion is limited by value: above a set amount over the existing taxable value, part of the home is reassessed. The county assessor publishes the current figure.
The claim is filed with the county assessor within three years after the transfer, or before the house is transferred to a third party or the heir stops living there, whichever is earlier; a claim within six months after a supplemental or escape assessment notice also counts as timely, and a later claim may still be considered but applies only going forward. The BOE page adds that after a death, a change in ownership statement is due within 150 days without probate, or with the inventory and appraisal when the estate is probated.
This is information, not tax advice. The county assessor's office handles exclusion claims, and a CPA, enrolled agent or tax attorney can review income-tax and basis questions.
How Long Can a House Stay in a Deceased Person's Name?
California does not set one universal deadline for retitling a house after a death. Leaving it in the decedent's name, though, has costs. The estate cannot be closed, the house cannot be sold or refinanced cleanly, and the property tax claim periods above can run out.
Other deadlines arrive early. Under Probate Code section 8200, whoever holds the original will must deliver it to the superior court clerk within 30 days after learning of the death, unless a probate petition is filed first, and send a copy to the named executor. Probate itself has required notice and creditor-claim periods that keep a case open for a while.
Transferring title means recording a new document at the county recorder's office where the house sits: an affidavit for joint tenancy or a TOD deed, a trustee's deed for trust property, or a court order after probate or a simplified procedure. When a parent left a will, the executor records the transfer after the court's order; for trust property, the successor trustee records it under the trust's terms. The estate settlement checklist and the guide to inheriting a house in California lay out these steps in order.
