Inherited Property Checklist

This checklist is for the person now holding the keys. That may be an adult child going through a parent's papers, a surviving spouse, someone just named executor or successor trustee, or an heir who suddenly owns part of a house with siblings. Most people facing this process have never seen a deed up close, and they are often answering questions from relatives while still grieving. The tasks below follow the order they usually happen. Each task says where it is done and what sets it off, and the tasks that usually need a licensed professional are marked.

Before You Start: Key Facts About the Property

Five facts decide almost everything that follows.

• Find out how title was held. The deed shows whether the owner held the property alone, as a joint tenant, as community property, as a tenant in common or through a trust, and each form leads to a different transfer path.
• Check whether a revocable living trust exists. A successor trustee administers trust property without a court case, while an executor acts through the probate court.
• Write down the exact date of death. For a parent-child or grandparent-grandchild transfer, the date of death decides which property-tax exclusion rules apply.
• Sort real property from personal property. The California Courts define real property as land and buildings, including some long-term leases, and the law treats it differently from bank accounts, vehicles and household items.
• Note any property outside California. Property in another state is governed by that state's law.

These terms come up throughout the checklist:

• An executor is the person named in a will to carry out its terms.
• An administrator is appointed by the court when there is no executor.
• Personal representative covers both roles.
• A successor trustee is the person who takes over managing a trust after the person who created it dies.
• An heir inherits under California law when there is no will. A beneficiary is named in a will or trust.

The California Courts' self-help page on inventorying and estimating property value explains how to list each asset. For each item, the list notes how it was owned and its estimated value on the date of death, including the person's share and any money owed on it.

Step 1: Secure the Property and Locate Key Documents

The first days are about protecting the house and gathering the papers that every later step relies on.

• Secure the house and its contents. Changing the locks, keeping the utilities and insurance active, and handling urgent repairs protect the property while ownership is sorted out.
• Call the insurance carrier about the death. A policy written for an occupied home may treat a vacant one differently, so the carrier is the source for what coverage continues.
• Locate the deed. Deeds are public records at the County Recorder's Office in the county where the property sits, according to the California Courts.
• Find the will, trust and any amendments. These documents name the executor or successor trustee and the beneficiaries.
• Deliver an original will to the court if you hold it. Unless a petition to probate the will has already been filed, the person who has the will must deliver it to the superior court clerk within 30 days after learning of the death, and must deliver a copy to the named executor or, if that person can't be located, to a beneficiary whose whereabouts are known (Probate Code section 8200).
• Order several certified copies of the death certificate. Recorders, assessors, banks and courts each commonly ask for their own certified copy.
• Check whether property taxes are current. The county tax collector's office shows the status of each tax bill.
• Gather mortgage and lien statements. Debt secured by the property stays attached to it after the death.

A loan or lien does not disappear at death. Families facing a mortgage or tax lien often start with what inherited property with liens involves.

Step 2: Determine Which Transfer Path Applies

How title was held decides which path applies, not the will alone. Whether inherited property goes through probate turns on these facts.

• Check for trust ownership. If the deed names the trustee of a revocable trust, the successor trustee transfers title under the trust's terms without a court proceeding, often using the trust document and a certification of trust.
• Serve the trustee's notification if a trust became irrevocable. A successor trustee must serve beneficiaries and the deceased settlor's heirs within 60 days after the death, or within 60 days after learning of a person entitled to notice, or within 60 days after the new trustee begins serving if the office was vacant (Probate Code section 16061.7).
• Look for joint tenancy or survivorship wording. When one joint tenant dies, the property passes to the surviving owner, and the survivor records an affidavit of death of joint tenant with the county recorder instead of opening probate.
• Check for community property with right of survivorship. A similar survivorship recording usually confirms the surviving spouse's title.
• Review payable-on-death and joint accounts separately. Money left in a joint account generally belongs to the surviving party, and a payable-on-death designation cannot be changed by will (Probate Code section 5302).
• Compare the estate to the simplified procedures. California's simplified procedures, listed below, apply only to estates that meet their value limits and other conditions.
• Identify who may serve as administrator if there is no will. The order of priority starts with the surviving spouse or domestic partner, then children, then grandchildren, and continues through other relatives to the public administrator, creditors and any other person (Probate Code section 8461).
• Consult a probate attorney before filing a full probate. Property held in the deceased's name alone, in an estate too large for a simplified procedure, generally goes through probate in the superior court.

California's simplified procedures, in the Judicial Council's terms, are:

• The affidavit for collection or transfer of personal property. It may be used once 40 days have passed since the death, when the gross value of the decedent's California real and personal property stays under the statute's dollar limit, which is adjusted periodically (Probate Code section 13100). The property excluded under the rules described below does not count toward that limit.
• The petition to determine succession to the decedent's primary residence. It may be filed once 40 days have passed, for a home that was the decedent's primary residence in California with a gross value of no more than $750,000, as adjusted periodically. Notice must go to each named heir and devisee within five business days of filing (Probate Code section 13151).
• The affidavit for real property of small value. The Judicial Council's form DE-305 requires that at least six months have passed since the death and attaches an inventory appraised by a probate referee.
• The spousal or domestic partner property petition. It asks the court to find that administration is not needed for property passing to the surviving spouse (Probate Code section 13650).

Because the value limits are adjusted periodically, the California Courts publish the current figures, and those published figures are the ones to compare against the estate's gross value. Some property is left out when testing those limits, including joint tenancy property, property in a revocable trust and registered vehicles (Probate Code section 13050).

Step 3: File the Correct Transfer Documents with the County Recorder

Recording puts the new ownership on the public record. It gives notice to anyone who later checks the title.

• Identify the recordable document for your path. The document might be a trustee's deed, a probate order, an affidavit of death of joint tenant, or a court order or affidavit from a simplified procedure.
• Record it in the county where the property sits. Recording happens at that county's recorder's office, not at a statewide office.
• File the change in ownership statement with the recording. When the transfer document is recorded, the statement is filed with the recorder at the same time, and the recorder passes it to the assessor (Rev. & Tax. Code section 480).
• Meet the death-transfer filing deadline. For a transfer by death, the statement is due within 150 days after the date of death. For property in a probate estate, the personal representative files it before or when the inventory and appraisal is filed with the court clerk (Rev. & Tax. Code section 480).
• Answer any assessor request for the statement. If a statement is not filed within 90 days after the assessor mails a written request, the law sets a penalty that is added to the tax roll (Rev. & Tax. Code section 480).

The version of this statement filed alongside a deed is commonly called a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report. The assessor uses it to decide whether the property is reassessed. Under Rev. & Tax. Code section 480, a recorder cannot refuse or delay recording because the statement is missing. The assessor's follow-up request is how a missing statement gets caught.

Step 4: Address the Property Tax Reassessment Question

For a family that plans to keep the house, this step often matters more than any other. The State Board of Equalization's change in ownership FAQ explains that when ownership changes, the assessor reassesses the property to its current market value. Only the portion that changed hands is reassessed.

• Confirm the date of death against February 16, 2021. The Board of Equalization's Proposition 19 page says the date of death is the date of change in ownership, and Proposition 19 applies to deaths on or after February 16, 2021.
• Check whether the transfer is between spouses. The Board lists transfers on the death of a spouse among the transfers excluded from reassessment.
• Check the parent-child or grandparent-grandchild relationship. Rev. & Tax. Code section 63.2 excludes a qualifying family home or family farm, but a grandchild qualifies only if the grandchild's parents who are the grandparents' children have died.
• Confirm the home was the parent's principal residence. The exclusion covers a family home that was the transferor's principal residence, and the Board says a rental home does not qualify.
• Move in within one year. The child must make the home their principal residence within one year of the transfer (Rev. & Tax. Code section 63.2).
• File for the homeowners' exemption within one year. The child must file for the homeowners' or disabled veterans' exemption within a year of the transfer. The Board says a later filing makes the exclusion available beginning in the year the claim is filed.
• File the exclusion claim with the county assessor. The claim is due within three years after the transfer, or before a transfer to a third party, or before the eligible heir stops living there, whichever comes first. A claim is also timely within six months after the assessor mails a supplemental or escape assessment notice. If the property has not passed to a third party, a later claim can still apply going forward from the year it is filed (Rev. & Tax. Code section 63.2).
• Respond to any notice of potential eligibility. If the assessor writes to say the property may qualify, a certified claim is due within 45 days of that notice (Rev. & Tax. Code section 63.2).

The Board's Proposition 19 fact sheet names the claim form, BOE-19-P. It also explains the value limit: the home's existing taxable value plus an amount the Board adjusts every other year. For transfers from February 16, 2025, through February 15, 2027, that amount is $1,044,586. Any market value above the limit is added to the taxable value.

The county assessor's office reviews whether a particular transfer qualifies. A CPA or tax attorney can review how the result fits into a family's wider finances. The exclusion stays only while an eligible heir keeps living in the home.

Step 5: Understand the Federal Income Tax Basis (Stepped-Up Basis)

Basis is the starting figure used to measure gain when property is later sold.

• Find the date-of-death value. Under 26 U.S.C. § 1014(a), the basis of property acquired from a decedent is generally its fair market value on the date of death, unless an alternate valuation election or one of the statute's other exceptions applies.
• Document that value in writing. An appraisal as of the date of death is a common way to record the figure that a later sale will be measured against.
• Ask about community property treatment. The IRS's Publication 551, Basis of Assets, says that in California and other community property states, the whole community property generally takes a new basis when either spouse dies, if at least half of it is includible in the gross estate.
• Watch for a Schedule A from the executor. When an estate files a federal estate tax return, the IRS says beneficiaries generally receive a Schedule A (Form 8971) reporting the value to use.
• Have a tax professional review the basis. A CPA, an enrolled agent or a tax attorney reviews the basis figure and any tax effect of a later sale.

In plain words, gain on a later sale is generally measured from the stepped-up basis, not from what the original owner paid. That is why a sale soon after the death often shows little gain. There is one exception worth knowing: the rule does not apply to appreciated property that the heir or the heir's spouse gave to the decedent within one year before the death. When an appraisal is needed, and the role of the probate referee, is explained in appraisals for inherited property.

Step 6: Decide What to Do with the Property

There is rarely one right answer here, and siblings often see the house differently. The choices fall into three groups.

• Weigh keeping and living in the home. Moving in is the situation where the Proposition 19 occupancy and claim rules in Step 4 matter most.
• Weigh keeping and renting it. An heir who rents the home out becomes a landlord under California landlord-tenant law, and some families hire a property manager.
• Weigh selling it. Listing with a licensed agent, a cash sale to an investor and an auction are the usual categories, and each trades price against speed and effort.
• Confirm who has authority to sell. An executor or administrator may need court confirmation or a notice of proposed action, a successor trustee acts under the trust's terms, and an heir who already holds title acts as an owner.
• Talk with every co-owner first. Heirs who hold title as tenants in common each own a fractional share, and a sale or refinance generally needs all of them to sign.

The selling options compare this way:

• Listing with an agent usually exposes the house to the widest group of buyers, but it involves preparation and showings.
• A cash sale can reduce repairs, showings, financing uncertainty and time, but families weigh it differently depending on their circumstances.
• An auction sets a fixed timetable, but the price is less certain.

A probate attorney can say which approval an executor's or administrator's sale requires. The wider set of keep, rent or sell questions is laid out in what to do with inherited property.

Typical Timeline and When the Process Gets More Complicated

How long this takes depends on the path. Trust administration without a dispute usually moves fastest, because the successor trustee can act once the death certificate and trust document are in hand, with no court confirmation needed for most transfers. Simplified procedures are faster than full probate, but each has its own waiting period: 40 days for the personal property affidavit and the primary residence petition, and six months for the affidavit for real property of small value. Full probate is measured in months, not days. It moves through a petition, a hearing, a period for creditors to come forward, and a final order distributing the property.

Property in more than one county or state

A change in ownership statement goes to each California county where the decedent owned real property. Property in another state follows that state's law.

Liens, mortgages or unpaid taxes

Debts secured by the house remain attached to it, and they can affect any decision to keep, rent or sell.

Title defects

A missing deed, an error in the recorded chain of ownership or an unrecorded transfer can slow recording until it is corrected.

Heirs who disagree or suspected misconduct

A contested will or trust, co-owners who cannot agree, or concerns about how an executor or trustee is acting are a different matter. They are handled by an attorney who litigates trust and probate cases.

If You Are Working Out What Comes Next

A checklist this long can feel heavy, especially when the house still holds a parent's or spouse's belongings and relatives are waiting on answers. Not every step here will apply, and few people work through all of it alone. Often the most useful next move is narrowing the list down to the parts that fit one family's situation.

The Find Your Next Step questionnaire at Silver Lining Estate is built for that moment. It takes a few minutes and is based on the reader's role, whether there is a will or trust, and what the property involves. From those answers it points to the guides and the kinds of professional help that fit a situation like this.