Inherited Property

Yes, someone can often keep living in a house during California probate — but it isn’t automatic, and it isn’t the occupant’s call.

San Diego County hears probate at a single location — the Central Courthouse downtown — and the first petition to open an estate currently costs $435.

Most of what ranks for probate sales in San Diego is either outdated or describes a completely different process – the County’s Public Administrator auction, not a typical heir-managed sale.

A probate sale is the sale of real property from a decedent’s estate, and whether it needs a courtroom confirmation hearing with open bidding depends on one thing: the authority the court gave the personal representative.

Statutory attorney and executor fees, the referee’s cut, filing fees, and the carrying costs most probate-cost articles leave out entirely – with a worked example on a $700,000 house.

Most California probate estates take nine to eighteen months from filing to close. Here is the statutory floor, a realistic month-by-month walkthrough, and what actually stretches a case out.

Riverside County does not have one probate courthouse – it has three, and which one hears your case depends on the region where the matter arose, not simply where the decedent lived.

Orange County hears probate at the Costa Mesa Justice Complex, not in Santa Ana or at Lamoreaux, and the first petition costs $435. Here is what the process actually involves when there is a house to sell.

A California partition action forces co-owners to divide or sell jointly owned property. Since January 2023 the rules changed: a court-ordered appraisal sets the value, co-owners get 45 days to elect a buyout, and the default sale is an open-market listing rather than an auction.