Probate Real Estate Agent in Costa Mesa, CA
Paula Aragone represents personal representatives selling Costa Mesa property under court supervision, in the one city of the four that asks the estate for a city issued report on a house nobody in the family ever owned.
Probate in Costa Mesa has a local step the other cities do not. Municipal Code Title 5, Chapter VIII requires the owner of a residential building to obtain a city Report of Residential Building Records on entering an agreement of sale, and to apply within three days. The personal representative who has to obtain and deliver it usually never lived in the house, in a city where over 75 percent of the stock predates 1980.
| The authority line | Full under Probate Code 10402, limited under 10403 |
|---|---|
| Point of sale report | Municipal Code 5-120, applied for within three days |
| Delivered to the buyer | Before completion of the transaction, section 5-123(b) |
| Housing stock | Over 75 percent built before 1980 |
| Sewer lateral | The owner's responsibility to the middle of the street |
| The courthouse | 3390 Harbor Blvd., inside the city itself |
A City Report Exists Specifically to Surface What Was Never Permitted
Costa Mesa has a point of sale ordinance and most sellers meet it for the first time in escrow. For an estate it lands harder, because the person signing for the house has no idea what the house has had done to it.
Municipal Code Title 5, Chapter VIII sets out the Report of Residential Building Records. Section 5-120 requires the owner of any residential building to obtain the report from the city upon entering into an agreement of sale, and to file the application within three days of entering into that agreement. Section 5-119 describes what the report contains: the zoning of the residential building, the number of dwelling units permitted under that zoning classification, and other information relevant to use, occupancy and construction.
Section 5-121 sets fees by council resolution, adds an inspection fee where the owner consents to an inspection, and requires the city to issue the report within thirty days of a completed application and payment. Section 5-123(b) requires the owner to deliver the completed report to the buyer before completion of the transaction, and the buyer to execute an acknowledgment which is filed with the city within thirty days after closing. Section 5-124 lists ten categories of exempt transactions, including the first sale of an unoccupied building, court ordered transfers, foreclosures, and transfers between spouses or into trusts.
Two cautions belong on that, and both matter more to an estate than to an ordinary seller. First, a widely circulated compilation of California presale inspection cities does not list Costa Mesa, while the ordinance sits in the current codification, so the correct handling is to confirm current administration, fee and turnaround directly with Building and Safety at the start of escrow rather than assuming either that it is required or that it is dormant. Second, whether a specific probate transfer falls inside one of the ten exemptions is a question for the city and the estate's attorney, not an assumption to make from the word probate.
The reason the report bites here is the age of the housing. The Costa Mesa Housing Element records that more than 75 percent of housing units were built before 1980, specifically 79 percent of owner occupied units and 77 percent of rental units. Condition is reported as relatively good, with less than ten percent needing minor repairs and about two percent needing substantial rehabilitation, so this is not a city of failing houses. It is a city of old ones that have been added to.
Lot sizes are the reason for the additions. Eastside runs to a median around 7,405 square feet and Westside around 6,969, materially larger than comparable Irvine or Tustin Legacy product, and the Eastside and Westside infill culture rewards square footage. Unpermitted additions and converted garages are, by a wide margin, the most common Costa Mesa escrow problem, and the presale report exists precisely to surface them.
The era set behind that is predictable. Pre 1950 Westside and downtown: raised foundations, post and pier, knob and tube remnants, galvanised supply, cast iron drains, original wood sash, lead paint and asbestos era materials, with under floor access a real inspection item. The 1950s, Halecrest and its peers: raised foundations still present, early slab appearing, original panels well past service life, Federal Pacific and Zinsco squarely in range. The 1960s, Eastside, Mesa Verde, Mesa del Mar and College Park: slab on grade, galvanised or early copper supply, original aluminium sliders, and aluminium branch wiring live for anything permitted from 1965. That band is the largest single share of the city's stock.
How a Probate Property Sale Works in Costa Mesa
The Probate Code sets the deadlines and the city adds one of its own. This is the order that keeps the statutory clock and the municipal clock from colliding, because the city report has a three day trigger the estate rarely sees coming.
Read the letters before anything else is ordered
The letters say whether the representative holds full authority under Probate Code 10402 or limited authority under 10403. Limited authority withholds four powers, all of them about real property: selling, exchanging, granting an option to purchase, and borrowing against it. Probate Code 10501(b) sends exactly those four back to the court. Everything downstream, including the marketing, follows from that line.
File the inventory and get the referee a proper file
Probate Code 8800 requires the inventory and appraisal within four months after letters issue. A referee appointed under Probate Code 8920 values the real property for one tenth of one percent of the value appraised plus expenses under 8961, floored at 75 dollars and capped at 10,000 dollars per estate under 8963. Orange County expects the appraisal returned within sixty days.
Address vacancy, utilities and the carrier
Change the locks, redirect the post and keep water and power connected, then tell the insurer the house is unoccupied, because a homeowners policy is written around occupancy. On 1950s and 1960s stock, keeping the water on also means a slow leak is found by the estate rather than by a buyer's inspector three weeks into escrow.
Settle the route before the report has a clock on it
Municipal Code section 5-120 requires the owner to apply for the Report of Residential Building Records within three days of entering into an agreement of sale. Whether a particular probate transfer falls within one of the ten exempt categories in section 5-124 is a question for Building and Safety, and the estate should ask before an offer is accepted rather than after.
Market it with the permit file already open
Unpermitted additions and converted garages are the most common escrow problem in this city, because the lots are large enough to build on and much of the stock predates current records. Pull the permit search by address and APN, and file a Public Records Act request where the online record thins out, which for pre digitisation permits is normal rather than unusual.
Serve the notice, or publish and file the report of sale
Under full authority the Notice of Proposed Action goes out not less than fifteen days before the date it specifies, under Probate Code 10586, to the recipients in 10581. Under limited authority the notice of sale is published per Probate Code 10300 and Government Code 6063a, then the report of sale and petition for confirmation are filed under 10308.
The confirmation hearing, on Harbor Boulevard
Orange County probate is heard at the Costa Mesa Justice Complex, 3390 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa. Examiners review petitions three to four weeks ahead. The court may confirm only at ninety percent or more of the appraised value under Probate Code 10309(a), and a qualifying overbid under 10311(a) may take the property in the room.
Escrow, and the acknowledgment the city wants back
Section 5-123(b) requires the owner to deliver the completed report to the buyer before completion of the transaction, and the buyer to execute an acknowledgment filed with the city within thirty days after closing. Orange County documentary transfer tax is 0.55 dollars per 500 dollars of net consideration over 100 dollars, which is 1.10 dollars per 1,000 dollars.
Final account, compensation and distribution
Probate Code 12200 requires a petition for final distribution or a status report not later than one year after letters, or eighteen months where a federal estate tax return is required. Statutory compensation runs on identical tiers for the representative under Probate Code 10800 and the attorney under 10810, and both are payable from the estate.
Costa Mesa Neighbourhoods and the File Each One Makes You Pull
This city was never master planned, so there is no village system to read the parcel from. The quadrant and the era decide what the estate has to retrieve.
Eastside Costa Mesa
East of Newport Boulevard toward the Back Bay, median build year around 1961, midcentury ranch with Colonial Revival and modern farmhouse infill, median lot around 7,405 square feet. City policy emphasises single family preservation, so blocks read consistently.
The 17th Street corridor
East 17th Street is the Eastside commercial spine and the everyday errand and dining street. It is the strongest non school amenity argument on that side of town and the reason Eastside reads as walkable.
Westside Costa Mesa
Median build year around 1960, median lot around 6,969 square feet. Orange County's first tract housing appeared here in the late 1940s and 1950s, spurred by the Santa Ana Army Air Base, now the Orange County Fairgrounds.
19 West
A Westside overlay zone designated as a revitalisation area permitting residential or mixed use. Overlay adjacency is the reason Westside has to be evaluated block by block rather than as a neighbourhood.
Mesa West Residential Ownership
A Westside overlay. Mixed use adjacency can bring noise, odour or vibration from neighbouring commercial or industrial uses, which is a material fact the estate discloses from observation and from the zoning, not from hope.
Mesa West Bluffs
The third Westside overlay. Historic industrial uses, particularly boat builders and manufacturers along 19th Street, have been partly converted to lofts, so the neighbouring use may not be what the tract map suggests.
Mesa Verde
Bounded by the I-405, Harbor Boulevard, Victoria Street and the Santa Ana River, bisected by Adams Avenue, largely developed in the 1960s and 1970s. Anchored by Mesa Verde Country Club, open since January 1959.
Mesa del Mar
Early 1960s tract north of the Fairgrounds, consistent single story and two story ranch product on regular lots. One of the city's most cohesive mid 1960s neighbourhoods, which makes a referee's comparison set easier to build here.
College Park
Adjacent to Orange Coast College and the Fairgrounds. Established, with varied lot shapes and a mix of original construction and newer infill, so an estate should expect the permit history to matter more than the tract name.
Halecrest
Mid 1950s, one of the earliest planned communities in the area, conceived by Herman Hale and originally named College Estates. Cottage and ranch designs on raised foundations, wide porches, mature landscape, next to Gisler Park.
Hall of Fame
Sits with Halecrest as the north central established pair, streets named for baseball figures. Same 1950s era condition profile, and the same under floor access questions that a raised foundation brings to an inspection.
South Coast Metro
Attached product, condominiums and townhomes beside South Coast Plaza, Segerstrom Center and the office employment core. Straddles the Costa Mesa and Santa Ana boundary, so jurisdiction has to be confirmed parcel by parcel.
South Coast and Wimbledon Village
Attached communities within the Metro area. The 1970s and 1980s attached inventory is where polybutylene supply piping is the live item, along with association reserve and building envelope questions.
Bristol and Paularino
Mixed attached housing near South Coast Plaza and the arts venues. Association documents govern more of the asset here than the deed does, so the resale packet is ordered in the first week of the listing.
Downtown Costa Mesa
Along Newport Boulevard and the 19th Street area. Small older lots and the oldest surviving housing in the city, which means the pre 1950 condition set and the thinnest permit records.
Freedom Homes, Canyon Park, Republic Homes and Sea Bluff
The tract names local agents actually use inside the broader quadrants, alongside the Fairview area tracts. Naming the tract correctly is how a referee and a buyer end up looking at the same market.
Six Ways a Costa Mesa Estate Sale Slips Past Its Own Deadlines
Costa Mesa, California
Two clocks run at once here, the Probate Code's and the city's, and the second one starts on the day an offer is accepted.
The three day application window was missed
Municipal Code section 5-120 requires the owner to apply for the Report of Residential Building Records within three days of entering into an agreement of sale, and section 5-121 gives the city thirty days from a completed application and payment to issue it. An estate that discovers the requirement in week three has already spent the window.
The practical fix is to raise it with Building and Safety before the property is listed, establish whether the transfer is exempt under section 5-124 and what the current fee and turnaround are, and have the application ready to file on the day an offer is accepted. Under court confirmation that thirty day issuing period sits directly on top of a hearing calendar.
The estate assumed a probate transfer is automatically exempt
Section 5-124 lists ten categories of exempt transactions, including the first sale of an unoccupied building, court ordered transfers, foreclosures, and transfers between spouses or into trusts. A probate sale is not obviously outside all of that, and it is not obviously inside any of it either.
That is a question for the city and for the estate's attorney, answered in writing before an offer is accepted. Guessing wrong in either direction is expensive: assume it applies and you spend a fee the estate did not owe, assume it does not and the buyer's acknowledgment that section 5-123(b) requires never gets filed.
The representative answered a disclosure from family memory
A personal representative who never lived in the property cannot describe its permit history from personal knowledge, and should not try. Over 75 percent of Costa Mesa housing predates 1980, unpermitted additions and converted garages are the city's most common escrow problem, and much of the older work predates the digitised record.
Build the answers from documents instead. Use the city's permit search by street address or APN, filter by permit type and date range, and file a California Public Records Act request for permit jackets, approved plans, inspection logs and finals where the online record is incomplete. Online results are immediate. Staff research takes days to weeks and carries fees.
The sewer lateral was treated as the district's problem
The Costa Mesa Sanitary District maintains about 224.2 miles of main, but the property owner is responsible for maintaining the sewer lateral until past the point of connection with the district main, usually in the middle of the street. There is no point of sale lateral inspection or certification requirement, only a voluntary Sewer Inspection Rebate Program.
On 1950s and 1960s Eastside and Westside stock with mature street trees, a lateral video is cheap insurance for an estate. Root intrusion is a routine repair negotiation, not a deal breaker, but a buyer learning in week three that responsibility runs to the centre of the street will treat it as one.
The referee was not told which quadrant the house is in
There is no village system here to read the parcel from, so a referee appointed under Probate Code 8920 has to be given the quadrant, the tract, the era and the lot. Eastside at a median around 7,405 square feet and Westside at around 6,969 are different products, and both differ from attached inventory in South Coast Metro.
Under limited authority that appraisal is not advisory. Probate Code 10309(a) prevents the court confirming below ninety percent of it, so an appraisal built from the wrong side of Newport Boulevard becomes a floor the estate cannot get out from under without a fresh appraisal and a later hearing.
Nobody checked the 2025 fire hazard mapping
Costa Mesa was one of five Orange County cities newly included in the March 2025 CAL FIRE maps, with Moderate and High zones and no Very High. In a flat coastal plain city that surprises sellers, and an estate working from an older report will not see it at all.
A High zone parcel triggers AB 38: defensible space compliance documentation under Civil Code 1102.19 and, since 1 July 2025, the fire hardening disclosure, which covers retrofits completed and known vulnerabilities. Confirm the specific parcel against the state viewer rather than assuming the whole city, in either direction.
Fifteen Days of Notice, or a Hearing Down the Road on Harbor
The letters already decided this. What is still open is how honestly the representative explains it to the heirs and to the buyer, and both of them should hear the cost as well as the benefit.
Selling under full authority
Probate Code 10402 gives a representative with full authority all powers under the Independent Administration of Estates Act, and Probate Code 10503 states that the requirements applicable to court confirmation of sales of real property do not apply to the sale. That removes the confirmation hearing, the ninety percent floor in Probate Code 10309(a), the overbid in 10311(a), and the newspaper publication that Probate Code 10300 would otherwise require.
What remains is the Notice of Proposed Action. Probate Code 10586 requires it to be mailed or personally delivered not less than fifteen days before the date specified in it. The recipients under 10581 are each known devisee whose interest would be affected, each known heir whose interest would be affected, anyone who filed a request for special notice, and the Attorney General where the state's interest is affected. Written consent under 10582 and written waiver under 10583 both remove the requirement for that person.
In Costa Mesa the practical benefit is that the estate can absorb the city's own timetable. The Report of Residential Building Records is applied for within three days of the agreement and the city has thirty days to issue it, and that fits comfortably inside an ordinary escrow. Stacked on top of a confirmation calendar it is much less comfortable.
The honest downside is that no court stands behind the price. A beneficiary who objects under Probate Code 10587, by delivering or mailing a written objection before the specified date or before the action is taken, whichever is later, pushes the representative to seek court authority anyway, after the marketing has already been done. The answer is the record: full exposure, every offer kept, and the notice served early enough that objections arrive before a buyer is committed.
Selling with court confirmation
Under limited authority Probate Code 10403 withholds the sale of real property, and 10501(b) keeps it with the court. In Orange County that hearing is at the Costa Mesa Justice Complex, 3390 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa, which is inside the city itself. The probate assistance line is 657-622-8452 and the case access portal is at probatepublic.occourts.org. Examiners review petitions three to four weeks before the hearing, so a defect is usually identified with time left to cure it.
The notice of sale is published under Probate Code 10300 in the manner set by Government Code 6063a: at least ten days, three publications, at least five days intervening between the first and last publication dates, and publication complete before the day specified for the sale. Probate Code 10304 requires the notice to state whether the sale is private or by public auction, the time and place, and the street address or legal description. The report of sale and petition for confirmation follow under 10308, and the purchaser may file them if the representative has not within thirty days. The publication exceptions are narrow: Probate Code 10301, where property under 5,000 dollars may be posted at the courthouse for fifteen days instead, 10302, where the court may shorten the period to not less than five days, 10303, where the will directs or authorises the sale, and 10503, which exempts a full authority sale entirely.
At the hearing the court may confirm only where the sum offered is at least ninety percent of the appraised value, with the appraisal made within one year prior to the hearing, under Probate Code 10309(a). Then the overbid: 10311(a) requires at least ten percent more on the first ten thousand dollars of the original bid and five percent more on the balance, so a 1,000,000 dollar accepted bid needs 1,050,500 dollars. Under 10311(b) the court accepts the highest qualifying offer, under 10311(c) it may decline and order a new sale, under 10311(d) it may reject a higher bid on less favourable credit terms, and under 10311(e) commissions are excluded from the computation.
The honest downside is that the overbid works in both directions at once. It can genuinely raise the price for the estate, which is the whole purpose of holding the sale in open court. It also deters serious buyers, and in a city where the buyer is already paying for an inspection on a house from 1961 with an unknown permit history, being told they must then attend a hearing where anyone can take it for a defined increment is often enough to stop them writing at all.
Somebody Has to Sign for a House They Have Never Been Inside
Paula Aragone has worked Orange County transactions for 23 years, across 900+ transactions and $900M+ sold, and she came to real estate after four years of law school. She holds the CPRES and SRES designations. That background is why estate and family law attorneys send probate files here rather than to a general listing agent.
CPRES is the Certified Probate Real Estate Specialist designation, and in a court confirmation sale it is procedural rather than decorative. It means the listing is written so a buyer understands before they write an offer that the price has to clear the ninety percent floor in Probate Code 10309(a), that a report of sale and petition will be filed under 10308, that a hearing date will be set, and that an overbid calculated under 10311(a) can take the house from them in the room. Raising that at the counter offer loses the buyer and the hearing date together.
The Costa Mesa half of the work is documentary. Establish the position on the Report of Residential Building Records with Building and Safety before listing, including whether the transfer sits in one of the ten exempt categories in section 5-124 and what the fee and turnaround currently are. Pull the permit search by address and APN, then file a Public Records Act request for the permit jacket, approved plans, inspection log and final where the online record thins. Order a lateral video on older stock. Give the referee the quadrant, the tract and the era rather than the city name.
None of this is legal or tax advice and this office gives neither. What it produces is a file the estate's attorney, the probate examiner and the heirs can each read independently: what the city record shows, how the property was exposed, what every offer was, and why the price is the price. Statutory compensation under Probate Code 10800 and 10810 is calculated on gross inventory value without reference to encumbrances, and both the representative and the attorney are paid from it, which is one more reason to build that file properly the first time.
Costa Mesa Probate Sales, Answered
The questions personal representatives ask about a Costa Mesa estate, answered for California law and for this city's own ordinance.
Does the estate need a probate at all?
That is set by the date of death and the size of the estate. For a death on or after 1 April 2025, Probate Code 13100 allows an affidavit for personal property up to 208,850 dollars, Probate Code 13151 allows a petition to determine succession to real property up to 750,000 dollars but only for the decedent's California primary residence under AB 2016, and Probate Code 13200 allows an affidavit for real property of small value up to 69,625 dollars. The figures run from the date of death and hold through 31 March 2028.
What is the Report of Residential Building Records?
It is a city issued document required at point of sale under Municipal Code Title 5, Chapter VIII. Section 5-119 describes what it contains: the zoning of the residential building, the number of dwelling units permitted under that zoning classification, and other information relevant to use, occupancy and construction. Section 5-120 requires the owner to obtain it upon entering an agreement of sale and to apply within three days. Section 5-121 gives the city thirty days from a completed application and payment to issue it.
Is a probate sale exempt from that report?
It may be, and it should never be assumed. Section 5-124 lists ten categories of exempt transactions, including the first sale of an unoccupied building, court ordered transfers, foreclosures, and transfers between spouses or into trusts. Whether a particular estate transfer falls inside one of them is a question for Building and Safety and for the estate's attorney, answered in writing before an offer is accepted rather than after the three day application window has run.
What does the estate have to do with the report once it arrives?
Section 5-123(b) requires the owner to deliver the completed report to the buyer before completion of the transaction, and requires the buyer to execute an acknowledgment which is filed with the city within thirty days after closing. So there are two obligations, one before closing and one after, and the second is easy for an estate to forget once escrow has funded and the representative has moved on to the final account.
How do I answer disclosures about a house I never lived in?
From records rather than memory. Use the city permit search by street address or APN, filtered by permit type and date range, and file a California Public Records Act request for permit jackets, approved plans, inspection logs and finals where the online record is incomplete, which for pre digitisation permits is normal. Mark genuinely unknown items unknown. Ordering an inspection for the estate is usually worth it, because then the buyer is reading a report rather than guessing.
Why do unpermitted additions come up so often in Costa Mesa?
Because the lots are big enough to build on and the stock is old enough that much of the work predates the current record. Eastside runs to a median lot around 7,405 square feet and Westside around 6,969, materially larger than comparable Irvine or Tustin Legacy product, and over 75 percent of the city's housing was built before 1980. Unpermitted additions and converted garages are the city's most common escrow problem, which is exactly why the presale report exists.
Who is responsible for the sewer lateral?
The property owner, and further than most people expect. The Costa Mesa Sanitary District maintains about 224.2 miles of main, but the owner is responsible for maintaining the lateral until past the point of connection with the district main, usually in the middle of the street. There is no point of sale lateral inspection or certification requirement, only a voluntary Sewer Inspection Rebate Program. On older stock with mature street trees, a lateral video is cheap insurance for the estate.
Are there association dues or a Mello Roos special tax to disclose?
Usually not on the single family side. Costa Mesa is largely a non association city for detached houses, which is a genuine difference from Irvine and Tustin Ranch, and the city's housing predates the Mello Roos Act almost entirely, so no significant district exposure is expected on established stock. Attached product in South Coast Metro, Wimbledon and the newer infill carries conventional associations, and newer infill should still be checked by APN before anything is stated in marketing.
Is Halecrest's swim and tennis club a homeowners association?
It is a separate private club that functions as the neighbourhood's social centre, not a mandatory association in the Davis Stirling sense. That distinction matters to an estate, because an obligation that runs with the parcel is disclosed and prorated at closing while a voluntary membership is not. Verify the position on the individual parcel from the preliminary title report and the recorded documents rather than from what a neighbour describes.
Is a Costa Mesa house now in a fire hazard severity zone?
It may be. Costa Mesa was one of five Orange County cities newly included in the March 2025 CAL FIRE maps, with Moderate and High zones and no Very High. That is new and it surprises sellers in a flat coastal city. A High zone parcel triggers AB 38, meaning defensible space compliance documentation under Civil Code 1102.19 and, since 1 July 2025, the fire hardening disclosure. Confirm the individual parcel against the state viewer rather than assuming the whole city.
The probate court is in Costa Mesa. Does that help?
Marginally, and it is worth knowing. Orange County probate is heard at the Costa Mesa Justice Complex, 3390 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, the probate assistance line is 657-622-8452, and the case access portal is at probatepublic.occourts.org. Examiners review petitions three to four weeks before the hearing. Proximity does not change any deadline, but for a local representative it makes appearing at a confirmation hearing a short errand instead of a day.
How is the minimum overbid calculated?
Probate Code 10311(a) requires a higher offer to be at least ten percent more on the first ten thousand dollars of the original bid and five percent more on the amount of the original bid in excess of ten thousand dollars. On a 1,000,000 dollar accepted bid that is 1,000,000 plus 1,000 plus 49,500, which is 1,050,500 dollars. The increment is measured against the accepted bid, while the separate ninety percent test in Probate Code 10309(a) is measured against the referee's appraisal.
What does the probate referee cost the estate?
A referee is appointed from the State Controller's list under Probate Code 8920 to value the estate's real property for the inventory. Probate Code 8961 sets the commission at one tenth of one percent of the value appraised plus expenses, and Probate Code 8963 sets a floor of 75 dollars and a ceiling of 10,000 dollars per estate. Orange County states the referee should return the appraisal within sixty days, and Probate Code 8800 puts the inventory itself four months out from the issue of letters.
Which high school serves the property?
Newport Mesa Unified serves Costa Mesa, with Costa Mesa High School and Estancia High School as the comprehensive campuses, Costa Mesa Middle and TeWinkle Middle, and elementaries including Adams, California, College Park, Davis, Killybrooke, Paularino, Pomona, Rea, Sonora, Victoria, Whittier, Wilson and Woodland. Specific pockets, primarily on the Eastside, feed into Newport Harbor High School instead, which drives real buyer behaviour. Boundaries change, so confirm by APN with the district before any listing claims it.
How long should the heirs expect this to take?
No official source publishes a typical duration and it should not be stated as fact. The statutory anchors are the inventory and appraisal within four months after letters issue under Probate Code 8800, creditor claims due under Probate Code 9100 the later of four months after letters or sixty days after notice to that creditor, and a petition for final distribution or a status report not later than one year after letters under Probate Code 12200, or eighteen months where a federal estate tax return is required.
What will the estate pay the representative and the attorney?
Probate Code 10800 and 10810 set identical tiers and both are payable: 4 percent of the first 100,000 dollars, 3 percent of the next 100,000 dollars, 2 percent of the next 800,000 dollars, 1 percent of the next 9,000,000 dollars and 0.5 percent of the next 15,000,000 dollars. The base is gross inventory value plus gains and receipts, without reference to encumbrances, so a house appraised at 2,000,000 dollars with a 1,500,000 dollar mortgage counts at 2,000,000 dollars. That estate produces 33,000 dollars each and 66,000 dollars combined, plus any extraordinary fees.
Related Pages
Other specialties in Costa Mesa
Probate real estate nearby
Ask the City Before You Accept the Offer
949-415-4784
If you are administering an estate holding a Costa Mesa property, the first conversation is about your authority and the city report, not about a listing price. Call or text, or ask the estate's attorney to call on your behalf.
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Paula Aragone, California DRE 01364746. Aragone & Associates is a team at First Team Real Estate, California DRE 01008773. Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. This page is general information about California real estate practice and is not legal, tax or financial advice.
Aragone & Associates Real Estate Group, 4 Corporate Plaza Dr #100, Newport Beach, CA 92660. Paula Aragone, California DRE 01364746. Brokerage: First Team Real Estate, California DRE 01008773. Equal Housing Opportunity. Nothing on this page is legal, tax or financial advice, and no attorney client relationship is created by contacting this office. Consult your attorney, your accountant and your county assessor before acting on any statement here. Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed and is subject to change without notice.
