Probate Real Estate Agent in Fullerton, CA
Paula Aragone represents executors, administrators and personal representatives selling Fullerton property through the Orange County probate court, in a city where the estate has to describe a house under oath that three generations altered and nobody left a record of.
A Fullerton probate sale asks the personal representative to describe, on a document filed with the court, a property they usually never lived in. Probate Code 8800 gives four months from the issue of letters to file the inventory and appraisal. The probate referee appointed under 8920 prices what the representative hands over. In a city with genuine pre war stock and eighty years of additions behind it, assembling that description is the work, not the sale.
| Who signs the inventory | The personal representative named in the Letters |
|---|---|
| The filing deadline | Four months after letters are first issued, Probate Code 8800 |
| Who values the real property | A probate referee appointed under Probate Code 8920 |
| Which route applies | Full or limited authority, Probate Code 10402 and 10403 |
| The confirmation floor | At least 90 percent of the appraisal, Probate Code 10309(a) |
| The Fullerton item | Two permit systems, plus a records request for what neither holds |
A Sworn Inventory of a House Nobody Living Can Account For
Probate Code 8800 allows four months from the issue of letters to file the inventory and appraisal. In Fullerton the difficulty is rarely the appraisal. It is describing the property honestly when the person who built the back bedroom died before the representative was born.
The representative does not choose the appraiser. Under Probate Code 8920 a probate referee is appointed from the State Controller's list, and under 8961 the commission is one tenth of one percent of the value appraised plus actual and necessary expenses, with a floor of 75 dollars and a ceiling of 10,000 dollars per estate under 8963. Orange County states the referee should return the appraisal within 60 days. The referee values the real property; the representative values the cash and certain other assets.
What the referee cannot do is audit the house. He values what he is handed and what he can see. If the estate supplies a street address and a copy of the deed, the appraisal will describe the building as it stands, including a converted garage, an enclosed porch and a back bedroom that may or may not appear anywhere in the city's records. Nothing in the process flags the difference.
That matters twice. Probate Code 10309(a) lets the court confirm a private sale only where the sum offered is at least 90 percent of the appraised value, so an appraisal built on unrecorded floor area sets a floor a buyer's lender may decline to fund. And Probate Code 10800 and 10810 compute compensation on the gross inventory plus gains and receipts, without reference to encumbrances, so the estate pays on that same number whatever the permit file later says.
Fullerton was founded in 1887, named for George H. Fullerton of the Pacific Land and Improvement Company, and incorporated on 15 February 1904 across what is now 22.44 square miles. It is the only one of these communities with a substantial pre war housing stock: Craftsman bungalow from the 1900s to 1920s near downtown, Spanish Colonial Revival from the 1920s and 1930s oil boom, then Minimal Traditional and early ranch in the late 1940s and 1950s, the large postwar tracts, hillside custom through the 1960s and 1970s, and Amerige Heights in 2001 to 2004.
That range produces a stack of findings rather than one. Knob and tube wiring in anything before roughly 1950, which is an insurability problem before it is a safety problem, because carriers decline or surcharge and a buyer's lender may require remediation. Aluminium branch circuit wiring in the 1965 to mid 1970s tracts, where pre 1972 homes are at materially higher risk and failing connections seldom give a detectable warning. Galvanised supply piping and cast iron drains through the pre 1960 stock. Polybutylene in the later infill. Asbestos era materials before 1980 and lead paint before 1978.
The good news is that Fullerton keeps a usable record, and an estate has no excuse for guessing. Building and Safety sits on the second floor of City Hall at 303 W. Commonwealth Ave, Fullerton, CA 92832, with a general line of (714) 738-6541 and an inspection line of (714) 738-6543. Completed records live in a Laserfiche portal, permit applications and status in a self service system, and anything neither holds is reachable by a public records request through the City Clerk. All three take time the court does not add to the calendar.
How a Probate Property Sale Works in Fullerton
The court sequence is the same everywhere. What is different in Fullerton is that two of these steps are research projects, and both of them sit in front of the referee rather than behind him.
Establish the authority before ordering a single report
Probate Code 10402 gives a representative with full authority every power under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. Probate Code 10403 withholds four, each of them a real property power, and 10501(b) requires court supervision for exactly those four. The grant is printed on the Letters. Everything downstream, the calendar, the marketing, what the buyer is told, follows from that one line.
Reconstruct the house before describing it to the referee
The referee is appointed under Probate Code 8920 and paid 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 inside 60 days. Pull the permit history first, because square footage the city has no record of is a description problem before it is a value problem.
Close an empty pre war house down properly
Tell the insurer the property is now unoccupied, because a policy written for an owner occupant may not respond once it is empty. Change the locks, keep the power and water on for the referee, the inspectors and any subarea access, and have someone look at it weekly. A raised foundation with an open crawl space is not a structure to leave unattended for months.
Choose the route, and count the records requests into it
With full authority, Probate Code 10503 removes the confirmation requirements and the sale runs on a Notice of Proposed Action. With limited authority the report of sale, the petition, the hearing and the overbid all apply. Either way the permit research runs on the city's clock, not the court's, so start it in the week the letters issue.
Market a house whose history is finally on the table
An old Fullerton house sells to a buyer who has read the permit file, the inspection reports and the disclosure package. Producing all of it before the first showing is what keeps that buyer at the table rather than losing them in the inquiry period. Broad exposure is also the representative's own defence against a question about the price.
Give the statutory notice, or take the petition route
Under full authority the notice goes to each known devisee and each known heir whose interest would be affected, to anyone who filed a request for special notice, and to the Attorney General where the state's interest is affected, not less than 15 days before the date specified, under Probate Code 10586. On the court track, 10308 governs the report of sale and the petition for confirmation.
The hearing, and the arithmetic of the first overbid
Orange County examiners review petitions three to four weeks before the hearing, so a defect in the file surfaces then rather than on the day. At the hearing the property is open to a higher bid under Probate Code 10311(a), and title does not pass until the court confirms. Work out the minimum first overbid before accepting an offer, not in the courtroom.
Escrow, with the permit record handed over rather than promised
Give the buyer what the estate actually retrieved: the Building and Safety records the portal held, the results of the self service permit search, and the response to any public records request through the City Clerk. An estate that says the work was probably permitted has told the buyer nothing and kept the risk.
Wind the estate up, and pay both statutory fees
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. Probate Code 10800 and 10810 then set identical, separately payable compensation for the representative and the attorney, computed on the gross inventory.
Fullerton by Era, Because the Decade Decides What the Estate Has to Describe
A downtown adjacent bungalow, a Sunny Hills estate parcel and an Amerige Heights house from 2003 share a city name and almost nothing else. These are the areas that come up most often in probate files.
Raymond Hills
Older estate hillside east of Harbor on winding streets, custom homes on irregular lots, and the most architecturally varied ground in the city. A referee has few true comparables here, so the description the estate supplies carries real weight.
Sunny Hills
Large lot and rolling, the postwar prestige address, with Sunny Hills High School on 42 acres at 1801 Lancer Way in western Fullerton. Parcels large enough that outbuildings and later additions are common and often unrecorded.
Golden Hills
A 1940s and 1950s grid tighter than Sunny Hills, with mature street trees and a strong neighbourhood identity. Squarely inside the era where galvanised supply and cast iron drains are the ordinary findings.
Las Palmas
Older stock close to downtown, period revival and early ranch on small to moderate lots. Long held by original families, which is exactly the ownership profile that reaches the probate calendar rather than a trust administration.
The Muckenthaler area
The hill around the Muckenthaler Cultural Center, an 18 room Spanish Colonial Revival house built in 1925 on 8.5 acres, given to the City in 1965 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
Downtown Fullerton
The historic commercial core, walkable and mixed use. Noise, parking and late hours are live disclosure items for adjacent residential, and the housing here is the oldest layer the city has.
South of Commonwealth
The entertainment district known locally as SOCO. Sound and late hours are a real conversation for nearby residential property, and the estate is better naming it than leaving a buyer to discover it on a Saturday night.
Amerige Heights
Built from 2001 to 2004 on the former Hughes Aircraft site, the newest large tract in the city, governed by an association with its own commercial centre. This is where special tax and association structures are most likely to be live.
Presidential Tract
A postwar tract with presidentially named streets and consistent single storey ranch stock, one of the most legible tract identities in Fullerton. Uniform enough that a referee can build a real comparison set.
Coyote Hills
Ridge and slope product on the north west edge, beside West Coyote Hills, a 510 acre ridge that was a major oil field dating to 1890 and remains the largest undeveloped tract in north Orange County.
Fullerton Creek
Follows the creek corridor, where drainage, culvert and flood questions are the recurring diligence items. Anything an estate says about water here should come from a report rather than from a family recollection.
The Bastanchury area
The former Bastanchury Ranch lands, with Bastanchury Road as the spine and eras running from postwar through the 1980s. Two houses a street apart can sit in different decades and different inspection profiles.
Hermosa Drive and Laguna Road
Named for their elementary schools, established older residential with strong school loyalty. Verify the attendance area by address rather than by the street name, because six districts touch this city.
Rolling Hills
Postwar stock on gentle topography, named for its elementary school. Consistent enough to appraise cleanly, and old enough that the water conserving fixture and life safety device disclosures are always live.
Six Ways a Fullerton Estate Loses Weeks Between the Letters and the Hearing
Fullerton, California
None of these is a market problem. Each is a record the estate did not have, an insurer's objection, or a deadline that ran while somebody looked for a document.
The Inventory and Appraisal describes floor area the city never saw
The estate files an inventory and appraisal within four months of letters under Probate Code 8800, with the creditor claim period under Probate Code 9100 running alongside it, and the referee prices what he is shown. In pre war and postwar Fullerton, garages became bedrooms and porches became rooms across three generations of owners, and the incidence of unpermitted work in that stock is very high.
Nothing in the appraisal process separates recorded floor area from the rest. The consequence arrives later: a buyer's lender or appraiser flags it, the offer is renegotiated or lost, and under Probate Code 10309(a) the confirmable floor is still 90 percent of a number built on the larger description. Pull the permit history before the referee is briefed, not after an offer.
A pre 1950 attic decides whether the sale is insurable at all
Knob and tube wiring is the item that separates Fullerton from the communities around it. It is an insurability problem before it is a safety problem: carriers decline or surcharge, and a buyer's lender may require remediation as a condition of funding. Any Fullerton house from before roughly 1950 needs the attic and the subarea opened and looked at before the property is listed.
It rarely appears alone. Galvanised supply piping, cast iron drain lines, pre 1978 lead paint and asbestos era materials tend to arrive together in that layer, and an estate that discovers the whole set during a buyer's inspection period has already spent the marketing time it needed.
Fullerton's records answer in two places and neither is instant
Completed building permits sit in a Building and Safety records portal. Permit applications and status sit in a separate self service system. Anything held in neither is reachable by a public records request through the City Clerk, and Building and Safety itself is on the second floor of City Hall at 303 W. Commonwealth Ave with a general line of (714) 738-6541.
That is a better record than most cities keep, which removes the excuse for guessing but not the time. City Hall runs Monday to Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with every other Friday 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. A records request placed in month three of a four month inventory deadline is a request placed too late.
The 2025 zone class landed on the hillside parcels in May
The Fullerton City Council adopted the updated 2025 fire hazard severity zone classifications on 6 May 2025, incorporating them into Fullerton Municipal Code 13.19. Properties fall into Moderate, High or Very High, and the city publishes an interactive map searchable by address, zone by zone clearance requirements, an annual self inspection checklist and a home insurance FAQ.
A hillside parcel in Coyote Hills, Raymond Hills, Sunny Hills or along the northern ridge may carry a designation it did not carry in 2024. High or Very High brings the Natural Hazard Disclosure entry, the Civil Code 1102.6f fire hardening disclosure for homes built before 1 January 2010, and Civil Code 1102.19 defensible space documentation. Run the address search rather than assuming flat Fullerton is exempt.
The overbid emptied a field that had already paid for reports
In a court confirmation sale the accepted offer settles nothing. Probate Code 10311(a) allows a higher bid of at least 10 percent more on the first ten thousand dollars of the original bid and 5 percent more on the amount above ten thousand dollars, made in open court, and the court takes the highest qualifying offer.
A buyer of an old Fullerton house has usually paid for a general inspection, a sewer camera, an electrical evaluation and sometimes a structural opinion before writing. Asking that buyer to watch a stranger raise the price in a courtroom is how a field of four becomes a field of one, and the estate feels it in the number rather than in the process.
The oldest housing of the four brings the longest disclosure stack
Civil Code 1101.4 required noncompliant plumbing fixtures in single family homes to be replaced by 1 January 2017 and obliges the seller to disclose in writing whether any remain. Health and Safety Code 13113.8 requires operable smoke alarms and a written statement of compliance delivered before transfer. Health and Safety Code 17926 requires carbon monoxide devices wherever there is a fossil fuel appliance, a fireplace or an attached garage, with the single family deadline set at 1 July 2011.
Add the federal lead based paint obligation on anything built before 1978 and the package on an old Fullerton house is longer than on any other property this office handles. The representative signs all of it, on personal knowledge they do not have, which is the practical argument for having reports in hand instead of recollections.
Fifteen Days of Notice, or a Judge's Calendar and an Open Courtroom
The Letters normally decide which of these applies. The reason to understand both is that they produce different buyers, and an old house sells to a buyer who has already spent money on it.
Selling under full authority
Full authority under Probate Code 10402 carries every power the Independent Administration of Estates Act grants, and Probate Code 10503 states that the requirements applicable to court confirmation of sales of real property do not apply to the sale. No hearing, no 90 percent appraisal floor, no courtroom overbid. The representative sells the way any owner sells, and escrow runs without a court date inside it.
Notice replaces the hearing. Probate Code 10580 to 10592 govern the Notice of Proposed Action, and under 10586 it must be mailed or personally delivered not less than 15 days before the date specified in the notice. Under 10581 it goes to each known devisee whose interest would be affected, each known heir whose interest would be affected, anyone who has filed a request for special notice, and the Attorney General where the state's interest is affected.
The period can be shortened by agreement. Probate Code 10582 removes the requirement for anyone who consents in writing and 10583 allows a written waiver, so a family in agreement can collect consents before the listing. The honest downside is in 10587: a recipient may object by delivering or mailing a written objection before the date specified or before the action is taken, whichever is later, and one objection sends the representative back to the court after the buyer has already paid for inspections.
Full authority also removes the court, not the house. The permit research, the electrical evaluation, the sewer camera and the disclosure package all run on their own schedules, and a faster escrow simply means less room for them. On a pre war Fullerton property, a representative who treats full authority as permission to list immediately usually meets the same delay later, with a buyer already in contract.
Selling with court confirmation
This is the route where authority is limited under Probate Code 10403, which withholds four powers: sell real property, exchange real property, grant an option to purchase real property, and borrow money secured by an encumbrance on real property. Probate Code 10501(b) requires court supervision for exactly those four. It is also chosen deliberately where the estate's attorney wants the protection of an order.
The referee's appraisal comes first under Probate Code 8920, at 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, with Orange County expecting a return inside 60 days. Once an offer is accepted the representative files a report of sale and petition for confirmation under Probate Code 10308, and if it is not filed within 30 days the purchaser may file it. Title does not pass until the court confirms. Publication is live on this track as well: Probate Code 10300(a) requires the notice of sale published under Government Code 6063a, meaning at least ten days, three publications, with at least five days intervening between the first and last publication dates, subject to the exceptions in 10301, 10302 and 10303, while 10503 exempts a full authority sale entirely.
Then the courtroom. Probate Code 10311(a) requires the higher offer to be at least 10 percent more on the first ten thousand dollars of the original bid and 5 percent more on the amount of the original bid in excess of ten thousand dollars. On an accepted bid of 1,000,000 dollars that is 1,000,000 plus 1,000 plus 49,500, so the minimum first overbid is 1,050,500 dollars. The court accepts the highest qualifying offer, may decline to confirm and order a new sale, and may reject a higher bid made on less favourable credit terms. Commissions are excluded from the computation.
The honest accounting is that the overbid helps the estate and deters the buyer, and in Fullerton it deters the informed buyer first. The person who paid for four reports on a 1948 house is the person least willing to bid against a stranger in a room. Examiners review the petition three to four weeks before the hearing, so the file has to be complete well ahead of the date. The estate trades a possibly higher number against a smaller and better prepared field.
Nobody Alive Remembers the Work. The File Has to Answer for It.
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. That is the reason probate attorneys send court supervised files here rather than to a general listing agent: the sequence, the deadlines and the language of a confirmation petition are already familiar, so the attorney is not explaining them twice.
She holds the CPRES designation, Certified Probate Real Estate Specialist, and the SRES designation, Seniors Real Estate Specialist. CPRES matters at a court confirmation sale for a practical reason. Marketing does not stop when an offer is accepted, because the property remains open to a bid from the floor, so the listing has to keep producing interest through the petition and up to the hearing. The purchase agreement has to tell the buyer plainly what happens in that courtroom, and the file has to reach the examiner in a form that survives review three to four weeks before the date.
In an old city the representative's real exposure is the disclosure package. Beneficiaries and buyers both ask the same question later, which is what the estate knew and when. The answer that holds up is documentary: what the records portal returned, what the self service search showed, what the City Clerk produced on a public records request, and what each inspector wrote. A representative who answers from family recollection has signed for something nobody can verify.
The Fullerton specifics are the permit reconstruction, the pre 1950 electrical question, the age driven disclosure stack and the school district that has to be confirmed by address in a city touched by six systems. The honest part: none of this guarantees a hearing date holds. Calendars move, examiners raise items, buyers withdraw and old houses produce surprises after the walls are opened. What the preparation buys is that the delay is never the estate's own file.
What a Fullerton Personal Representative Asks in the First Month
The questions executors, administrators and personal representatives actually ask, answered for California law and for a city with a century of building behind it.
What do we put on the Inventory and Appraisal if the square footage was never permitted?
Describe the property accurately and separately, and tell the referee what the records show rather than what the tape measure shows. Probate Code 8800 requires the inventory and appraisal within four months after letters are first issued, and the referee appointed under 8920 values what the representative supplies. If part of the floor area does not appear in the city's records, that is a fact the referee should have, because Probate Code 10309(a) later measures every confirmable offer against 90 percent of the number he produces.
Does old wiring stop a court confirmation sale?
It does not stop the sale, but it can decide who is able to buy. Knob and tube wiring appears in Fullerton stock built before roughly 1950 and is an insurability question before it is a safety question: carriers decline or surcharge, and a buyer's lender may require remediation as a condition of funding. On a confirmation track that narrows the field before the hearing rather than at it. Open the attic and the subarea early, price the remediation, and disclose it with the report rather than in conversation.
Where does a representative find Fullerton's permit records?
Three places, in order. Completed building permits sit in the city's Building and Safety records portal. Permit applications and their status sit in a separate self service system. Anything held in neither is reachable by a public records request through the City Clerk. Building and Safety is on the second floor of City Hall at 303 W. Commonwealth Ave, Fullerton, CA 92832, general line (714) 738-6541 and inspection line (714) 738-6543. Start in the week the letters issue, because none of it is instant.
Does an unpermitted addition change what the referee should be told?
Yes, and it is one of the few things the estate genuinely controls. The referee values what is described to him. A converted garage, an enclosed porch or a back bedroom with no record behind it changes what a lender will fund and what a buyer will pay, and an appraisal that treats it as ordinary living area produces a floor under Probate Code 10309(a) that the market may not reach. Send the permit history with the description, not afterwards.
Did Fullerton adopt the 2025 fire hazard severity zone maps?
Yes. The Fullerton City Council adopted the updated 2025 classifications on 6 May 2025 and incorporated them into Fullerton Municipal Code 13.19. Properties fall into Moderate, High or Very High, and the city publishes an interactive map searchable by address, PDF maps, fact sheets in English and Spanish, zone by zone clearance requirements, an annual self inspection checklist and a home insurance FAQ. Fullerton runs its own fire department, over 115 years old, reachable at (714) 738-6500. Run the address search on any hillside parcel.
What does a High or Very High designation add for the estate?
Three obligations on top of the ordinary package. The Natural Hazard Disclosure Statement under Civil Code 1103.2 records the zone. For a home built before 1 January 2010, Civil Code 1102.6f requires the fire hardening disclosure with its list of vulnerable features and, since 1 July 2025, the Government Code 51189 low cost retrofit list showing which the seller has completed. Civil Code 1102.19 requires documentation of defensible space compliance, obtained from an inspection within six months before entering the transaction, or by written agreement that the buyer obtains it.
Do we have to disclose the municipal airport?
It belongs in the file for property on the south west side. Fullerton Municipal Airport occupies 86 acres in the south western corner of the city on Commonwealth Avenue, has been owned and operated by the City of Fullerton since January 1941, and its control tower averages 262 operations daily. The airport and its industrial park are surrounded by residential areas. It is findable by any buyer with a browser, and an estate that names it first is in a much better position than one that waits to be asked.
A buyer asked about West Coyote Hills. What is the honest answer?
That the land use question is unsettled. West Coyote Hills is a 510 acre ridge that was a major oil field dating back to 1890 and remains the largest undeveloped tract in north Orange County. Pacific Coast Homes, a Chevron subsidiary, proposed developing 179 acres while donating 352 acres as the Robert E. Ward Nature Preserve. Fullerton voters approved Measure W in 2012 to prevent development, litigation over its interpretation has continued, and the city purchased an eastern portion in 2021 with state funds. Do not describe the open space as permanent.
How does the estate establish which school district serves the house?
Never answer that from the city name. Six school systems serve parts of Fullerton: La Habra City, Buena Park, Fullerton School District, Brea Olinda Unified, Placentia Yorba Linda Unified and Fullerton Joint Union High School District. Fullerton School District runs K through 8 with sixteen elementary campuses, three junior highs and two combination schools, and its students move to Fullerton Joint Union for high school. Confirm by address with the district before anything reaches the marketing or a buyer's expectations.
Is east Fullerton really in a different high school district?
Yes, and it is the most common Fullerton school error. Fullerton Joint Union High School District covers a fifty square mile area across two counties and runs Buena Park, Fullerton Union, La Habra, La Sierra, Sonora, Sunny Hills and Troy, plus La Vista continuation on the Troy campus. But the far eastern section of Fullerton, east of the 57 freeway, is served by El Dorado High School, which is a Placentia Yorba Linda Unified school in Placentia. Check it on every east Fullerton listing.
Which Fullerton high schools will buyers name?
Three. Troy High School at 2200 East Dorothy Lane, Fullerton, CA 92831, home of the Troy Tech science and technology magnet with its required internship the summer after junior year, and offering the Cambridge Diploma and the International Baccalaureate; it was named a New American High School in 2000, one of 27 nationally. Sunny Hills High School at 1801 Lancer Way on 42 acres in western Fullerton. And Fullerton Union High School at 201 East Chapman Avenue, created by special election in 1893 and the oldest of them.
What exactly does limited authority withhold?
Probate Code 10402 gives a representative with full authority all powers under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. Probate Code 10403 withholds four: sell real property, exchange real property, grant an option to purchase real property, and borrow money secured by an encumbrance on real property. Probate Code 10501(b) requires court supervision for exactly those four. In practice full authority means no confirmation hearing and no overbid, because Probate Code 10503 removes the confirmation requirements, subject only to the Notice of Proposed Action.
What is the 90 percent rule, and is it the same number as the overbid?
They are two different baselines. Probate Code 10309(a) allows the court to confirm a private sale only where the property was appraised within one year prior to the confirmation hearing, the valuation date falls in that year, and the sum offered is at least 90 percent of the appraised value. That floor is measured against the referee's appraisal. The overbid increment in Probate Code 10311(a) is measured against the accepted bid, whatever it turned out to be. Treating them as one figure is the most common briefing error in the whole subject.
How is the first overbid calculated?
Probate Code 10311(a) requires a higher offer to be at least 10 percent more on the first ten thousand dollars of the original bid and 5 percent more on the amount of the original bid in excess of ten thousand dollars. On an accepted bid of 1,000,000 dollars that is 1,000,000 plus 1,000 plus 49,500, so the minimum first overbid is 1,050,500 dollars. The court accepts the highest qualifying offer, may decline to confirm and order a new sale, and may reject a higher bid made on less favourable credit terms. Commissions are excluded from the computation.
Is the estate small enough to avoid a full probate?
The date of death decides it, not the filing date. For deaths on or after 1 April 2025 the affidavit for personal property under Probate Code 13100 and 13101 reaches 208,850 dollars, the petition to determine succession to real property under 13151 to 13154 reaches 750,000 dollars but only for the decedent's California primary residence under AB 2016, and the affidavit for real property of small value under 13200 reaches 69,625 dollars. Anything larger is a full probate or a trust administration, and those figures hold through 31 March 2028.
Where is the probate heard, and what do the fees come to?
Probate is heard at the Costa Mesa Justice Complex, 3390 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, with a probate assistance line of 657-622-8452 and case information at probatepublic.occourts.org. Examiners review petitions three to four weeks before the hearing. Probate Code 10800 and 10810 set identical, separately payable compensation for the representative and the attorney on the gross inventory without reference to encumbrances, so a 2,000,000 dollar gross estate produces 33,000 dollars each and 66,000 dollars combined, plus any extraordinary fees the court allows.
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Pull the Permit File Before the Referee Is Briefed
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If you are the personal representative of an estate holding a Fullerton property, the first conversation is about the authority you were granted and what the city's records actually show. Call or text, or have the estate's attorney 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.