When a married person dies and property was community property or passes outright to the spouse, the survivor can often confirm ownership with a single petition instead of a full administration. One hearing, one order, done.
This is the cheapest good outcome available in California probate, and it is underused because people assume every death means a full case.
It asks the court to confirm that property already belonged to the surviving spouse, or that it passes to the surviving spouse under the will or by intestacy. The order gets recorded for real estate and presented to institutions for accounts. There is no personal representative, no inventory, and no statutory percentage fee.
Fees for this work are flat at our office, and they are a small fraction of what a full probate on the same house would cost. That gap is the entire reason this page exists.
Where the analysis gets interesting
Character of property is everything. A house bought during the marriage with earnings is usually community property. A house one spouse owned before the marriage, or inherited during it, usually is not, and then the question becomes what the will says and whether community funds went into the mortgage or the remodel.
Los Angeles adds its own wrinkle, because so many homes were bought decades ago by one spouse and refinanced repeatedly by both. Title says one thing, the money says another, and the deed from the 1994 refinance says a third thing that nobody remembers signing.
Read the deed before you assume
Community property with right of survivorship and joint tenancy both avoid probate on their own without any petition at all. Plain community property, and property held as tenants in common, do not. Pull the current vesting deed from the county recorder before deciding what you need. It costs a few dollars and it settles the question.
When it is a bad idea
If the decedent's children from a first marriage have a claim, filing a spousal property petition is an invitation to litigate it. They get notice. They can object. A blended family with an old will and an ambiguous title history is a situation where the petition can turn a quiet estate into a contested one.
“I will say the uncomfortable part. Sometimes the survivor knows the house was never fully community property and is hoping the court will not look closely. The court might not. The stepson's lawyer will. I would rather structure something everyone signs than win an order that gets attacked in three years.”
Delia Vasquez-HartIt is common to file a spousal property petition for the community assets and use a small estate affidavit or the residence procedure for whatever passes to someone other than the spouse. A full probate is only needed for the portion that actually requires one, and cutting the estate down to that portion is most of the value a good probate lawyer adds.
Questions we get asked
Does this work for registered domestic partners?
Yes, California treats registered domestic partners the same way for these purposes.
Is there a deadline?
There is no strict expiration, and I have filed these years after a death when a survivor tried to sell and discovered title still showed a deceased spouse. Waiting makes the evidence harder to assemble, though.
Do stepchildren have to be notified?
Everyone entitled to notice gets notice, and that generally includes the decedent's children whether or not they are the survivor's. Skipping notice is not an option, it is just a defective petition.
Can I do this and also keep the property tax base?
Property tax reassessment rules are a separate question from the probate procedure, and transfers between spouses are treated favorably. Confirm the assessor's requirements separately, because the recorder and the assessor do not talk to each other for you.
Pull the vesting deed on the property from the Los Angeles County Recorder and bring it to a free consultation. That one document usually decides whether you need a petition, a full probate, or nothing at all.