Probate for Foreclosed Property When There Is No Will or Trust

Your parent, spouse, or sibling died without a will or a trust. The house went to a trustee’s sale, and the sale produced a surplus. The trustee will not hand that money to a family member who calls and asks for it. It belongs to the estate, and someone has to be given legal authority to collect it. Fred Yadegar opens estates, and uses California’s faster small-estate procedures when they fit, for families in Los Angeles County and Orange County.

Who inherits when there is no will

California decides for you through intestate succession (Prob. Code §6400 et seq.). A surviving spouse or registered domestic partner takes all of the community property (§6401). The decedent’s separate property is split by formula: the spouse takes all of it if the decedent left no children, parents, or siblings; one-half if there is one child; one-third if there are two or more children. When there is no spouse, everything goes to the children, then to parents, then to siblings, and on down the line of relatives (§6402).

Stepchildren who were never adopted, partners who never married or registered, and close friends inherit nothing under these rules, no matter what was promised at the kitchen table. That surprise is the most common reason families call us.

Why the surplus belongs to the estate

When an owner dies, the property and everything that flows from it becomes part of the estate. If the trustee’s sale happened after the death, the surplus is what remains of the estate’s largest asset. If the owner died after the sale but before claiming, the right to claim was an asset of the estate at death. Either way, Civil Code §2924k pays the former owner or the former owner’s successor in interest, and the successor is the estate acting through an authorized representative, not whichever relative reaches the trustee first.

That is why the trustee, or the superior court if the funds were deposited there, will ask for letters of administration, a small-estate declaration, or a court order determining succession before releasing a dollar. Our heirship of a foreclosed estate page covers how heirs prove who they are. This page covers how the estate gets its authority.

Three paths to authority

Small-estate declaration. If the estate is worth $208,850 or less, for deaths on or after April 1, 2025, the successors can collect personal property, including money held by a trustee, with a declaration under Probate Code §13100. It can be signed 40 days after the death, and no court hearing is required. A surplus claim often fits here, because the house is already gone and what remains is a sum of money.

Petition to Determine Succession to Real Property. When the estate’s main asset was the decedent’s primary residence and it is worth $750,000 or less, the heirs can petition the probate court for an order that the property passed to them, without a full administration (Prob. Code §13150 et seq., as expanded by AB 2016 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025). The order establishes who succeeded to the property, and so who succeeds to the money it produced.

Full probate with letters of administration. Larger estates, estates with debts to sort out, and estates where the heirs disagree go through formal probate. The court appoints an administrator, with the surviving spouse or domestic partner first in line and children next (Prob. Code §8461), and issues letters of administration. Those letters are what the trustee or the court clerk needs to see.

Which path fits depends on the value of the estate, when the death happened relative to the sale, and what the trustee or court will accept. We choose after reading the documents, not before. Had the owner set up a funded living trust, none of this would be needed; see creating wills and trusts for how families avoid it next time.

What full probate costs and how long it takes

California sets attorney and administrator fees by statute, calculated on the gross value of the estate (Prob. Code §10810): 4 percent of the first $100,000, 3 percent of the next $100,000, 2 percent of the next $800,000, and 1 percent of the next $9 million. The attorney and the administrator can each receive that fee, and the court can award more for extraordinary work such as litigation. Filing fees, publication, and a bond, if one is required, are extra.

In a surplus case the estate is often small, because the house is gone and the surplus is what remains, and that can put the family in small-estate territory instead. Where full probate is needed, expect roughly nine to eighteen months in Los Angeles County for a typical case, longer if creditors, missing heirs, or disputes appear. Family disagreements about a will, a trust, or an administrator’s conduct are handled in the same court; our enforcing trusts and wills page covers those fights.

What to do right now

• Order several certified copies of the death certificate from the county where the death occurred
• Gather the deed, the deed of trust, and any trustee’s sale documents, plus the decedent’s last statements and bills
• Write down every spouse, domestic partner, and child of the decedent, living or deceased, with dates
• Do not let one relative sign a claim as the heir; the trustee will reject it and the window keeps running
• Call us so we can notify the trustee that the estate is claiming, then pick the fastest lawful path

Why call Fred

Fred Yadegar handles both halves of this problem, the probate that creates authority and the surplus claim that uses it, so the family is not paying a probate lawyer and a recovery company to talk past each other. He serves families across Los Angeles County and Orange County, and you’ll be dealing with a licensed California attorney, not a recovery company. Tell us what’s going on and we’ll explain your options and costs before you commit to anything.