Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

Has the mother's estate been probated? If so, a will (or not) would have surfaced. The county records might show this. You could only look toward family members or a family lawyer for wills otherwise. It is fair to say that MOST people have no will when they die. This is called "intestate". When one dies intestate, rules of intestate succession take over as to who gets what. Typically, this means a husband would take all unless their were children. When children (of any age) are living, they would share with father whereby father would get 1/3 and children would divide the 2/3 or, 50/50 if there were just one child. If the house was in joint names and if was considered to be totally community property, house would go over to the husband with no rights to the children. If mother had a separate "ownership interest" in the house because she, say, put the down payment on the house with her separate property (assets owned prior to marriage or assets received from an estate), then the children would have rights to recover under the earlier mentioned intestate rules, a part of this separate property asset value. In this case, the house itself would still go to the father, but the father would usually have to reimburse the children for their share of their mother's separate down payment. The age of the girls does not matter in this case.