Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
My mother, a widow, died in 2003 in Ventura,CA, her only asset was a house she owned as tenants in common with my sister. There was no probate at that time. My sister kept the house as a rental. Now she would like to sell the house and has been told that half the value of the house must go to my mother's heirs. My question is: according to CA law who are my mother's heirs? My Mother had 4 children, 2 are deceased. My sister says the heirs are the two of us and my deceased siblings children. I thought, according to CA law, the surviving children were the heirs and if there were no surviving children then the grandchildren were the heirs?
This house is a teardown and my sister has agreed to sell it to an investor for $225,000. He is telling her that if my mother's half of the house is assesed by the court at less that $150,000 it can go through a quick probate procedure. When I was involved with a probate 4 years ago I was told the estate had to be worth $100,000 or less for the quick probate, has this changed?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Your sister is correct that your nieces and nephews receive the portion of the estate that their parents would have received.
The probate minimum was raised to $150,000 on January 1, 2012.
I agree with Ms. Rouse. Your mother's heirs are her surviving children and your deceased siblings children. These children of the deceased siblings "step into the shoes" of their parents. This means that, for example, if a deceased siblings had two children, those two children would share equally in that sibling's share of your mother's estate.
Also, there is a Probate procedure for small estates involving real property. Probate Code � 13151 states if a decedent dies leaving real property in California and the gross value of the decedent�s real and personal property in this state does not exceed $150,000 and 40 days have elapsed since the death of the decedent, the successor of the decedent to an interest in a particular item of property may file a petition in the superior court of the county in which the estate of the decedent may be administered requesting a court order determining that the petitioner has succeeded to that real property. However under Probate Code � 13150, this procedure may be used only if one of the following requirements is satisfied:(a) There is no proceeding being conducted in this state for administration of the decedent�s estate, or (b) The decedent�s personal representative agrees in writing to use of the procedure.
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