Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

You have to file a Heggsted petition (also known as an 850 or 17200 petition) showing the facts that your parents inadvertently did not retitle the property back into the trust. The petition will ask the court to determine that the property is an asset of the trust and the order is recorded. Once the order is recording, then you can act as trustee.

The petition has some specific pleading and notice requirements, so it is important to at least consult an attorney for guidance.

First of all it is a Heggstad petition, not a Heggsted petition.

In the Heggstad, the settlor prepared a trust that stated in writing that real property was transferred to him as trustee, but he never signed a deed transferring the real property to him as trustee. After the settlor's death, the appellate court affirmed an order declaring the real property to be an asset of the trust.

But in your particular case, you have a problem. After the trust was created, during a period in which the trust was revocable and could be amended by the settlors, the settlors transferred the property out of the trust. I don't think you can use a Heggstad petition to use their earlier trust creation to unwind this transfer out of trust. You may have to file a probate.

I suggest you take a copy of the relevant documents such as all relevant deeds, and the trust instrument, to a competent probate attorney.