Probate, court sales, and other transfers

In an ordinary sale, the living owner or an authorized representative executes the transaction. Special transfers require a different source of authority: death and succession law, a trust, a court order, a foreclosure power, or another statute. The salesperson's first task is to identify who has authority to act and what conditions limit that authority.

A relative who has keys is not necessarily entitled to list a decedent's house. A beneficiary who expects to inherit is not necessarily the current title holder or authorized estate representative. A lender that holds a deed of trust has security rights, but not unlimited permission to sell outside the applicable foreclosure process.

Distinguish ownership claims from power to administer. The person entitled to receive value from an estate may not be the person authorized to sign the deed during administration. Title and escrow providers commonly require evidence of capacity, appointment, powers, and any relevant orders.

A person who dies with a valid will is testate; a person whose property is not disposed of by a valid will may be intestate as to that property. A will directs disposition but does not itself guarantee that probate can be avoided. A person can also die partly testate and partly intestate if the will does not dispose of all probate property.

Probate administration addresses assets, debts, claims, taxes, and distribution under court authority. An executor is nominated in the will and serves after the required appointment. An administrator is appointed when an executor does not serve, commonly where there is no will. Both are personal representatives and owe duties to the estate and interested persons.

Intestate succession determines heirs under statute. It is not a rule that the closest person who volunteered to maintain the house owns it. Marital property characterization and family relationships can affect shares. If no entitled private successor exists under the governing law, escheat may result in property passing to the state.

Some property passes outside ordinary probate. Valid joint-tenancy survivorship can transfer the deceased joint tenant's interest to surviving joint tenants. Community property with right of survivorship can provide a similar specified transfer mechanism. Appropriate documents are still needed to establish the death and update the record; survivorship does not mean the public title record updates itself.

A properly funded trust allows the trustee to administer property under the trust's terms. A successor trustee's sale is not automatically the same as a court-confirmed probate sale. Review trust authority and any limits. A person named as a beneficiary is not necessarily empowered to sign for the trust.

A valid transfer-on-death deed can transfer qualifying property under its statutory requirements. It is not equivalent to simply writing a beneficiary's name on an ordinary deed and leaving it unrecorded in a drawer. Under sections 5624 and 5626:

• The transferor signs and dates the deed. Two witnesses present at the same time witness the signing or the transferor's acknowledgment of the signature.
• A notary takes the acknowledgment. Record the deed no later than 60 days after that acknowledgment.
• Delivery to and acceptance by the beneficiary during the transferor's lifetime are not required. Property eligibility, revocation, and other statutory conditions still matter.

California also provides simplified procedures for qualifying estates and property. For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, the primary-residence petition procedure under Probate Code sections 13151-13154 uses a $750,000 limit, subject to its other conditions. This is a simplified court process, not an exemption for every estate asset. Other procedures have different limits, and periodic adjustments are scheduled. Eligibility depends on property type, value, date of death, and the particular procedure; an old single "small estate limit" does not control every transfer.

A personal representative may sell estate property under the authority granted by the court and applicable law. Some sales require court confirmation; others may proceed under the Independent Administration of Estates Act with full authority and required notices, subject to objections and restrictions. Limited authority does not confer every power available under full authority.

In a confirmation sale, the accepted offer can be subject to a hearing and qualifying overbids. The initial buyer should understand that acceptance by the representative is not necessarily the final transfer. The process protects the estate's interests, and the court evaluates statutory requirements rather than merely honoring whichever buyer arrived first.

For an ordinary private real property sale requiring confirmation under Probate Code section 10309, both the appraisal and its valuation date must be within one year before the confirmation hearing, and the offered sum must be at least 90% of that appraised value. Statutory exceptions exist. Probate commissions are governed by the applicable contract and court authority; a salesperson should not assume the same payment procedure as an unrestricted private sale.

Under Probate Code section 10311, the statutory minimum first overbid generally adds 10% of the first $10,000 of the accepted bid and 5% of the amount above $10,000. The hearing can involve further bidding and procedural requirements. This formula does not determine every later increment or apply to every trust or independently administered sale.

Suppose an accepted bid of $500,000 is presented for court confirmation and the statutory first-overbid formula applies. Ten percent of the first $10,000 is $1,000. Five percent of the remaining $490,000 is $24,500. Add both increments to $500,000 to obtain $525,500.

Do not add 10% to the entire $500,000. Do not subtract the first $10,000 from the final bid. The first segment and the remaining segment use different rates, and both increments are added to the accepted bid. Deposit, qualification, and hearing rules must also be met; the arithmetic alone does not qualify someone to bid.

Foreclosure enforces a security interest through the applicable judicial or nonjudicial process. A trustee's sale under a deed of trust and a judicial foreclosure are different procedures. Lien priority determines which interests may be extinguished and which may survive; buying at foreclosure does not guarantee a property free of every lien.

A deed in lieu of foreclosure is a voluntary conveyance to the lender as an alternative to completing foreclosure. Because it is not the foreclosure process itself, junior interests are not automatically eliminated. The lender examines title and the parties' settlement carefully.

A tax sale follows statutory enforcement of tax-defaulted property. A sheriff's sale can arise from execution of a judgment. A partition proceeding resolves cotenant interests through division or, when appropriate, sale and allocation of proceeds. Condemnation is the legal proceeding through which government exercises eminent domain, ordinarily requiring just compensation under the governing standards.

Bankruptcy can place property under federal court control and impose an automatic stay. A creditor or broker should not assume that ordinary enforcement or closing can continue unchanged after learning of a filing. Court authority, trustee powers, liens, and exemptions may determine the next steps.

Adverse possession can produce ownership after strict requirements are satisfied. Code of Civil Procedure section 325(b) requires five years of continuous occupation and claim and timely payment of all state, county, and municipal taxes levied and assessed on the land during that period. Qualifying possession must also be established; paying another owner's taxes alone does not transfer title. A prescriptive easement concerns a use right rather than ownership. Civil Code section 1007 prevents ordinary adverse possession from ripening against the public property and dedicated public uses it protects.

Accession can alter ownership boundaries through events such as gradual accretion. Under Civil Code section 1014, land forming imperceptibly along a river or stream from natural accumulation or recession belongs to the bank owner, subject to an existing right of way. Do not substitute a sudden channel change or artificial fill for those stated facts.

Dedication can create public rights through the owner's acts and required acceptance. Mere public use is not a universal shortcut: Civil Code section 1009 limits when public use can mature into permanent rights and specifies qualifications, including certain publicly funded improvements and coastal property. A path used by visitors therefore requires investigation of the actual dedication and use history, not an assumption that it became public automatically.

Identify the authority, proceeding, and interest transferred. A will does not itself avoid probate; a trust sale does not automatically require court confirmation; an expected heir cannot automatically sign for an estate. Apply the probate overbid formula only when the question makes it relevant, and never assume a special-purpose deed erases all prior rights.