Surplus Funds Recovery
Probate for Properties without a Will or Trust After a Foreclosure in Los Angeles County
A trustee will not release surplus funds to a son, a daughter, or a spouse on request. The estate must be given authority to collect, and California offers a fast route for small estates. We choose the route and carry it through.
- With no will, the Probate Code's intestate rules name the heirs (Prob. Code §6400 et seq.)
- Estates up to $208,850 can collect by declaration 40 days after death (Prob. Code §13100)
- A home up to $750,000 can pass to heirs by petition (Prob. Code §13150; AB 2016)
- Full probate typically runs 9 to 18 months in Los Angeles County
Probate for properties without a will or trust is the step families skip until a trustee refuses to pay them. When an owner dies intestate and the house is later sold at a trustee’s sale, or dies after the sale without collecting, the surplus belongs to the estate, and the estate can act only through a representative with authority under the Probate Code. Fred Yadegar obtains that authority by the fastest route the law allows, then files the surplus claim with it, for Los Angeles County and Orange County families.
Why a phone call from a relative is not enough
Civil Code §2924k directs surplus funds to the former owner, or to whoever succeeded to that owner’s interest. When the owner has died, the successor is the estate, and the trustee, or the court holding a deposit, releases funds only to the person who can show authority to act for it. A death certificate proves the death; it does not prove who is entitled to collect.
The timing of the death does not change that. An owner who died before the sale left the property in the estate, and the surplus is what remains of it. An owner who died after the sale left the estate a right to claim, which is an asset like any other. Either way, the claim passes through the estate.
Three routes to authority, fastest first
The small-estate declaration
For a death on or after April 1, 2025, an estate valued at $208,850 or below qualifies: the successors may collect personal property, including money a trustee is holding, by presenting a declaration signed under penalty of perjury (Prob. Code §13100). The declaration can be used 40 days after the death and involves no court hearing. Since the house is gone and the surplus is a sum of money, many foreclosure estates fit here.
The succession petition for the family home
Where the estate’s principal asset was the home the decedent lived in, and that home is worth no more than $750,000, the heirs may ask the probate court for an order confirming that the property passed to them, with no full administration (Prob. Code §13150 et seq., under AB 2016 for a death on or after April 1, 2025). One hearing produces an order naming who succeeded to the property, and so to the money it produced.
Letters of administration through full probate
Estates above the thresholds, estates with creditors to deal with, and estates in which the heirs are at odds go through formal administration. The court appoints an administrator according to the statutory priority list, on which a surviving spouse or domestic partner ranks first and children second (Prob. Code §8461), and issues letters of administration. Those letters are what a trustee or a court clerk needs to see before releasing anything.
We select the route after reading the deed, the sale documents, and the family tree, and we give the trustee written notice that the estate is claiming before any of it is finished. How heirs are identified and documented is covered on its own page.
Deadline: The trustee’s claim window under Civil Code §2924j is 30 days from its mailing, and a death does not suspend it. We put the trustee on written notice of the estate’s claim at once, so the money is neither paid to other claimants nor deposited without the estate on record, and then finish the probate paperwork that allows release.
What the statute decides when there is no will
With no will and no trust, the estate is distributed under California’s rules of intestate succession (Prob. Code §6400 et seq.). The community property goes entirely to a surviving spouse or registered domestic partner (§6401). Separate property is shared out according to who else survives: the spouse receives everything when the decedent left no child, parent, or sibling; half when there is a single child; and a third when there are two or more children. If there is no spouse, the children inherit, and failing children the parents, and failing parents the siblings, with the statute continuing down the family tree (§6402).
The rules do not recognize promises. Stepchildren who were never adopted, a partner who never married or registered, and a friend who was told the house would be theirs take nothing under intestate succession. Families are often surprised, and the surprise is the argument for planning; what a funded trust would have avoided is explained on our wills and trusts pages.
The cost and length of full probate
When formal probate is required, Probate Code §10810 sets the compensation of the attorney and of the administrator as a sliding scale on the gross estate: four percent on the first $100,000, three percent on the next $100,000, two percent on the next $800,000, and one percent on the next $9 million. Each may receive that amount, the court may allow additional compensation for extraordinary services, litigation among them, and filing fees, publication, and any required bond come on top. A typical Los Angeles County probate runs nine to eighteen months, longer when creditors, missing heirs, or disputes appear.
In a foreclosure estate the numbers often favor the smaller procedures, because the house has been converted to a surplus and little else may remain. Disputes over an administrator or a distribution are heard by the same court and have their own page.
What the family should do now
- Get multiple certified death certificates; the trustee, the court, and the recorder each keep one
- Pull together the deed, the foreclosed deed of trust, the sale notices, and the decedent’s latest statements
- Draw the family tree: every spouse, registered partner, and child, including any who have died, with dates
- Hold off on any individual relative filing as the heir; a rejected claim wastes days the window does not give back
- Call, so the trustee is told the estate is claiming while the route is chosen
Why this office
Fred Yadegar has been licensed in California since 2006, State Bar #244184, and handles both halves of this matter for Los Angeles County and Orange County families: the probate step that produces authority and the claim that relies on it. One office, one file, one explanation of which route applies and why. Tell us who has died and when the house sold, and we will explain your options and the cost before you commit to anything.
Written and reviewed by Fred Yadegar, California attorney, State Bar #244184, licensed since 2006.
Questions about probate for properties without a will or trust
Because a trustee can only pay the former owner's successor in interest, and a relative is not automatically that person. Someone must hold authority for the estate, whether by a small-estate declaration, a court order determining succession, or letters of administration. Once that document exists, the trustee deals with the representative.
Forty days after the death, provided the estate is valued at $208,850 or below and the death was on or after April 1, 2025 (Prob. Code §13100), and no hearing is required. The surplus from a sold house is money, which is exactly what the declaration collects.
His surviving spouse receives all community property plus a portion of his separate property: the whole of it when he left no child, parent, or sibling, half when he left a single child, a third when he left two or more (Prob. Code §6401). The children divide what remains (§6402). Stepchildren who were never adopted do not inherit under these rules.
Statutory fees are figured on the gross estate that is administered, not the net (Prob. Code §10810). In a surplus case the house has already been sold, so the estate is often the surplus plus whatever else the decedent owned, which frequently keeps it within the small-estate limits and out of full probate.
The probate court, using the statutory order of priority, in which a surviving spouse or domestic partner comes first and children next (Prob. Code §8461). Between children of equal priority, the judge decides. The estate's surplus claim can be preserved while that question is resolved.
Yes. If the property was titled in the trust, the successor trustee makes the claim in that role, using a certification of trust and the death certificate, with no probate. If the house was never deeded into the trust, a pour-over will, if one exists, or the small-estate procedures may still apply.
Does an estate need to be opened before the money can move?
Tell us who has died, who survives them, and when the house sold. We will explain your options and the cost before you commit to anything.
Contingency fee applies to injury and surplus-funds matters. Costs may be advanced and repaid from any recovery; ask us how it works in your case.