Probate in Orange County

The Old Orange County Courthouse in Santa Ana. Today the county’s probate courtrooms are at the Costa Mesa Justice Complex. Photo: Adrián Cerón, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

When a parent dies in Orange County with a house in their own name, the court’s permission comes first. John J. Donahue opens and runs Orange County probates from his office in West Los Angeles.

Where an Orange County probate happens

The Orange County Superior Court’s probate clerk’s office and courtrooms are at the Costa Mesa Justice Complex, 3390 Harbor Boulevard in Costa Mesa. Older guides still send people to Santa Ana or to the Lamoreaux Justice Center in Orange. The court has moved probate more than once, so the hearing notice is the thing to trust.

Petitions are filed electronically, and many hearings can be attended remotely, so a family in Irvine, in Fullerton or in another state rarely needs to make the drive. When an appearance in person matters, John is there.

Why Orange County estates usually need probate

Orange County homes are worth well past California’s shortcut limits. From Anaheim to San Clemente, a house in a parent’s name alone nearly always means a probate unless it was in a trust. The shortcuts still matter for what’s left outside the house:

• Personal property worth $208,850 or less: often collected with an affidavit (for deaths on or after April 1, 2025).
• A primary home worth up to $750,000: a shorter petition, though few Orange County homes qualify.
• A house that was meant for the trust but never deeded into it: often fixable with a short petition. Read the story →
• Joint accounts and accounts with a named beneficiary: usually pass outside probate.

A common Orange County probate

The parents bought in the 1960s or ’70s, in Garden Grove, Costa Mesa, Orange or Huntington Beach, and never moved. The house is the estate. The children live in Riverside, in Texas, in Seattle. Nobody is fighting. They need one person appointed and a plan to sell, rent or keep the house.

What it costs

The statutory fee is the same in every California county: 4% of the first $100,000, 3% of the next $100,000, 2% of the next $800,000 and 1% above that, up to $10 million, approved by the court and paid from the estate at the end. On a $1 million Orange County house, the lawyer’s basic fee is $23,000.

How long it takes

Usually about a year, sometimes less when the house sells quickly and the paperwork is clean. Creditors have four months after the executor is appointed, so nothing can close before that.

When one parent died years earlier

Many Orange County estates have a second layer. Mom died ten years ago, the house went to Dad, and nobody ever recorded anything. Now Dad has died too. Before the house can be sold, the family may need to clear Mom’s share first, often with a short court petition confirming what passed to Dad. It is paperwork, not a fight, but a title company won’t close escrow without it.

The same thing happens with accounts left in Mom’s name, cars never transferred, and trusts that were never updated after the first death. John sorts the layers out at the start, so the sale isn’t held up at the end.

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