Pasadena City Hall, its dome and arcade lit by late-afternoon sun.

Probate · Pasadena

Probate in Pasadena

Pasadena City Hall. Photo: Adavyd, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Many Pasadena families still own the Craftsman or ranch house a parent bought decades ago, and it is almost always worth more than California’s probate shortcuts allow. John J. Donahue handles Pasadena probates from his Los Angeles office.

Where a Pasadena probate is filed

Pasadena is its own city, but it is in Los Angeles County, so its estates go to the county’s Superior Court, Probate Division. Most hearings are at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse downtown, and many can be attended remotely, which saves a Pasadena family a morning on the 110.

Craftsman houses, fire lots and full-value fees

Values. Most Pasadena houses are worth well over $750,000, the ceiling for the shorter primary-home petition. Without a trust, a house in a parent’s own name means a probate.
Older houses, older paperwork. Historic homes come with old permits, unpermitted additions and sometimes landmark-district rules a buyer will ask about. An executor selling one should expect questions the paperwork from 1962 does not answer.
After the Eaton fire. Since January 2025, some estates in and around Pasadena hold a burned lot and an open insurance claim instead of a house. The claim belongs to the estate or trust, and someone needs legal authority to handle it.
The fee scales with the value. On a $1.5 million estate the basic statutory attorney fee is $28,000, approved by the court and paid from the estate at the end. Read a story like this →

From the calls John gets

The bungalow off Lake Avenue

A retired teacher owned a bungalow off Lake Avenue for forty years. Her will left it to her three children equally. One son had moved back in to look after her and kept paying the bills; the other two lived in Oregon and Arizona and wanted it sold.

What John looks at: Who should be appointed, whether the son living there owes rent or should buy the others out, what he paid that the estate should credit him for, and which repairs are worth making before a sale.

Illustration. Details changed; not a real client. Read a story like this →

Getting started

Find the original will and the trust binder, if there is one, and a copy of the deed. Keep the property insured and the tenant’s rent going to an account the family can document. Then call John; the first call is about what you have and what has arrived in the mail. The first 30 days, as a checklist →

Selling a Pasadena house through probate

Most Pasadena probates end with a sale. With full authority from the court, the executor can usually sell without a confirmation hearing, which saves weeks. Without it, the sale goes back to court and other buyers can overbid in the courtroom. The authority you ask for at the start decides how the sale goes at the end.

Property taxes are the other question. The rules for passing a parent’s lower tax base to a child changed in 2021, and they now generally apply only when the child makes the house their own home, and only up to a limit. Ask before deciding, because the answer changes the math.

In families’ own words

What Pasadena families ask

Will our case be heard at the Pasadena courthouse?

Usually not. Los Angeles County hears nearly all of its probate cases at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse downtown, wherever in the county the family lives.

Mom’s house burned. Is there still a probate?

Often, yes. The lot, the insurance money and any rebuilding funds still have to pass to someone, and if they were in Mom’s own name the court usually has to appoint a person to handle them.