A Heggstad petition is the court filing California families use when a house or an account was meant to be in a living trust but was never retitled. It is far cheaper than a full probate, but it is not free, and the price you are quoted for "the petition" is rarely the whole bill.
Here is every cost, item by item, so you can see what you would actually pay.
The total is a preparation fee plus court and county costs that start with a $435 filing fee
Every Heggstad petition has two layers of cost:
- Preparation — drafting the petition, the notice, and the proposed order, then filing, serving, and recording. This is what an attorney or a Legal Document Assistant charges for.
- Court and county costs — fees paid to the court, the process server, and the county recorder. You pay these whichever way you go.
The court and county layer starts with the $435 filing fee and grows with the county, the number of people who must be formally served, and how many certified copies you need. The preparation layer is where the big differences are.
Court and county costs are set by the court, the county and the process server, not by us
| Item | Amount (2026) | Who it goes to | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Filing fee for the petition | $435 ($450 in two counties) | Superior court | $435 in most counties; $450 in Riverside and San Francisco because of a local courthouse-construction surcharge. |
| Objection filing fee | $435 | Superior court | Paid by the person objecting, not by you. |
| Formal (summons-style) service of notice | Varies | Process server | Required for the trustee and anyone claiming an interest in or holding title to the property. Cost depends on how many people and where they live. |
| Mailed notice to beneficiaries | Postage | — | Notice on form DE-115 goes to the trust beneficiaries, and in practice to heirs and anyone named in the will. |
| Certified copy of the signed order | $40 each, plus a small per-page copy charge | Superior court | You need at least one to record, and banks or title companies may want their own. |
| Recording the order | County recording fee | County recorder | Varies by county and page count. |
| Preliminary Change of Ownership Report (PCOR) | No fee | County recorder | Filed with the recorded order. The recorder may charge a $20 additional recording fee if it's missing. |
| Change-in-ownership statement (BOE-502-D) | No fee | County assessor | No fee. Due within 150 days of death; if the assessor then sends a written request and it isn't filed within 90 days, a penalty can be added. |
A few cost items that do not apply to a Heggstad petition, unlike some other routes: there is no newspaper publication, and no probate-referee appraisal.
The 30-day notice rule affects cost, tooProbate Code §851 requires notice at least 30 days before the hearing, and the court cannot shorten it. If service goes wrong, the hearing is continued and service has to be redone — often with a second process-server bill. Getting notice right the first time is the cheapest thing you can do.
Preparation is where the price varies most
Attorneys. Many California law firms advertise flat fees for a Heggstad petition, commonly quoted in the range of $2,000 to $6,500, before court costs. Others bill hourly. A contested matter costs far more, because it becomes litigation.
ProbateClear. A registered Legal Document Assistant prepares the petition, files it, coordinates service of notice, tracks the case to the hearing, and handles recording of the order, at your direction. Our flat fee for a Heggstad petition is $1,400, plus the court and county costs above. The current fee is always shown on our Heggstad petition page and pricing page.
Doing it yourself. Nothing in §850 requires a lawyer, but a trustee acting for other beneficiaries can be required to have one. If you file on your own, you pay only the court and county costs — but the petition is a verified pleading on pleading paper, not a fill-in form, and a notice mistake can cost months. See a Heggstad petition without a lawyer for what that involves.
A Heggstad petition costs a small fraction of full probate
The comparison that matters is not attorney versus LDA. It is petition versus probate. If the house goes through a full probate instead, California's statutory fees apply under Probate Code §§10800 and 10810. The schedule is figured on the gross value of the estate — without subtracting the mortgage — and it is paid twice: once to the personal representative and once to the attorney, unless the personal representative waives the fee.
| Gross estate value | Statutory fee, one side | Both sides combined |
|---|---|---|
| $500,000 | $13,000 | $26,000 |
| $800,000 | $19,000 | $38,000 |
| $1,000,000 | $23,000 | $46,000 |
Those figures come before court costs, the probate referee, publication, and any extraordinary fees. Probate also takes longer: at least four months for creditor claims, and typically 9 to 18 months in total. For the full breakdown, see how much probate costs in California.
Check the small-estate and primary-residence routes before paying for a petition
Before paying for any petition, check whether a cheaper route reaches the asset. If a pour-over will leaves the estate to the trust, a small-estate affidavit (accounts, California estate at or under $208,850 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025) or a succession petition (primary residence only, at or under $750,000 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025) may put the asset in the trust for less. The succession petition carries the same $435 filing fee, plus a probate-referee appraisal. Without a pour-over will, those routes send the asset to whoever the will names, or to the heirs if there is no will — not into the trust. Our sorting guide, house not in the trust after death: which fix applies, walks through the order.
A denied petition costs more, so the paperwork matters before you file
A petition that is denied leaves the house in the decedent's name, and the money spent on it does not carry over to the next route. That is why the review before filing matters: whether a signed writing describes the property (Probate Code §15206), whether the house was ever deeded out of the trust, and whether anyone is likely to object.
Uncontested petitions with good paperwork have the best odds, though no outcome is guaranteed. If a petition doesn't succeed, full probate is the usual fallback, and ProbateClear prepares that too, as long as no one contests. Refinance cases, where the house was deeded out of the trust and never put back, are less certain; see house taken out of the trust for a refinance. If anyone objects, the matter becomes contested, and that is the point to hire an attorney.
Want to see what your situation would cost? Answer five questions and see the steps, deadlines and fees that apply — free, and yours either way. We are registered Legal Document Assistants, not attorneys; we prepare documents at your direction and do not select the procedure for you or advise you on your legal rights.