Brett A. Gilman Attorney at Law Chico, CA

Hello.

⚖️ I take calls from people with legal questions every day.  Most of the time I can help them out and/or send them in the right direction.  Even though I closed the family law part of my practice, I don’t mind giving people a couple minutes of my time over the phone to help them out.

I occasionally get unique and/or interesting questions regarding formal probate, probate for small estates, how to avoid probate, small estate affidavits, wills, trusts, advance health care directives, durable powers property, etc.   For blogging purposes, I am going to start sharing.

A woman called me with the following fact pattern.  Her mom had just passed, and mom had very little in assets, household furnishings, minimal bank accounts, and a vehicle.  The asset the woman was having problems with was the refund on mom’s security deposit for her apartment.  Rent had been paid, and the person had completely cleaned the apartment and mom’s estate was entitled to a full refund of the security deposit.

📄 In California, the tool to use here?  An Affidavit Of Small Estates (CA. Probate Code Sections 13100 – 13115).  This avoids a formal probate.  As for deaths happening after April 1, 2025, the size of the estate must be less than $208,850 for qualifying assets.  Please review carefully the form and requirements.  Amongst other things you must be the person(s) entitled to make the Affidavit, at least 40 days must have passed, and you will need a real Certificate Of Death.

For the above fact pattern, if there were no other designations on the bank accounts, this Affidavit would be used for the security deposit AND bank accounts.  CA DMV has an Affidavit For Transfer Without Probate form for the vehicle.  Hopefully nobody is fighting over mom’s household furniture.

The Small Estate Affidavit’s can be found on-line and is also a service I provide (usually an hour or so of my time).

Brett.