Reviewed by Rozsa Gyene, California attorney. Last reviewed October 2026.
Probate for every Chico estate is heard at the North Butte County Courthouse on Concord Avenue. On a home at the city’s typical value of $460,839, the statutory attorney and executor fees alone come to $24,433.56. A $400 living trust, prepared and reviewed by a California attorney, plus a $100 deed to your home, lets your family skip that court case.
To keep a Chico home out of probate, sign a revocable living trust and record a deed moving the house into it with the Butte County Recorder in Oroville. Without a trust, a home at Chico’s typical value of $460,839 would carry $24,433.56 in statutory attorney and executor fees under Probate Code §10810 and §10800, before court costs. The trust package costs $400 for one person and $500 for a couple.
Chico residents have the shortest trip in the county. The Superior Court of Butte County lists two courthouses: the Butte County Courthouse at One Court Street in Oroville, whose phone list covers appeals, criminal and juvenile matters, and the North Butte County Courthouse at 1775 Concord Avenue in Chico, whose phone list covers civil, family law, mediation, probate and traffic. The court’s probate page says the Probate Division in Chico handles all probate matters for the entire county. Decedent estates, trust petitions, guardianships and conservatorships all go to Concord Avenue. If someone tells you to file a probate in Oroville, they are thinking of the county seat, not the court’s own filing map.
A few local rules shape what a probate looks like here. Under Local Rule 21.1, electronic filing is mandatory in all probate matters for attorneys; people representing themselves are exempt but may e-file. Local Rule 12.1 requires that every document tied to a hearing, such as a proof of publication or a status report, be on file at least seven calendar days before the hearing date. The same rule says final distribution hearings are generally set one year from the date the court appoints the personal representative, and a status update is due if the final petition is not ready. Rule 12.2 sets a general policy of at least a $10,000 bond for a personal representative unless the requirements of Probate Code §8481 are met, and Rule 12.8 expects the estate to be distributed, receipts filed and a discharge requested within 18 months after the first petition is granted.
The court publishes probate tentative rulings online, with case titles hidden for confidential matters, and its remote appearance page says remote appearances in civil, probate and family matters are generally authorized, with a judge’s approval for most hearings. None of that makes probate quick or private. Filings in a decedent’s estate are public, notices are published in a newspaper, and the four-month creditor period under Probate Code §9100 runs before anything closes. Assets already titled in a living trust never enter that file.
Your trust controls only what it owns, and a Chico house becomes trust property when a deed naming you as trustee is recorded in Oroville. The office on Nelson Avenue accepts documents for recording only on weekday mornings and afternoons outside the noon hour; it also opens late, at 9:00 am, on the first Wednesday of each month. A two-page trust transfer deed costs $18 in page fees under the 2026 schedule, plus any other fee on the schedule that applies to the document; the $75 SB 2 fee comes into play for a rental or second home, not usually for the house you live in. Those page fees are set to change: AB 2224 (Stats. 2026, ch. 292) raises the Government Code §27361 base fee to $15.00 for the first page and $4.00 for each additional page on January 1, 2027. We prepare the deed for $100 per property, and you record it in Oroville.
Property taxes do not change. Revenue and Taxation Code §62(d) says a transfer by the trustor into a trust is not a change in ownership while the trust is revocable or the trustor is the present beneficiary, so the Assessor keeps your existing base year value. On the Butte County PCOR, that is the box at line L.1.
Documentary transfer tax is a separate question. Butte County collects $0.55 for each $500 of value, but only on realty that is sold. Moving your house into your own trust is not a sale, so the tax on that deed is $0.00. The county’s transfer tax page says any exemption must be cited by code section near the tax declaration on the face of the deed, and it lists Revenue and Taxation Code §11930 for transfers by gift, outright or in trust. The same page requires every taxable deed to state whether the land is inside a city, naming the city, or in the unincorporated county, because a Chico parcel’s tax is split 50 percent to the city and 50 percent to the county while unincorporated parcels go 100 percent to the county. That matters for the orchard and foothill parcels around Chico that sit outside the city limits.
We prepare the deed for a separate $100 per property; you sign it before a notary and record it with the Recorder yourself.
Our trust transfer deed guide covers the deed language in more detail.
Zillow’s Home Value Index puts the typical Chico home at $460,839, with data through August 31, 2026, up 0.6 percent over the year. Redfin’s median sale price for Chico was $458,696 in August 2026. The math below uses Zillow’s typical home value (Zillow research data, August 31, 2026). Probate Code §10810 sets the attorney’s fee on a sliding scale: 4 percent of the first $100,000, 3 percent of the next $100,000, 2 percent of the next $800,000, and 1 percent above that. Probate Code §10800 gives the executor the same amount, so the cost doubles. The fee is figured on the gross value of the estate, not the equity; a mortgage does not reduce it.
Run your own numbers in the probate cost calculator
For the whole fee picture, including extraordinary fees, see California probate fees explained. Compare $24,433.56 with $400 for a single person’s trust or $500 for a couple. One honest caveat for Chico: because the typical home here is under $750,000, the person who inherits may be able to use a primary residence petition under Probate Code §13151 (deaths on or after April 1, 2025) instead of a full probate. That is still a court petition on Concord Avenue, it waits at least 40 days after death, and it does not reach a rental, an orchard parcel or a home above the limit. The $208,850 small estate affidavit collects only bank accounts and other personal property, and its limit counts any California real estate that does not pass by a §13151 petition, so it rarely helps when a house is involved.
Chico had 101,475 residents in the 2020 Census and is the largest city in Butte County. The same count found 44,429 housing units, and 56.8 percent of occupied homes were rented. Much of the local economy turns on California State University, Chico, which began in 1887 as the Northern Branch of the State Normal School.
If you own a duplex near campus or a single-family rental you used to live in, that property needs its own deed into the trust and its own PCOR, and it will not qualify for the owner-occupier SB 2 exemption. Leases, security deposits and the rent account should move to the trustee as well, so your successor trustee can collect rent and handle a move-out without waiting for court letters. Zillow’s average Chico rent was $1,544 in August 2026; a few months of that lost to a probate freeze adds up. Our rental property guide covers the details.
Almonds are the leading crop around Chico, ahead of rice, walnuts are grown north and west of town, and pockets of orchard still sit inside the city limits. A family that owns a house in town and a few acres of trees outside it will have separate assessor parcel numbers, and the vesting on each can differ.
Each parcel needs its own deed into the trust, and each deed should state whether the land is in the City of Chico or in unincorporated Butte County. Before we draft anything we ask for the last recorded deed for every parcel, because an orchard bought decades ago in the names of a parent and child, or as tenants in common with a sibling, cannot be moved by one owner alone. Farm equipment, crop contracts and the bank account the harvest is paid into are personal property; the assignment in the package moves equipment, and the bank account is retitled at the bank.
The Camp Fire started on November 8, 2018 near Pulga Road and Camp Creek Road, burned 153,336 acres, destroyed 18,804 structures and killed 85 people, according to CAL FIRE. When a house burns, every paper inside it goes too, including wills and trust binders.
The law treats those losses differently. Under Probate Code §6124, if a will that was last in the testator’s possession cannot be found after death, and the testator was competent until death, the law presumes the testator destroyed it to revoke it, and the family has to produce evidence to overcome that. A revocable trust is revoked only by a method in the trust itself or a signed writing delivered to the trustee, under Probate Code §15401, so losing the paper does not revoke it. Banks and title companies still want to see the terms, though, and a successor trustee holding only a memory of the document is in a hard spot.
If your originals burned or you cannot find them, sign a restatement of the trust and a new pour-over will while you are able to. Recorded deeds are safe: the Butte County Recorder keeps the official record, and a copy costs $5.00 for the first page and $2.50 for each additional page, plus $5.00 to certify. Keep originals out of the house you are protecting, and give your successor trustee a scanned copy and the location of the originals.
The State Board of Equalization says an owner keeps the prior factored base year value if a destroyed home is rebuilt in a like or similar manner, regardless of the construction cost; new square footage or extras, such as another bath, are added at market value. To get interim relief under Revenue and Taxation Code §170, the claim goes to the county assessor within 12 months of the damage or the deadline in the county ordinance, whichever is later, and the loss must be at least $10,000. Owners who buy elsewhere instead may be able to transfer the old base year value under §69, §69.3 or §69.6, each with its own time limit.
A trust affects how cleanly that works. If a fire-damaged lot or the replacement house is still in your individual name when you die, your family may face a probate for an empty lot or a half-finished rebuild. When you buy a replacement home, take title as trustee at closing so no second deed is needed, and check that your homeowner’s policy names the trustee as an insured once the house is deeded to the trust. The City of Chico’s emergency preparedness page links the local Fire Hazard Severity Zone map; a trust does not change your fire risk, but it does decide who can deal with the insurer and the rebuild if you cannot.
Chico has mobile home parks, among them Pleasant Valley Mobile Estates, where residents asked the city for space rent protection in 2024. A manufactured home in a park is usually titled with the California Department of Housing and Community Development, not recorded with the county, so a grant deed does nothing for it.
HCD has its own forms and fees for changing a home's registered owner to the trustee. Your funding instructions walk through this.
If you also own a cabin in the foothills or a house in another county, the same trust works. A trust covers real property anywhere in California, but each deed is recorded in the county where the land sits, and real property left out of the trust can require a probate in that county even when everything in Chico was handled. List every property in the questionnaire so the funding instructions cover all of them.
The package is $400 for one person and $500 for a married couple. Deed preparation is a separate $100 per property, and you record the deed with the Butte County Recorder. You can reach the attorney directly at (818) 337-4071, and you sign before any California notary in Butte County, so there is no trip to Burbank. See what a California living trust costs for how this compares with other options.
The Superior Court of Butte County hears all probate matters at the North Butte County Courthouse, 1775 Concord Avenue, Chico, CA 95928. The probate phone line is (530) 532-7017. The court’s probate page says that division handles all probate matters for the entire county, so probate is not filed at the Oroville courthouse at One Court Street.
The deed is recorded by the Butte County Clerk-Recorder at 155 Nelson Avenue, Oroville, which lists no Chico branch. Recording hours are 8:30 am to 4:00 pm on weekdays, with the office closed from noon to 1:00 pm. The Recorder’s web pages do not describe recording by mail, so call 530-552-3400, Option 2, before you mail a deed. The fee is $15 for the first page and $3 for each additional page.
Zillow puts the typical Chico home value at $460,839 with data through August 31, 2026. Under Probate Code §10810 the attorney fee on that value is $12,216.78, and Probate Code §10800 gives the executor the same, for $24,433.56 combined. Court filing fees, the probate referee and publication costs are extra.
Possibly not. For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, Probate Code §13151 lets the person who inherits petition the court to transfer a primary residence worth up to $750,000 without a full probate. It is still a court petition filed in Chico at least 40 days after death, and it does not cover a rental, an orchard parcel or other assets. A funded trust avoids the court filing altogether.
Losing the paper does not revoke a trust. Under Probate Code §15401 a revocable trust is revoked by a method stated in the trust or by a signed writing delivered to the trustee. A lost will is different, because Probate Code §6124 presumes that a will last in the testator’s possession that cannot be found was destroyed to revoke it. Because your successor trustee will need to prove the terms, sign a restatement and a new pour-over will while you can.
No. Revenue and Taxation Code §62(d) excludes a transfer into a revocable trust from change in ownership, so the Butte County Assessor keeps your existing base year value. File the Preliminary Change of Ownership Report with the deed and check line L.1, or the Recorder charges a $20 fee.
Butte County’s documentary transfer tax of $0.55 per $500 applies to realty that is sold. A transfer into your own revocable trust is not a sale, so the tax is $0.00, and the deed cites Revenue and Taxation Code §11930 next to the tax declaration. The $75 SB 2 fee is usually not charged on the deed for the home you live in, because that deed claims the owner-occupier exemption under Government Code §27388.1(a)(2) on its first page. A rental, a second home or bare land pays the $75, up to $225 per transaction.
Yes, but not by deed. A manufactured home titled with the California Department of Housing and Community Development is transferred to the trust through HCD, using HCD forms and paying HCD fees, not by recording a deed with the Butte County Recorder.
Checked October 6, 2026. Fees and addresses change; confirm with the office before you file or record.
Answer the questionnaire online, sign before a Butte County notary, and record one deed in Oroville.
Law Offices of Rozsa Gyene, 3500 W. Olive Ave., Suite 300, Burbank, CA 91505. California State Bar #208356. Read client reviews.
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California State Bar #208356 | Licensed Since 2000
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