Recording an Encino Trust Transfer Deed
- Recorder
- Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk of Los Angeles County
- Nearest office
- Van Nuys branch, 14340 W. Sylvan Street, Van Nuys (records documents; 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday)
- Main office
- 12400 Imperial Highway, Norwalk, CA 90650 (8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday). Lancaster and LAX/Courthouse also record.
- By mail
- Document Analysis and Recording Section, P.O. Box 1250, Norwalk, CA 90651-1250
- Phone
- (800) 201-8999
- Recording fee
- $15.00 for the first page and $3.00 for each additional page, plus program fees on the county schedule (on a deed, $7.00 fraud notification and $2.00 AB 1466 restrictive covenant fees)
- SB 2 fee
- $75.00 per document under Government Code §27388.1, capped at $225 per transaction, unless an exemption is stated on the document or on the county's SB 2 cover page
- PCOR
- Without a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report (BOE-502-A), the recorder may charge $20.00 more under Revenue and Taxation Code §480.3(b)
- Assessor
- Los Angeles County Assessor, 500 W. Temple Street, Room 225, Los Angeles, CA 90012, (213) 974-3211; the Assessor lists its Sylmar office as closed since March 26, 2026, with its North District public services moved downtown
Signing the trust does not move the house. The deed does. For an Encino home the deed runs from you, as owner, to you as trustee, and it identifies the parcel by the legal description and Assessor's Parcel Number on your current grant deed. A mailing address alone is not enough. Of the four offices that record documents for the county, Van Nuys is the one closest to Encino. The county's Beverly Hills branch does not record documents, so do not take a deed there.
The PCOR filed with the deed tells the Assessor this is a transfer into a trust you can revoke. Under Revenue and Taxation Code §62(d) that is not a change in ownership, so your Proposition 13 base year value stays where it is and no supplemental bill follows. That matters in Encino, where an owner who bought decades ago may be taxed on a small fraction of today's value. Questions about the PCOR or about a parent-child claim can go to the Assessor's downtown headquarters on Temple Street. Our guide to living trusts and property tax explains the rule.
Our trust transfer deeds claim the owner-occupier exemption from the $75 SB 2 fee under Government Code §27388.1(a)(2), stated on the face of the deed, so the fee is usually not charged when you move the Encino home you live in into your trust. A rental unit, a second home or a vacant hillside lot pays it, up to the $225 cap per transaction. The deed also carries the living trust exemption from the county's documentary transfer tax under Revenue and Taxation Code §11930. Because Encino lies inside the City of Los Angeles, the deed has both a county line and a City line for transfer tax. A transfer into your own revocable trust usually pays no transfer tax because no price is paid; the deed states the exemption. Confirm with the county recorder.
We prepare the deed and the PCOR for $100 per property; you record them, at the Van Nuys counter, in Norwalk or by mail. Base recording fees change on January 1, 2027: AB 2224 (Stats. 2026, ch. 292) raises the Government Code §27361(a) fee from $10 to $15.00 for the first page and from $3 to $4.00 for each additional page, with county fees on top. In a notice dated September 24, 2026, the Registrar-Recorder said it will apply the new base fee to documents received on or after January 1, 2027, subject to Board approval and required notice, and will drop several smaller fees. Its new totals were not posted when we checked on October 6, 2026. Our trust transfer deed guide covers the form itself.
Probate Fees on a Typical Encino Home
Zillow Research's home value index put the typical Encino home value at $1,400,568 for August 2026 (data through August 31, 2026), and that is the figure in the table. Probate Code §10810 sets the attorney's statutory fee as a percentage of the gross estate: 4% of the first $100,000, 3% of the next $100,000, 2% of the next $800,000 and 1% of the next $9,000,000. Probate Code §10800 sets the executor's fee the same way. The value is gross, so a loan against the house does not reduce the fee.
Run your own numbers in the probate cost calculator
- Court filing fee: $435 for the first petition, the statewide amount.
- Probate referee: one-tenth of one percent of the property appraised (Probate Code §8961), about $1,401 on this home.
- Creditor claims: open for four months after letters issue (Probate Code §9100), so the estate cannot close before then.
Because the typical Encino house is already past $1,000,000, every further $100,000 of value is charged at 1% on each side, which adds $2,000 to the combined statutory fees. A house worth twice the typical value does not pay twice the fees, but the fees keep climbing with the value, and they are figured on everything in the probate estate, including a rental or a brokerage account left outside a trust. Our California probate fees guide goes through each charge.
The shortcuts do not reach a typical Encino house. A Probate Code §13100 small estate affidavit stops at $208,850 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025, and the §13151 petition for a primary residence stops at $750,000. Some Encino condominiums may sell for less than $750,000, but that route is still a petition filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court with a hearing. Compare those numbers with $400 for one person's trust or $500 for a married couple.
Encino Homes, Hillsides and Your Trust
A neighborhood, not a city
Encino sits in the southern part of the San Fernando Valley and climbs the north slope of the Santa Monica Mountains. Wikipedia, mapping the neighborhood as the Los Angeles Times does, places Reseda, Lake Balboa and the Sepulveda Basin to the north, Sherman Oaks to the east, Brentwood to the south over the ridge, and Tarzana to the west. Its ZIP codes are 91316 and 91436, and the Los Angeles Almanac, working from 2024 Census Bureau estimates, puts its population at 53,379, an unofficial figure because the Census does not count by neighborhood. The name comes from Rancho Los Encinos, granted in 1845; Los Encinos State Historic Park now preserves the de la Ossa Adobe and a natural spring.
For a trust, the important point is that an Encino parcel is City of Los Angeles land. The City, not a separate Encino government, issues building permits, enforces brush clearance and taxes property sales. The county records the deed, keeps the tax roll and runs the court. A trust transfer deed for an Encino house should match the legal description on your vesting deed exactly, usually a tract and lot number, and carry the Assessor's Parcel Number. A deed that describes the house only by street address risks leaving it outside the trust.
The City transfer tax and Measure ULA on Encino sales
Five cities in Los Angeles County charge their own transfer tax on top of the county's $0.55 for each $500 of value, and the City of Los Angeles is one of them. Los Angeles Municipal Code §21.9.2 sets the City's base tax at $2.25 for each $500 of value, figured on the price net of any loan that stays with the property. The same section holds the Measure ULA tax, in effect for conveyances since April 1, 2023, which is figured on the full price and applies only above a threshold that the City adjusts each year. For sales closing after June 30, 2026, the City's Office of Finance applies 4% above $5,400,000 and under $10,900,000, and 5.5% at $10,900,000 or more.
A transfer into your own revocable trust usually pays no transfer tax because no price is paid; the deed states the exemption. Confirm with the county recorder. The City's ULA guidance exempts transactions that are exempt from the base tax. For the county's tax, the same exemption statement covers a deed out of the trust, when your successor trustee deeds the house to your children after your death.
A sale is a different matter. If your successor trustee sells the Encino house at the typical value of $1,400,568, with no loan staying on the property, the price rounds up to $1,401,000, or 2,802 units of $500. The county tax is $1,541.10 and the City base tax is $6,304.50, $7,845.60 in all, with no ULA tax because the price is under $5,400,000. The ULA threshold works as a cliff, not a bracket. A sale at exactly $5,400,000 owes no ULA tax, while a sale at $5,500,000 owes 4% of the whole price, $220,000, on top of the base and county taxes. For a large estate lot in the Encino hills, that difference belongs in the conversation about whether the trust should let one child keep the house and buy out the others, or direct a sale.
Hillside lots, brush clearance and the Palisades Fire
Encino's southern part rises into the Santa Monica Mountains. During the Palisades Fire in January 2025, evacuation orders issued on the evening of January 10 reached north to the Encino Reservoir and east to Interstate 405, an area that took in parts of Encino and Tarzana. FOX 11 reported on January 11 that the Fire Department had also issued evacuation warnings for the part of Encino between Mulholland Drive and Ventura Boulevard, from Interstate 405 west to Louise Avenue. In an emergency like that, an owner may be out of town, in a hospital or unreachable, and someone else may need authority to act for the house.
If a property sits in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone, the Los Angeles Fire Department requires the owner to keep brush, weeds and grass cut back within 200 feet of any structure and within 10 feet of a roadway or combustible fence, all year, under Los Angeles Municipal Code §57.4906.5.2. The LAFD website has a parcel lookup for brush clearance status. A trust does not change those duties, but it does decide who carries them out. While you are well, you do it as trustee. If you are ill or after your death, your successor trustee can hire the brush crew, deal with LAFD inspection notices, and file an insurance claim on a trust-owned house without waiting for a court. After the deed records, ask your insurer to show the trust, or you as trustee, on the homeowner's policy, and keep the policy number with your trust papers. Your durable power of attorney covers accounts and claims that sit outside the trust.
The Sepulveda Basin on the north side
Along Encino's north side lies the Sepulveda Basin, a flood control basin behind the Sepulveda Dam, which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed in 1941 after the 1938 floods. The 2,000-acre Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area is managed by the City's Department of Recreation and Parks and holds golf courses, sports fields and the Sepulveda Garden Center. For an owner whose house is on the flatland near it, the trust question is the same as with fire coverage: if you carry flood insurance, the policy should name the trust or you as trustee after the deed records, so the successor trustee can make a claim.
An older neighborhood, and the surviving spouse
When the Los Angeles Times profiled Encino in its Mapping L.A. project, using the 2000 Census, the neighborhood's median age was 42, its share of residents aged 50 and older was among the highest in the county, and so were its shares of widowed and divorced residents. Owners held 61.6% of the housing. Those figures are dated, but they describe a common Encino situation: a long-time married couple in a house bought long ago, and later a widow or widower living alone in it. A joint trust lets the surviving spouse keep managing the house and accounts as trustee, under the trust's terms, with no court filing when the first spouse dies, and the house still avoids probate after the second death. A trust also names who takes over if the surviving spouse can no longer manage, which is a conservatorship question in court if no one is named. Keep copies of your advance health care directive where a doctor at a Valley hospital can be given one quickly.
Apartments and rental units
Mapping L.A. counted renters in 38.4% of Encino's housing, so a good share of the neighborhood's homes and apartments are rental property. If you own an apartment building or a duplex in the City of Los Angeles, the trust should hold it with your home. The Los Angeles Housing Department says the Rent Stabilization Ordinance generally covers rental properties first built on or before October 1, 1978, and covered units must be registered every year. Moving the building into your trust leaves those rules in place; what changes is who signs as landlord when you cannot. Your successor trustee collects rent, renews the registration and serves any required notices without a court appointment. Our page on living trusts for rental property covers leases and deposits.
Practices and small companies
Encino's economy is weighted toward health care, social services and professional services such as accounting, financial services, real estate and law. Owners of a practice or a small company usually hold more than a house. An LLC membership interest can be assigned to your trust by a short written assignment, once the operating agreement has been checked for transfer limits or consent requirements. Shares in a professional corporation can be subject to ownership limits, so they are looked at before being listed in the trust, and a buy-sell agreement among partners may control what happens at death regardless of the trust. Retirement plans from the practice pass by their beneficiary forms, not by the trust.
When your children inherit the house
A living trust avoids probate; it does not stop reassessment. Under Proposition 19, a child who inherits a parent's home keeps the parent's taxable value only if at least one inheriting child makes it a primary residence and files for the homeowners' exemption within one year. The protection is limited to the parent's taxable value plus $1,044,586 for transfers from February 16, 2025 to February 15, 2027, and value above that amount is added to the taxable value. For example, if a parent's taxable value is $300,000 and the house is worth $1,400,568, the child who moves in takes a taxable value of $355,982, because $55,982 of the market value is above the limit. A house the children rent out or sell is reassessed or sold at market value. The claim, form BOE-19-P, is filed with the Los Angeles County Assessor within three years. The trust can say which child may keep the house and how the others are paid. See our Prop 19 inheritance guide.
Encino Living Trust Questions
Where is the probate court for Encino estates?
At the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 N. Hill Street, in downtown Los Angeles. Encino is a neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles, and Los Angeles Superior Court Local Rule 2.3 files probate, trust, guardianship and conservatorship cases in the Central District. The Van Nuys courthouses, the nearest to Encino, do not hear probate. A house held in a funded living trust needs no filing there.
How much does probate cost for an Encino home?
Zillow's typical Encino home value was $1,400,568 on August 31, 2026. On that gross value Probate Code §10810 sets the attorney's statutory fee at $27,005.68, and §10800 gives the executor the same amount, $54,011.36 together. Add the $435 first petition filing fee and a probate referee commission of about $1,401. Above $1,000,000 the rate is 1% per side, so each extra $100,000 of value adds $2,000 to the combined fees. A living trust costs $400 for one person or $500 for a married couple.
Can an Encino home pass by the $750,000 primary residence petition instead of probate?
Only when the home was the decedent's primary residence and is worth $750,000 or less, for deaths on or after April 1, 2025 (Probate Code §13151). At $1,400,568, the typical Encino home is nearly twice that limit. A smaller condominium may fit under it, but the petition is still filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court and set for a hearing.
Where do I record a trust transfer deed for an Encino home?
With the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk. The closest office that records documents is in Van Nuys, at 14340 W. Sylvan Street. The main office is at 12400 Imperial Highway in Norwalk, and the Lancaster and LAX/Courthouse offices also record. You can mail the deed to the Document Analysis and Recording Section, P.O. Box 1250, Norwalk, CA 90651-1250. File a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report with it; without one the recorder may charge $20 more.
Does the City of Los Angeles transfer tax or Measure ULA apply when I deed my Encino home into my trust?
A transfer into your own revocable trust usually pays no transfer tax because no price is paid; the deed states the exemption. Confirm with the county recorder. For the county's tax, the deed carries the living trust exemption statement under Revenue and Taxation Code §11930, which Los Angeles County accepts.
What transfer tax applies if my successor trustee later sells the Encino house?
The same tax as on any sale in the City of Los Angeles. The county charges $0.55 and the City $2.25 for each $500 of value or part of $500, so a sale at the typical $1,400,568, with no loan staying on the property, owes $1,541.10 to the county and $6,304.50 to the City. Those two taxes are owed on every sale, whatever the price. For sales closing after June 30, 2026, Measure ULA adds 4% of the full price when it is above $5,400,000 and under $10,900,000, and 5.5% at $10,900,000 or more.
Can a living trust hold my Encino business interests and real estate together?
Yes. Your Encino home, a rental, brokerage accounts and your membership interest in an LLC can all be owned by the same revocable trust. Real estate moves by a recorded deed. An LLC interest usually moves by a written assignment, after checking whether the operating agreement limits transfers. Shares in a professional corporation can carry ownership limits, so those are reviewed before they are listed in the trust.
Does a living trust stop Prop 19 reassessment when my children inherit my Encino home?
No. A trust avoids probate, not reassessment. Under Proposition 19 a child keeps the parent's taxable value only if at least one inheriting child makes the house a primary residence and claims the homeowners' exemption within one year, and only up to the old taxable value plus $1,044,586 for transfers from February 16, 2025 to February 15, 2027. Value above that is added to the taxable value. The BOE-19-P claim goes to the Los Angeles County Assessor within three years.
